cake balls, cookies, and more.: baby

All ready to be bagged up and eaten.

Have I told you before that I love babies? Well I do. I love them even more when they don't belong to me. Don't get me wrong, Pork Chop was the worlds cutest baby! Don't believe me? Well you take a look and let me know what you think.

Yes that is a picture of a picture. This was taken when he was just a little Pork Chop. And yes he did that on his own. He had attitude even at that age. And yes that is on my fridge, I mean really how could I not put it up.

Try to forget that he got that from Hubby, I am the one that swears, Hubby must have taught him this.

Anyway, babies are great, and when you have a baby you usually have a baby shower. And baby showers mean treats. And this is my super long way of getting a cute picture of Pork Chop on the blog, and working in a few yummies.

So a friend of my sister in law was having a last minute shower, which lead her to ask me to make stuff. I did not have a lot of time so we had to choose simple. And simple is cake pops. Or in this cake brownie pops. I could live off of these, and by I could, I mean I really should.

To make these you just make some brownies and crumble them up with frosting, I know I have shown it before a few times, so I am just going to pretend you all know what I am talking about. In case you don't here it is.

So I was very lucky that these were a simple pop, the ones that you don't have to make perfectly round and they are going to be standing up. I started with my mix and made larger balls and chilled them.

All done, and I am so glad it was an easy letter. Could you imagine doing like a "Q" or something? Things you should keep in mind when you name your child. Just saying.

Then I melted my candy melts and got to work dipping them all. I started by putting out a sheet of parchment paper and dipping the end of each lolli pop stick in the melts. Then I put the sticks about half way into the ball, and let them set up a few seconds before I started dipping the whole thing. It did not take too long. Once they were dipped I let them set and warm up, because if there is one thing I know, my stupid cake balls are going to crack. And when they did I just dipped them again and they were all good.

Now for this little baby, we wanted to have a monogram on them, in pink. So I took some pink candy melts and melted them, I used a disposable piping bag and a #2 tip. Now you could use a squeeze bottle or a paper cone, but I like the control I have with a piping bag.

I also want you to know that I finally figured out how to lower the power on my microwave. This may in the future make using white candy melts better. It may also not, who knows, just wanted to let you know I finally after 10 years and not reading the instructions, figured it out. I am smart!

I had some extra, as I always do, and just figured I would play around. My writing is horrible, even worse on a sideways cake ball.

I was too lazy to put his full name.

This could either be rude, or like Alice in Wonderland. I opt to think Alice in Wonderland.

So I piped on the H's and let them set up fully. Then I just bagged them up, tied them up and put them in the cool basement to wait until Hubby delivered them. I never put them in the fridge as they will crack and get condensation. There is nothing in them that would go bad from sitting out a bit, so it was all good.

So here's to other peoples babies, and me having a reason to each chocolate!

I'm linking up HERE and HERE

$Lil\'Luna$

There were over 100 of these on my table, I was so good, I only ate like 5.

I guess that is a little presumptuousness to say cute, but you know what, they really are. Well at least to me. You can just let me think they are, okay?

So Pork chops teacher from last year is having a baby, which is really great. I love other people having babies. I can cuddle and ooh and aw over them, then when they poop, give them back. In a perfect world I would have a baby to cuddle every day. Pork chop is so not into cuddling, I have to bribe him you know.

Me -"Hey Pork chop, come give me a cuddle."

PC- "NO!!!!!"

Me -" I'll let you play X box if you cuddle."

PC - "Fine, but only for 30 seconds."

He drives a hard bargain and I always go for it, you know when he is 16 I won't be able to bribe him like this right? I may need to get a dog instead, then no bribes and all the cuddles I want. And stinky dog breath, it's a win win situation people.

So anyway, on to the cookies. The mommy to be sent me a picture of some cute elephant cookies she wanted me to make. Only issue is I didn't have a cutter, and there is no way I am cutting those out by hand. I may be crazy people, but not that crazy. (shut up Hubby!)

So I did manage to find a cutter, but it was much smaller than she had wanted. In the end it worked out as that was all we could find. So I set to work!

First I mixed up four batches of Amanda's amazing sugar cookies. I have to point out that doing this is sort of crummy, but with only a small mixer that is all I can do. When I get a bigger kitchen aid I should be able to do double or even triple batches. That is the dream people, I have a vision! And it includes a bigger kitchen aid, a house keeper and a Hubby that likes my baking. What? It could happen.

So this is how I stack them, I know the post would totally not work without this picture.

And then I wrap them, again I know, news worthy picture.

Anyway, I rolled out and baked a whole bunch of elephants, I always, ALWAYS! make extra. (yes I know it's rude to shout, but you need to understand how important this is) I make extras because inevitably you mess one up, you break one ( and with elephant trunks this happens) or at the last minute there may be a need for a few more. And if not, well you have extra to share at work, or eat all by yourself.

So I always bake a few days before I decorate, I like to do the things a little each day. I work so I don't have the luxury of setting a full day aside to do it all. But this works for me, and I still enjoy it, I don't want to feel like it is work you know?

So once baked and fully cooled I stack and wrap my cookies. Two layers of cling wrap then either a freezer bag or a layer of tin foil. Then into the freezer. I usually put them in the fridge freezer until they are solid then move them to the large chest freezer.

Then for the day you decorate, you need to allow at least 24 hours to let the glaze dry. If not you will have cracks and stuff. And don't worry the icing will keep the cookies from drying out.

My set up, I work one cookie at a time. Outline then move it aside.

When I am ready I pull the cookies out and take off the tin foil and let them thaw while I mix up my glaze. For these I needed a few colours. Pink, blue, white, yellow and black. But for the first day of decorating I only needed the pink and blue. So I mixed up a large batch of piping consistency glaze and halved it to tint. I try to make more than I think I need, because if you run out half way through you will have a hard time getting the colours exactly the same. Fill a piping bag with each colour and do your outlines, then put the icing back into a bowl and add milk until it is flood consistency

I hate outlining, because I always end up with some that look like my son made them.

To start on day one of decorating I outlined all my elephants then went back and flooded them. I use a toothpick, or this cute cookie tool to spread out the glaze and pop any large bubbles. Then that is it, leave it be until the next day. If you are paranoid like me you can face a fan, on low, at them to help ensure they dry.

My pictures look weird because I was decorating them upside down for some unknown reason. And of course I was too dumb to turn the cookie over before I took a picture.

I am lazy and just put a blob of icing in the middle, if you are not lazy you can sort of pipe it out in the design. I will admit, again, I am lazy.

I find with glaze you are always going to have more bubbles. I am sure if I let it sit longer you would not have so many, but I am impatient and don't wait. You really cannot tell in person as much as in the picture.

Now I must add that I decorate on my dining room table, with a layer or either wax paper or parchment. I do this for two reasons; three really.

My reasons: ( I like making official looking lists)

-you don't have to worry about all the drippy glaze getting on your table then having to scrap it off when it's all dry.
-you can sort of slide the papers around so you don't have to move one cookie at a time ( I so want to buy some nice cookies sheets with sides so I can stack them, they would not be used to bake so there is no chance of any burnt sugar or anything falling on the glaze, I will be putting this on my birthday list)
-and I just don't want to take any chances of there being anything on my table that could get on the cookie, I scrub and scrub but I am paranoid. ( If I was only so diligent about the rest of my house.)

All my colours ready to decorate. I use tiny bottles because it is so much easier than a large pipping bag. And they are cute.

After about 3 cookies I decided to do this, since the glaze was really thick it sort of took some bottle shaking and lots of squeezing to get it out if I set them up. This worked great, and I am going to pretend I invented the idea.

The next night was detail work. It is not fast, it is a pain in the butt sometimes, but it is what finishes the cookie. I was lucky that the details were not hard, so I managed to get it done really fast. So I again made a batch of piping glaze, then took a small amount, like 1/4 cup and made it black and put it in a tiny bottle that you can use with tips, and put a #1 tip on. I took about the same amount of white ( I coloured it white with soft food gel paste, you get a nice bright white that way.) and put it in a bottle with a #2 tip. And the rest I tinted yellow. I put some in a small bottle with a #2 tip and then thinned the rest with milk and put it small bottle, but it was just a regular bottle so no special tip.

The ear was a heart shape, so I put my cookie side ways to draw it.

I started with the yellow, making the heart shaped ears and the tiny little toes.

I made the flood icing so thin it did not need any help to spread out.

Then I flooded the ears.

And then the eye. It sort of looks like a zombie elephant if you leave it like this.

Then I went back with the white and added eyes, and then last I added tiny black dots for the eyes.

I should have thinned my black icing out a bit more, because it was so stiff and I had a heck of a time getting nice dots. Most were standing up and not flat. GRRR. He also looks sort of startled, don't blame him ,he is going to be eaten after all.

I had hoped to use pre made royal icing eyes but they were too big, and it was just as easy to pipe them as it would have been for me to buy them. So really it was just four steps, yellow outline and toes, flood ear, put whites of eyes, then put black dot on eye.

I forgot to take a picture of all of them, I realized this half way through bagging them. Darn it all!

Then I let them dry again over night and packed them into bags all ready to go. The mommy to be had tags to add and was very happy with how they turned out. She does not know if she is having a boy or a girl so that is why there are pink and blue elephants.

I use boxes from the grocery store and stand my cookies up. Less chance of crushing or breaking and free boxes are always good.

Here they are all stood up, that right there is 85 cookies. And I ended up with like 20 extra.

And since I had some extra I attempted to take some cute pics, I know, I will not win any awards.

And now for the story of how Pork Chops little friend made me feel bad. I had set up a play date for the night these cookies were sitting on my table. So I had to think of something else for them to do. I usually make something for them to decorate. So I hit the dollar store and grabbed a few Valentine theme craft kits. I think I am the best mom ever. The kid comes over, oh's and ah's over the cookies. The kids eat diner, they do their craft, they play some games and just have fun. I think I am good and in the clear. I tell the boys they have 30 minutes before they are done. And what does his friend say? "why didn't we do crafts" I told him we did, he then tells me no that was not a good craft, he wanted to decorate cookies or something. I told him I was sorry but he could take some elephant cookies home. The he said "fine, but I wanted to decorate them myself." So there you go, I set myself up for this, always having fun yummies to decorate. And that my friends is the story of why I made extra cookies, and felt like a crappy mom. ( Not really, I just wanted to be dramatic)