Ghosts and Pumpkins

Halloween is upon us and it's time to get ready, these are the first out of some of the orders I had this month. I love making anything holiday related, now the pumpkin one I already made but I changed a few things, I made the orange color lighter by adding yellow to the orange candy melts. I changed the stem also, I used apple chews which I cut to make smaller and then I shaped them to form a little stem.

I made ghost pops too, I made red velvet cake, and mixed it with cream cheese frosting and then shapped them into a little ghost head. I then dipped them in white candy melts and used a black edible marker to make the eyes and mouth, I find that AmeriColor markers are better than the Wilton ones, they have a pointier tip and are much more darker than the the Wilton ones (sorry Wilton ;p). I am excited to make caramel apple ones this week I will keep you all posted on them.

Pumpkin Pops!

 I know I have been on hiatus for quite some time BUT I am back! and am ready to start making all the awesome holiday pops I can! I started with a Pumpkin cake pop, I made a pumpkin cake and mixed it with a cream cheese frosting and shaped them in a typical cake ball shape (next time I will shape them like those more squished type pumpkins you see). I used the new fruit flavored tic tacs as the stems, there where the normal mint kind but I didn't think that mint went well with pumpkin.....nope not at all. Please stay tuned I will be making caramel apple cake pops and Smores cake pops......YUM!

Yoda and Tea Pots

 I had a request to make a Star Wars themed cake pop, so Yoda was a given, as a HUGE Star Wars fan I was excited at this opportunity. I decided that I would take the artistic approach to this pop and try to make him as realistic as I could, ( I used red velvet and Chocolate cake for the pops) I started with a blank canvas just the ears that I made out of the candy coating and candy (as seen on the bottom left picture) then I took a tooth pick as my brush and used the green candy coating as the paint. I "painted" wrinkles and imperfections on him (because lets face it Yoda has a lot of wrinkles), I also squinted his eyes because Yoda never had wide eyes. I then sculpted a nose and mouth for him, the result as you can see left him with a very realistic Yoda look, each pop has a different expression,  each pop took about a good 5 min to make and I made 20 of them too. Now to go along with Yoda I made more pops dipped in blue candy coating and sprinkled with a blue pearlized sprinkles( as seen in the bottom left picture), they matched each other perfectly.

The Blank canvas

Now I had another request for a tea party themed pop, and what goes best with that theme....tea pots. I made them out of red velvet ( a popular cake) so I decided to use a white and red color for them, I used candy coated Licorice to make the spouts and a heart candy to make the handle, and for the top I used a single piece of red candy coating, all in all I say they turned out cute, to make them even more irresistible I placed an edible pearl on the lid. I think these turned out cute and hope to make more of these soon.

"Cars" colors and Tiffany Colored pops

 I had a request for pops for a Jewelry party, and what better Jewelery is there than Tiffanys, I wanted to use their colors and used that as an inspiration for the pops, I used gold and silver pearled sprinkles and found a candy coating in the color of the Tiffany's color. The cake used was red velvet and chocolate (which seems to be a favorite so far), I loved making these pops because them made me want something from Tiffanys.


The next pops I made were for my husband's work, I needed something to work with so I asked my daughter she like Lightning McQueen so I made pops with his colors, in red velvet of course.

Graduation pops

                                                        I had a request to make graduation cake pops using red velvet cake, using four different colors. So I began this journey by making my red velvet cake, and used cream cheese frosting as the glue, I wanted to make it a little more soft so I ended up using more frosting than normal. The result was a tasty soft cake pop, I left a few chunks of cream cheese visible in most of the pops, in reality you really don't want to use much frosting because when you dip the pops they could collapse in the candy coating, but because I was searching for a softer cake I added more frosting. Now the tassels are made out of two different candies, for the yellow tassels I used a banana taffy which I stretched out, I glued them to the cap by using the same candy coating  

which I used to coat the pops. For the white tassels I used matte candy dip that turns hard, it worked out perfectly, I had fun making these pops and would love to make these again soon. More cake pops to come this month so stay tuned.

Lego Cake pops and more

Lego cake pops before the dipping process

 Well I was asked to make some Lego cake pops for a birthday party a few weeks ago and let me tell you, they were the most difficult pops I have ever made.  I started off as I usually do with my cakes and frosting, then came the shape part it was easy (see above), then I added some candies to make the circle parts of the lego. Now at this time I grew a little worried because of the weight of each pop and there (as far as I know) is no way to make them lighter since you cant' hallow them out, so I tried to make them as much of a reasonable size as I could.

Then came the dipping part ( The yellow color is seen bellow) that was my biggest fear of all, because of the weight of some of these pops I lost a few in the process (they fell apart in the dipping process)and I could not fix them. As I dipped them they started to take their Lego shape, but some of them would not because of the thickness of the coating, so I thinned it out with a little canola oil. Needless to say I am going to find a way to perfect these Lego Pops, it just may take a little time.

Yellow Lego Cake pops

Another Cake pop I was asked to make was a purple rattle, now these ones I enjoyed making (they were for a friend of mine) I wanted to make each one a different design and I wanted to use purple and white (she asked for purple) the white made a beautiful complement to the purple. I also used edible pearls on each pop, now I was asked to make 120 pops which is the BIGGEST order I have ever gotten and I think I spent about 3-4 days on all of them. I made fun designs on each of them wrapped them all up individually and tied them with a purple bow, I have to say they all turned out wonderfully and I would do it again.

Some of the 120 cake pops

Birthday Cake pops!

                       I saw this idea from a picture and thought wouldn't it be awesome to make these. I had an order for a birthday and decided to give it a try, these cake pops turned out great! In the inside you will find red velvet with cream cheese frosting and on the outside I dipped them in vanilla candy coasting. I cut the candles because they were too big, then I placed some tiny ball sprinkles on them (you can use any kind of sprinkles really) and BOOM! Cake pops in the shape of a birthday cake! it makes me more excited to create more!

St. Patty's Day & more

St. Patrick's Day cold coin Cake pops

Sprinkles galore!

Wow! It's been a LONG time since I last wrote but I have been busy with a new job and lots of playing with my daughter. I wanted to share with you what I created for St. Patty's day. I had an order for cake pops for a St.Patrick's day party, now I already knew I wanted to make gold coins so that is what I set out to do. I wanted to do a rustic flat coin so I made the shape and had all my items ready to do some tests (there is a reason you don't see the tests here), well the test did not turn out as well as I hoped. I was hoping that the shape would hold when I dipped them in the candy coating, well I was wrong, as I knew it they collapsed because the shape was so thin when I dipped them in the coating it fell apart, I could have made them thicker but it would just look weird.

       So I ended up just making your basic cake pop in a light yellow ( I mixed half white half yellow) candy coating, it turned out to be perfect because when I put them in the display they looked like gold coins anyway. I sprinkled a little Luster dust on them to make them look a little bit more shinny.
The party was a hit! and so were the cake pops!

Now the other picture you see is of some cake pops I made for my husbands work, it's a yellow cake with vanilla frosting dipped in a baby blue candy coating and sprinkled in flat sprinkles. I have some more cake pops coming so please look out for my next blog, until next time.

Valentine Pops

 Well another Valentines day has come and gone, I know I am a little late on this blog but better late than never I say. I have to say these were the some of the most interesting ones I have done, in terms of the shape. I admit that it all seemed easy on paper but you have to make sure that the bottom of the heart shaped cake pop (where the stick would go) is thick enough so that when it comes time to put the stick in it doesn't crack and you ruin your pops. I have to admit that this happened to me several times and I had to redo some, I also had made the hearts a lot bigger but when I tried to dip them and take them out they would break apart, so I made them smaller and more thick.

 

So in the end I came up with two ideas one small hearts and one coated in hearts, both ideas came out great. I had a few orders for valentines day and I think I did a pretty great job. I also got a Wilton Chocolate melting pot which made it much more easier to handle the candy coating, I highly recommend getting one of those so you don't have to deal with having to melt the coating every so often in the microwave. The pops in these pictures are Red Velvet for the hearts and Chocolate for the Spheres but both had pink vanilla candy coating.

Angry Birds!

Pigs and birds before dipping

Well they are here! and they came out great, I had a special order for Angry bird cake pops, I knew I could do it because I had made them before out of fondant but with that I made all the birds, had I had more time I could have made all the birds and blocks and eggs into pops...next time though. This order called for a vanilla cake and frosting, I shaped them and put them in the fridge for about 2-3 hours until they were a little firm, for the pigs it was different I had to shape the snouts and I used green sour apple gummies and shaped them as ears then stuck them into the cake shape, then put them into the fridge as well for a few hours, for the black hair and tail of the birds I used licorice and the eyebrows,eyes, beak and white chest I used fondant (It really is the only thing that works I noticed) and it gave me a chance to use my new black edible markers (love them!) I also used pearl dust to color the beaks orange. I would really love to to make more interesting cake pops like this it gives me a chance to show my artistic talents (being and art major).

Below are picture of the fondant Angry birds I made.

Angry birds on top of a birthday cake

Happy New year!

 Happy 2012 everyone! I wanted to show everyone some of the steps that makes a cake pop a cake pop. In these pictures I made a apricot cake with chunks of real apricot in it, I roll them into little bite size pieces and cool them in the freezer for about 10-15 min until they firm but not to firm. Then I dip them with the stick first in the candy coating and wait for the candy to harder, after that I usually dip them in candy coating. I love to test out sprinkles on cake pops and cup cakes ( as you can tell by the pic on the bottom left) and use my artistic background to see what kind of designs I can make.

 

Here comes Santa

Ok Well I know I am a little late in writing a Christmas cake pop blog but here it is anyways. I made candy cane cake pops with candy cane and sugar crystal sprinkles it was a big hit, I made sure that it was VERY minty because well it's candy cane so there you go. The second one I made and I thought it was cute as you can tell by the picture above, Santa Claus cake pops......that's right the big man's head, I decided to make him look old fashion like by swirling the icing for his beard and using a Hershey Kiss as his hat. They took me about 3 hours to make. In the end they all turned out great! New Years ones will be made this week and I can't wait!

Gingerbread Cake Ball samples

Ok so I was asked to make some sample cake pops, I'm trying to be "earth friendly" here so I decided instead of using sticks then have to buy more later (which can get pricey) I decided to make cake balls instead. I don't normally like making them because I think it makes more of a mess but I think I will make them for samples only.This was my first time making this specific flavor of cake pop, the result was very interesting, it's much more firmer than normal cake pops but if you use more frosting ( I used a french vanilla frosting) it obviously gets more soft ( I used a little less than normal) the pop or ball in this case came out to taste really good, like eating a gingerbread man with frosting and the sprinkles where his buttons. This is one I will make for Christmas dessert for sure.

Halloween and Fall

Now these are some pops I made for Halloween and Thanksgiving, I made a pumpkin spice cake with a cream cheese frosting, coated with milk chocolate and fall leaf candies. The bottom cake pops were made for my husbands work for Halloween, they are zombie monkey (a monkey being their work logo) with a red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting inside. I coated them using green candy coating and chocolate pieces, they turned out great and were a big hit!

Peppermint cake pops

Since it's the Christmas season, I decided to make some cake pops that have a winter feel to it. I made a white cake and a peppermint frosting and added some crushed candy canes to it for a little minty crunch, I then coated it in a vanilla chocolate coating and added sugar crystals and more crushed candy canes. When you take a bite from this you'll be craving some nice warm eggnog to go with it, it's that good. I have decided to use bamboo sticks as you can see verses the paper sticks, they are made from recycled materials and are Eco friendly.

Thanksgiving pops and more

Wow!  I had my first ever order and I think I did a great job! I made turkey shaped cake pops, there where two different flavors ordered pumpkin spice with a butter cream filling and a red velvet with a cream cheese filling. They all turned out great! (pictures to come!)  I have a couple pictures of some of the cupcakes that I made. These were for the people that I worked with, let me tell you they were gone with in two hours, one is coke cola cupcake with a vanilla frosting the other is a cupcake meant to look like a hamburger, can you guess which one was more popular?

Getting in the Cake pop game

I have always had a love for sweets, and not just the typical hard candy or the ever so popular taffy, I love the tasty pastries I see on the Food Network and all the pastry shops I walk into. I'm a sucker for creme brûlée and strawberry shortcake, but when it comes to cupcakes and cake pops I am a HUGE fan. Making them for fun, and even making them for people I worked with as a treat. Bringing my art background into this tasty hobby when I'm designing them gives me a sense of joy. Deciding to make a blog of my cake pops and cupcakes in an effort to show how I progress is just the first step in this crazy cake pop industry, so stay tuned there will be some holiday cake pops coming soon.....