Catchin' up on holiday crap...

I know, I know. I'm like the worst food blogger ever. Holiday time, the time when I should be baking/blogging non-stop because you guys HAVE to see holiday goodies during the HOLIDAYS...and I'm totally MIA. Combination of finals (which didn't end until RIGHT before Christmas- what the frick) and HARDCORE getting ready/baking/wrapping for Christmas totally killed me. Anywho...Happy 2013! I'm so glad to see you all survived the apocalypse of 2012, and had a safe holiday. Although the holidays are over, I finally have some time to share my holiday goodies with you. Kind of lame, but hey, late holiday goodies are better than no holiday goodies at all, I think.

So first up on my list...Holiday cake balls!! Actually they aren't as exciting as they sound (way to start the new year with a bang, self), but they were tasty nonetheless.

And I will tell you this- they were easy peasy. Like, even easier than cake pops kind of easy. No stick to worry about? Sa-weet! I did these for our annual ornament exchange Christmas party. The best part? The cake on the inside is Christmas funfetti. I had this genius plan to make white cake and put my own red and green sprinkles, but then I found the Christmas funfetti mix and I grabbed that faster than you can say "Holy easy alternatives, Batman". I love funfetti. And I love these cake balls.

*As a related side note, this is the best picture I had out of like, tons. I am clearly having camera/photo taking issues, and I apologize. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to suggest away. I'm totally open to constructive criticisms/tips/suggestions, as I'm getting ridiculously frustrated.

Til next time!

Happy Birthday Jake!!

I love sprinkles. LOVE them. Do they add anything to the flavor of the treat? Not necessarily. But they ARE super cute, and they add a nice crunch, which I like. So when I found these adorable dinosaur sprinkles, I just couldn't wait to use them. I found the perfect opportunity when one of our daycare kids, Jacob, asked for "pops" (cake pops) for his third birthday.

Gah! Aren't they so cute?? I seriously need to find a giant jar of them so I could use them all the time, they are just too dang cute. To make these I dipped white cake balls in chocolate melting chocolate. This is actually probably one of my favorite combinations so far...not too surprising considering my all-time favorite cake flavor is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

All the dino pops!

Does anyone else have a major slight sprinkle obsession? Or is it just me? I love stopping in craft stores and grocery stores to see if they have any cute sprinkles I could possibly use...Even if I CAN'T possibly use it, I buy them, you know, "just in case". =)

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Kae's "Pur-tle" Cake Pops

My cake pops are pretty popular at my house. I mean, I think they are. This is just a shot in the dark, but I think it means they're pretty popular when one of the two-year-olds my mom watches comes up to me and demands purple cake pops for her upcoming birthday. Of course, I was happy to oblige, especially since it's so cute when she says purple, or "pur-tle." And perhaps it's genetic, since her mom (the recipient in this post) is freakin' obsessed loves my cake pops too. So here they are, pur-tle cake pops, just what the birthday girl ordered. They have pink and yellow sprinkles. But wait. There's MORE.

They have tags!! TANGLED tags!! When we found out she was having a Tangled party, I knew the purple pops would go PERFECTLY. So this is what we did. My mom bought some Tangled stickers at our local Wal-Mart. Then, she and I cranked out these bad boys. She cut out the stickers into circles, I cut out the purple scallops and slapped the stickers on, and she punched holes into the top and bottom. INSTANT. CUTENESS. They totally tied the pops in with the theme of the party. And now I have so many opportunities!! Want Mickey Mouse & Friends pops? Done. Want Disney Princess or Tinkerbell pops? Done!!

These were a huge hit at Kae's Tangled party. And the birthday girl totally approved of her pur-tle pops.

Happy Birthday Kae! <3

Monsters, Inc. Pops!

Well, I guess if we're getting technical, they're not really Monsters Inc. pops per se...seeing as I don't have the skills to make Boo pops or Sulley pops, BUT I did make pops of not only my favorite Monsters, Inc. character, but one of my favorite Disney characters. I bring you....Mike Wazowski!!

Awww...Cute little Googlie-Bear. =)

These were SUPER easy to make. Actually the most time-consuming part of this process was the making of the eyes. I originally wanted to use a white meltable chocolate for the eyes, but in proportion to the cake pop, the eyes would've been HUGE. So instead, I melted the white chocolate, piped smaller circles on a piece of wax paper, and after they dried, went over the white with some melted green chocolate, making the irises. At this point they looked like green eggs sans the ham. Perfect little treats for Dr. Seuss's birthday next year! Anyway, I used an edible ink marker on the dried green eggs to turn them into eyeballs. Then it was just your usual dipping of the cake balls in green meltables and holding the eyes in place until the pops dried. White chocolate chips were perfect for Mike's horns, which I attached with some leftover melted green chocolate. Just add a smile with a black candy writer, and you've got yourself some cute little Mike Wazowksi pops!

Buzzy Beeees!!!

Time for another fabulous cake pop post! Like my chick cake pops, I got the idea for these pops from Bakerella. She's a genius, I swear. Here they are...

Buzzy Bees!!

These little guys were a lot more difficult and time consuming than the Easter chicks. Especially with how warm it is with our Sacramento summers, working with the chocolate...not fun. But with some patience (and I MEAN only some- I was getting a bit frustrated), the finished product was rewarding.

I made these for our neighbor across the street for her birthday and for one of the daycare mom's for HER birthday (bake a bunch of pops, mom makes a bunch of chocolate flowers to go with, boom- two birthday birds, one stone). I KNEW I had to make these for the daycare mom for her birthday...every time I send her daughter home with cake pops (for the DAUGHTER, mind you), her mom always eats them! (Sorry Kae). Needless to say she was stoked to receive these. In fact, what did she say when I gave them to her in the morning? "I'll probably eat at least 3 of these ON MY WAY to work."  LOL.

My mom ALSO made a cute birthday card to match the yummy goodness. My mom makes all kinds of cute paper goods, cards, scrapbook pages, and other cute projects. If you haven't checked out her blog A Scrapping Mom's Scraps, check it out!

And finally, HERE are the instructions for the buzzy bee pops!

Easter Pops

As you may or may not know, one of my FAVORITE blogs is Bakerella's. She is SO cute, and SO clever! Not only am I frequently looking at her site looking for ideas, but I have her cake pop book, which gives you tips and step-by-step instructions for making different decorated pops. That's where I got the inspiration for these little guys:

Easter chicks!! This was my first attempt at making decorated pops...you know, outside of dipping and putting on sprinkles. I just love making goodies to bring to family events, such as holidays! And of course, most times I make decorated goodies, I have to make one slightly different for my sister, hence the rebel cake pop you see to in the picture below to the right.

These were so fun to make, and you can find the instructions to make the chicks here, so you can have fun making them too!

I have been really busy in the kitchen and have lots more planned for the summer, so check back soon!!

My First Cake Pops!!

Happy Wednesday, everybody!! Today I want to show you my first attempt at cake pops with my Babycakes cake pop maker!! My mom needed some kind of treat for bunco, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out my new favorite toy! I kept it simple, with funfetti cake dipped in white chocolate melts, and topped with rainbow sprinkles (I LOVE sprinkles for some reason). Wrap it up with cute matching rainbow ribbon, and you have instant bunco cuteness/yumminess. These were so easy to make- after I made them I asked myself WHY had I not tried these before?? This started a new epidemic- so get ready for more cake pop posts!!