Red Velvet and Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Pops

 Okay so this is my second recipe using that new chocolate cream cheese spread.  It did not turn out as I had wanted.  I don't know if it was the fact I used an actual from scratch cake and icing, or if it was that it was cream cheese icing or what, but I was not as happy with it as I am usually with my cake pops.

I will still share it because they were eaten within seconds of hitting work and Pork Chops class.  So maybe it was just me, who knows.  Basically I just made extra cake when I made those red velvet cupcakes and extra cream cheese icing.

So this is how it all started, the icing is really a winner in my books.

I did the usual and just crumbled up the cake, it was day old but I usually do day old cake, I bake it then once it cools I wrap it up.  Anyway I crumbled it all up and then added enough of the chocolate cream cheese icing to get it to stick together.  I should have added a bit more, but I am not used to this sort of cake pop, the box mix and pre made frosting is what I know.  Anyway it worked.

 Originally these were to be for a friend who had her baby in the NICU, we were going to visit, and I stayed up way late to finish them, but I was so tired that I never even decorated them.  I was so embarrassed, but figured the nurses wouldn't care.  Unfortunately my poor friend and her baby didn't have a good night so we had to put off our visit. Not a big deal, it actually meant I had cake pops for Pork Chops dance a thon, so it all worked out. And on a happy note, that cute little baby and my friend are now all settled at home, so Pork Chop is counting the days until he can hold the baby.

It looks so red, it didn't really stain my hands though.

  So once the cake was crumbled and mixed up I used my cake pop mold from My Little Cupcake because I like how uniform them are and the large size.  I was doing the forming and the all the stuff in one night so I froze them.  And some would fall apart or crack, so I think I really needed some more icing, but I was tired and just kept going.

You can sort of see it is a little dry.

  I was so wanting to decorate them with something pretty, but the fact that they were even done and wrapped was good enough for me, it had been a long day at work.  Anyway, they still went over well, as I said the kids in Pork Chops class liked them, and they didn't last long at work.  So maybe it was just me, but in cupcake form this combination was better.

So I want to say something sort of crude, like how do you like my balls, but I will refrain   Oh wait I wrote it, oh well...So, how do you like them?

   I think that my next chocolate cream cheese creation was even better than this one, not as good as the cupcakes but a close second.  All I have to say is my co workers know me well, because one of them handed me some coupons for the chocolate cream cheese, she was all "just in case you want to make more things with it."  And I so do, so that was a great treat to get.

My ball dipping set up, yep I went there.

 I don't know what I want to make next with this, but there will be more, trust me.

I thought I would toss this picture in again, ,because dude these were so good!

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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!

Halloween Cake Pops

Are you scared, because that is one scary cake pop.

Okay so we finally have something to celebrate.  And by celebrate, I mean sit down and sigh and not move for like a year.  We finally got our car sorted out, and by that I mean we got a used car.  And it is not bad, it just isn't a van.  I am thanking my lucky stars we are going to be okay, so if it's not a van, I can deal.  Secondly, Pork Chops birthday is over, and by over I mean his party.  His birthday was actually yesterday, so Happy Birthday Pork Chop!!!  I cannot believe someone as hot and young as I am has an 8 year old.  Did I ever tell you how humble I am?  Well I am really, just ask Hubby.

Another blogger called this candy apple style, and I think that make perfect sense, so that is how we can call it now.

  So all that to say that life is sort of back to normal.  Well normal for us.  And that is great.  I don't think this year can end fast enough.  There have been some horrible times, but also some really great ones.  So I am focusing on the good times, it's what keeps me sane.

  So in all our craziness I didn't get to make any actual Halloween treats.  Which sucks, because I had plans people.  Like real honest to goodness Halloween treat plans.  And they never happened.  And this treat right here, well it was just an extra add on from Pork Chops party.

  I shared with you the marshmallows I made for his party, and I promise to share the rest soon.  But for now I want to share my one and only holiday theme treat.  Which is really just a spin off of the cake pops I did for his party.

I swear they were so cheap, and they are like a million a pack in the store.

  So I had to make pops for his party, and some for work ( because they have not gotten hardly any treats this month and I think some of them may be wasting away to nothing) and these ones that are holiday themed.  They are going to do double duty, they are for his hockey team to celebrate his birthday and Halloween.  So see right there I saved myself from having to make two treats.  I am smart.

See so simple!

   So basically I had hubby bake me four cakes.  I even let him use my new mixer.  He complained, said it was alright, said it was noisy.  But you know he loved it.  Then I got to work.  I did the usual, crumbled up all the cake, added enough frosting to get it to stick together, then I shaped the pops.  I really liked how large the pops I made last time were, so I used my cake pop mold from My Little Cake pop.  It is perfect, and no rolling.  So I did that, and I ended up with over 100 cake pops.  Now that was perfect I needed 20 for his team, and at least 60 for his party.  And then the rest for a friend of my sister and then my work friends.

  So once they were shaped I put them in the freezer as I was doing this all in one day.  And yes I was up super late and cranky when I was all done.  I melted my orange candy melts, and I finally have it figured out. Sort of.  I put my microwave on 40% and then melt it for 30 seconds at a time.  And I mix it up really well once I have done that about 3 times.  That way I get the melts nice and smooth.  I usually still add a little paraffin crystals to thin it out.  But seriously this sort of works.  And well, I don't hate it as much as I used to.  I don't love it, but at least I don't want to punch a kitten when I work with them.  ( and no I would not actually punch a kitten, I have Hubby to punch)

I have no idea why I put the plain ones in front, don't even try to figure it out, I give up trying to understand myself.

  And once I had finished dipping all the cake pops for Pork Chops party I had run out, so I just ended up melting more white candy melts and adding green candy colouring.  It was all good.

  So I dipped all the cake pops, these ones I just did the lazy way by placing them on parchment paper, stick up and let them dry.  If they cracked I dipped them again and then I just decorated them.  I got these Halloween decorations last year.  They are just sugar and really cannot go bad.  I got them for like $25 cents a pack at a warehouse.  I have seen them for up to $8 a pack in store, and even more.  So I just put a dab of melted candy melts on the dry pop and stuck a decoration on.  Then I bagged and tied them up.  That was it.

  Now if I was really crafty, or if I had time I would have made cute tags, but as it was, I was lucky to make these.  Hubby and Pork Chop had to hand them out at practice, as it was a 6am practice and there was no way I was getting up for that.  I love him, but not enough to get up that early.

And here is Pork Chop, he is so cute, and he loves hockey. He is the one in the yellow in the middle. I thin k this is called a face off.

  So there you go, the worlds longest post ever, just to show you how to stick a decoration on a cake pop.  Your welcome.  And happy Halloween, I have a few more posts from Pork Chops party, so I will share those soon.

  And I hope everyone is being safe as possible in this weather, it is not nice and I worry about everyone.