Snow Man Cake Pops and a Give Away

Can you guess who finally figured out how to edit pictures?  

 So this post is over a week past when I wanted to share it, but the photo hosting site for Google was telling me that I had no more room.  Well thanks to a wonderful blogger, Dorthy at Crazy for Crust, I have been downsizing my pictures so that I can have some room again.  I have done about 400, I have about 1000 more to go.  Sigh.  But it will be worth it to save me some money and I also figured out how to edit pictures so in reality it was a win win. Anyway back to my regular post.


 So you all know how much I love cake balls, and pops right?  I mean I did name this place after it.  But did you know how much I hate making them?  Okay not hate, and not really them.  I hate working with white or coloured candy melts.  So it's not really about the ball as much as it is about the coating.

This is what you could win, it looks way more impressive in real life, I promise!

Does that make sense?  Well never mind, I sort of don't understand it either.  Anyway.  I was checking out one of my favorite sites a few weeks back.  My Little Cupcake; they are some of the first cake pop molds that I tried.  I first got the cupcake shape and loved it, it reminds me of when I was little and would play with Play doh.   I would share that love with Pork Chop, but I hate the smell of the stuff now and hate how it gets all dry and flaky all over the place.  The only flaky stuff allowed in my house is pastry and cake crumbs.

I may or may have not talked Pork Chop into dusting while I baked, so he could play video games.  I took a picture so I could show Hubby how smart I was, and to prove that my child is not all about games.  He actually liked dusting, for about 2 minutes any way.

This is how many I got out of one 9x13 cake, give or take a few that I may have eaten while making them.

  So I noticed that the shop had a new little mold out.  And it was for a snow man.  Now I was almost not going to get it, but seriously it was not very costly and they are awesome to me. They shipped it to me without the box, to save me some shipping costs.  That is the only thing about living in Canada, shipping costs for us are crazy!  Anyway, I mentioned that I wanted one for me and I was going to buy another for you guys.  But then they were all, "nope we will send you one to give away"  I don't know, I mean really this is the nicest company.  They gave me molds to give away before.  And I am not a big blog by any means, just an itty bitty one, but they don't care they are super nice.

That single one in the middle, well his head fell off, and it may have been due to me not chilling them long enough.  I just wanted to be able to say "that snow man must have lost his mind!"  and.....never mind.

  So last week I got these molds and got all set to make some super cute snow men for you all.  Well really they were for Pork Chops hockey team, but you get the idea.

  Now firstly, I knew this would be crap because snow men are supposed to be white, and we all know how I feel about white candy melts.  I thought I had it figured out, you know now that I know how to turn the power on my microwave down.  But no, I still ended up with gloopy candy melts.  And I think I had about 40 snow men, but gave up trying after 20.

I have noting witty to say, just pretend I made some really funny comment about using Halloween sprinkles for Christmas, then laugh and move on.

  On the website they use mini Reese cups for hats, but because I have to do nut free, I opted for gum drops.  Or as they were called at the bulk store, spice drops.  I don't know, they were cute, but not really hat like.  Whatever, it worked.

See you can hardly tell its a pumpkin,

  So I started by making my cake ball mix with one full box mix and some chocolate icing.  I then shaped my cake pops with this mold.  Which really is super easy.  I then set them in the freezer to chill and attempted to get a nice smooth white candy melt going.  I gave up after about 30 minutes and just dipped them.  I managed to get almost 20 covered without too many issues.  The rest were ugly and I just took them to work. They didn't care, they still tasted good.

This looks sort of weird, but it's okay not all snow men have eyes in the wild.

 I used some Halloween pumpkin sprinkles to put the noses on, as I was way too lazy to dig through my sprinkle stash.  And I glued the hats on with some more melted candy melts.  Then I just drew on the eyes, mouths and buttons.  That was it. I was so fed up with the stupid candy melts.  So I sat there looking at them and I said to Pork Chop "do you still want to give them to your team?"  And he patted my arm and said "it's okay Mommy, THEY will think they look okay"  And  he patted my arm again and walked back to play with his toys.

Is it me or does he look sort of drunk, like he was having a party then just stuck a huge gum drop on his head?

  Yeah, I got told by an 8 year old.  So I bit the head off of one of the not decorated snow men, felt a little bit better and wrapped them up.

  Then I tried to make brownies and those sort of worked, but what ever.

I kind of wish now that I had made some with little yellow patches on the bottom, remember, never eat the yellow snow!

  So after all that here you go:

*Super Spectacular Give Away*

I know, I am dramatic.  The winner will receive one snow man cake pop mold. Supplied by the awesome My Little Cupcake
You can earn a few entries.

1) Become a follower or my blog and let me know in the comments, or if you already follow me, you are already awesome, so just let me know.  I will think new followers are awesome too, just so you know.

2)Visit My Little Cake Pop and let me know in the comments here what other mold you need to make your cake pop life complete.

3) Share my give away on your face book or blog or whatever, just leave me a comment letting me know how you shared.

4)And the easiest, just leave me a comment telling me how much you hate working with white candy melts, and if you actually love it, leave me a tip of some sort.  I am close to hurting someone over these things people!!!!

The contest will close on Wednesday December 5 at noon (Toronto time) as I want to try and get this to the winner before the holiday.  I will use random.org to pick out the winner, and if you live in Canada I will have you answer a skill testing question.  This is open to Canada, the US and International readers too. Please leave me an email or some way to reach you, but I will announce the winner on Wednesday December 5 in the evening some time, and the winner will have 48 hours to get back to me or else I have to choose another winner.

Good Luck!

The Easiest Cake Balls Ever

  

I love how cute these cake pops turn out, considering I didn't really try.  And then the ones I try really hard to make cute, well those are not as cute.  Figures really.

 Before I get started I wanted to say thanks to you all for the very kind and fun comments.  I get suck a kick out of reading them, the ones where you share your funny comments or support really make my day.  And I love to read each and every one of them.  Thanks so much. I plan to have a little give away coming up soon to say thanks for that, nothing huge or mind blowing, but it is cute and involves cupcakes.  So it cannot be all bad right? Oh and have a happy Canada Day fellow Canadians, and for the peep's from the USA, have a great Forth of July!

 Okay back to the regular blog stuff.  

So this is not going to be a very wordy post.  

  Your welcome.

 Okay I take that back, there are going to be a lot of words, but most of it will be babbling.  How that is different from my other posts I don't really know, but you know, at least I am honest.

  Basically I wanted to share some of my super easy cake pops, they are nothing I invented obviously, but you know, I think they are great, so you need to see them.  Also I took lots of pictures, and I will try to make witty comments for each of them.  But no promises, I cannot always be on people.

  Also, Pork Chop is now out of school, on his way to grade three next year, which I cannot believe, I mean I had him when I was 3, so how did I get so old?  And what does that have to do with cake pops?  Well he sweetly asked me to make him cookies for his principal who was leaving this year.  Of course he asked me this minutes before bed on the last Sunday  night of the school year.  I had plans to make cake balls on Tuesday so asked if he would like cake pops.  He said sure.  Then I stupidly asked him what kind.  And he said "teacher cake pops."

  What the hell does that even mean!? 

Try to ignore the fact my table is covered in cupcakes and stuff.  I don't even remember what those cupcakes were for.  

 So I just ignored it and got Hubby to bake me two cakes the next night while I was at work.  ( And yes he cleaned the bowl afterwards this time, he is learning.)  And on Tuesday as I picked up Pork Chop from daycare and I asked him again what kind of cake pops he wanted, and he again said teacher cake pops. 

  So I asked him what those were and he said "you know, make them look like her."  

  And while I tried to not crash the car, I tried to think of ways to get out of it.  So as any good mother would, I steered him towards what I wanted to do.  

See how good I am getting at my pictures?  See how much sarcasm was in that last sentence?

  I told him that we should make cake pops for the three teachers too, and since I was not sure what they all looked like, what if we used all different kinds of sprinkles.  He was so excited.  So was I, until he picked out the sprinkles.  

These are my most favorite sprinkles ever.  I loaded up at Valentines day.  Then I made the mistake of taking  them to the cupcake class I taught and the kids poured them out like the were nothing.  And I couldn't keep them after the kids had touched them all.  I have issues, and I may be addicted to sprinkles.

  So I tell him to pick out 4 kinds, he goes for red and green non parelis, red sugar, pink sugar and some other red chunky glittery stuff.  I told him that was sort of Christmasy and was able to switch the red and green stuff for multi coloured ones.  Then he was adamant the other colours were perfect.  Then I kicked him out to play and changed them to the colours I wanted.

See how cute and they are so simple!

 What?  They were going to be in a bag, he would never see them.  And even if he did I bet he would forget what he even picked out.

I just tried a bunch of sprinkles from the Wall O Sprinkles.

  So to make cake pops like this you need, cake pop stuff.  I know, crazy right?

And these right here, they are imported from Disney.  And they cost a fortune, like $3 for a tiny little container, I got four of them, so they better last until I win the lottery and can go there again.

 So you need a cake and icing in any flavor you like.  And you prepare the cake pop filling and scoop it out and roll it in any size you like.  Then I put them in the freezer while I melt my candy melts.  I would use white chocolate so the sprinkles show more, but I hate melting white chocolate more than going to the doctor.

Jimmies are so fun.

  So once you have that you get your cake pops out, and dip your lolli pop stick in the chocolate before putting it in the top of the cake ball and then let them set a few seconds.  Then dip the whole ball,  tap off most of the extra chocolate and then over a coffee filter sprinkle most of the pop until you have it covered how you like. Don't bother with the bottom, it is not going to be seen anyway.

I may or may have not found this cake plate for $10 and needed it, then felt bad and had to use it right away so I felt better about my spending.

  Then you just set them on a sheet of parchment and let them dry.  Easy peasy people.  Then depending on how they are going to be served you can just set them out or put them in little bags and tie them up.  I love doing them this way as you don't need a cake pop stand of any kind.

These are the nice gift bags I got for the teachers, I just put 6 in each, they are larger cake pops, and the bags are so sturdy they were well protected.

  I am making these for a friends wedding too,  they are going to be her favors with tags on the lolli pop stick.  So fun, cannot wait to make those.

And this is Pork Chop, who said "take my picture!"  So I did, then he was all "are you going to show that to people?"  And well, you know the answer.

Bunny Cake Pops and a Give Away

That guy on the left is giving the other guy the stink eye!

 I love to read other blogs and find things that I must absolutely have.  I mean when was the last time a blogger showed you something and you got it and you didn't like it?  Never that's when!  So when I was reading The Sweet Adventures of Sugar belle, I knew I so needed the little pixie dust shakers she showed.  I mean up until that point I had been using a pain brush and I was just all willy nilly shaking disco dust all over my house.  It was what I had, so I went with it.  So glad I got these. So is Hubby who is against glitter covering our house.  But what does he know.

  Anyway when I was finished ordering I thought, I would love to do a give away and wondered if Karen would like to host one.  And it was late at night, and I was tired so I sent her a quick email saying I had a blog and would she like to donate for a give away.  I forgot about it, and within a day or two she emailed me back.  Not only was she willing to host a give away, she visited my blog.  MY BLOG!!!! And she said she would send me something that would be cake pop related so that it would go with my blog.  People, she visited my blog! I know, I'm a dork.

Another great Target find.  I cannot wait till they come to Canada, they better be as good as the ones in the states.

  So what did the amazing Karen send me to give to you? Well you have to wait until the end of the post to see.  But I made my treats with the same things today, so you may guess it.  But if you do, don't tell, that would ruin the surprise!

So to get ready for Easter I thought I would make some cute bunny cake pops.  I also wanted to make some simple cake balls, because as much as I love my co workers, the balls are much faster.

To start I had Hubby make me a box cake mix, in chocolate, because really, chocolate is the best.  Hubby made it for me because I was working, and he did a good job.  Just don't tell him. Then the next night  I crumbled it up and mixed it with enough canned frosting to make it stick together.  Not too much or you will have trouble rolling and forming it.

It looks like dirt, but it's not.  You will have to trust me.

I got this super cute silicon pan at Target last spring when I was in Florida.  Can I just say it was the trip of a lifetime, and my Mom is the best for taking me and Pork Chop, and I want to go again.  Over and over again!  Okay sorry, off track there.  So I got this pan, and used my cake ball sized ice cream scoop to put some cake ball mixture into it, then pressed it down with my fingers.  The ice cream scoop was the perfect size.  I then froze them and rolled the rest into regular cake balls.

These are the regular cake balls, but I put spring sprinkles on them, so that totally makes them spring cake balls.  They also sort of look like boobs with weird nipple shields.  I cannot believe I just typed that, guess it's better than saying it out loud right?

 So after an hour or so in the freezer I took the pan out, and popped the bunny heads out and kept them in the fridge.  I worked 3 at a time and they held together well.

So cute right?  What if I made marshmallows in the mold and they would be like peeps, only better!

I sort of feel bad, but not really. They can't feel anything.

Once I was ready I melted white candy melts, and added paraffin crystals to make it thinner.  Then I dipped the lollipop stick into the melts, then stuck them into the bunny head.  And yes I know that sounds horrible, but remember it is cake, not a real bunny.   Then I dipped the whole thing and tapped off the extra candy melts.  I dragged the back of the cake pop on the side of the bowl to take off the extra drips then laid them on wax paper.  I let them dry while I dipped the regular cake balls.  Then I dipped them again so the cake ball mixture would not show through the candy melts.  This also covers any cracks that may happen.

Oh white candy melts, how I hate you!  Why won't you melt all nice like your chocolaty brother.

This is after only the first dip, you can see some of the brown showing through.  And that is not acceptable!

I then had to let them really dry, I put the fan on in the room.  Because if you want to decorate them they need to be dry.

By now I was getting tired, so I was just going to try making something cute.

When I was ready I took my Amereicolor food writing pens.  ( this may be a hint as to something I am giving away!)  And I started to draw, like a 4 year old.  As you will notice I have no artistic ability so I just did a few then gave up. It had been a long night, there was a play date going on, and a certain friend may have showered my floor with sprinkles.  So I did a few, took a crummy picture and called it a night.

I know.

I suck.

These are all I did, except I didn't show you the one where I tried to draw a bow on it and it looks like a really big blob of nothing.

I bet Pork Chop would have done a better job.

Okay, I know Pork Chop could have made these better.

So to give these away I would usually pack them in little cake pop bags and tie it with ribbon, and add a cute tag or something.  As it was they went in a plastic container and went to work with me the next day.

No one at work cared, they ate them and the regular balls like crazy.

Best part?

My friend saying "Oh my God!  I love your balls!!"  She said it really loudly and in front of other people sort of, and I just laughed and told her she had to think about what she said.  She blushed, and it made my day.  And yes, I am so a 12 year old boy, sue me!

That right there is an amazing prize!  Edible ink pens, lollipop sticks and sprinkles.

So now, on to the most generous give away from Karen's Cookies.  ( whom I have ordered from twice, and the shipping here to Canada is really reasonable, not like some places.)

Karen sent me a whole set of Amerecolor food writer pens, the best ones out there!  And some cake pop sticks and some super cute spring sprinkles.  Do you know how hard it is going to be for me to send those sprinkles away, because I don't even have them? Well do you?  Well I may cry a little at the post office, just saying.

So here are your rules and the rest, and yes I know it is a wordy bunch of rules, but from what I have read to do a contest in Canada there must be a skill testing question, and you know, I don't want to be sued over a blog contest okay.  ***7+7+?*** this is the skill testing question!

There are a four ways you can enter, the first is to just leave a comment with the answer to the skill testing question, 7+7=?

For additional entries: Please leave a separate comment letting me know what you did with the answer to the skill testing question for each one.

-visit Karen's shop and tell me what you like best in the shop
-become a follower of my blog and let me know, and if you are already a follower let me know
-become a fan of my face book page and let me know, and if you already are, again just let me know


Other info:
This is open to international readers, Canadian (except Quebec, sorry) and USA readers.  Prize was supplied by the amazing Karen at Karen's Cookies.  I am not being compensated in any way, but I love her stuff!  The contest will close on March 12, 2012 at 12 noon Toronto time.  As  I have to approve all comments any comment that hits my mail box before noon will still be published and counted, even if I cannot publish them until after the time. The winner will be chosen on March 13, 2012, and will be listed on this blog and will have 48 hours to get in contact with me.  So please leave me a way to contact you when you comment. If the winner does not contact me within the 48 hours I will choose another winner.  All winners will be chosen by Random.org. Any entries that do not have the answer to the skill testing question will not qualify.  So I will count all qualifying entries starting at the top and working down.  The winner will be responsible for any duty that they may incur when the item is shipped to them.  The value of the prize is approximately $30 US.  Good luck all.
I'm Linking up here