Easy Valentines Day Marshmallow Pops

 These are super easy to make, and they are tasty and they are cute.  Three really good things in a treat.  I first saw something like this when my friend Staci made them.  She showed me and I was all, "seriously, chocolate and sprinkles, why did I not think of that?"  

 Then she gave me a smug smile, and think she was all "I am Martha Stewart! Don't be hating!" Or she was just smiling, because I told her how smart she was, either way.  

 So I have not been doing much baking the last few weeks, burn out and my dad in the hospital just left me not wanting to make anything.  But I felt it was about time I send in a treat for Pork Chops hockey team.  So I suggested these and he was all "Marshmallows!!!!!!"  Do I know my boy or what?

I love sprinkles, in case you didn't know that already.  I wait all  year just to use these heart ones!

  So I would prefer to make these with home made marshmallows, but that would totally defeat the point of a simple quick treat.  And kids don't care one way or the other, as long as it is full of sugar, they will be happy.  So I grabbed a bag of large marshmallows, not the jumbo camp fire ones, those are crazy!  Maybe next time.

I just used an old take out container, it was wide enough that Pork Chop could work with it easily.

 Anyway Pork Chop actually wanted to help me so he washed his hands while I got our stuff together.  It was still January, but I figure Valentines day needed to be celebrated sooner rather than later.  So I just mixed some white sprinkles with these heart sprinkles.  And there you go, instant valentines treat!

And since we rolled the marshmallows in the sprinkles, not too many fell on the floor.

  I melted the chocolate and got Pork Chop to set up the marshmallows, he was so proud as he kept telling me he was making a pattern.  It's times like these I love him, other times, well I love him, but I want to hurt him.

Making his pattern.

 So once that was done we had to put the sticks in, and Pork Chop did almost all of them himself.

Putting the sticks in the marshmallows.  Also quick cute story from Hubby.  Pork Chop now plays on my lap top, and one morning it said something like "windows needs to close" and he was all "but the windows are closed!" And pointed at the house windows.  Man sometimes he is so innocent it kills me.

 Then I said, "I have to take a picture!"

He is too big, I may have to stop feeding him.

 And I did, and he didn't really smile so much as he looked like he was trying not to hurt me.  Whatever, I got it.  So once we got that done, we worked as a team.  I would dip the marshmallows and tap off the extra chocolate and he would roll them around in the sprinkles and set them back on the parchment paper to dry.  It seriously took us like 10 minutes, not even.

I was so thinking this didn't look like 1000 and started counting, when I got to 50 and realized there are probably more than 1000 in there, they are thinner than the ones you would buy here thought but they work fine.

  Then as they dried he went and got a drink and I got out the plastic bags and twist ties.  I really like using the twist ties, they are so much faster to work with than ribbon.  But they cost a lot at the baking store, like $30  for 1000, which really isn't much, but I can get that many ribbons cut and tied for less than $2.  I may have to rethink it, I don't know.  Anyway, I got these off of ebay, they were 1000 for under $2, free shipping too.  So they are amazing, and I hope I don't run out soon.

All ready to be wrapped.

  I love how cute they are. And Pork Chops team seems to like them too.

I had to share this picture, he is so big he just jumps on the counter to get things. I used to do that as a kid.  I tried a bit ago when I needed something up high, but I almost broke a hip, so I use a chair.  Man I am old!

I am also linking up HERE

Red Velvet Marshmallow Star Pops

Wow that is a long title!  But that is what they are.  I made marshmallows again, but tried to change it up just a little.  I am actually not thrilled with how they looked, but the taste was great, so that is something right?

  So I was driving home one evening heading home to eat and change to head into my second job.  And as I usually do I let my mind wander to things I should be doing, or what I would rather be doing.  And for some reason red velvet marshmallows, and how I was going to make them into pops and shape them like stars, popped into my head.  And I was going to decorate them with edible gold spray paint.  But then I had to go to work and I was all "this has to happen, and I need it to happen now!" But as with my life there was not going to be time to make them for at least a few days.  The thing with marshmallows is that they are a two day event.  You need to make the marshmallow then allow them to dry over night before you can work with them.  So I needed a two day period where I was not working or something.  And thankfully it happened the very next week.

This little bottle will make a bunch of marshmallows, or something else, because I need to try it in lots of other things. Oh like frosting, and cookies, and ice cream and ......I better stop, or I will never finish this post.

So to make these I started off with the basic marshmallow base that I love. Here is the original if you would like to take a look.  The only difference is that I made a double batch, because I have a bigger kitchen aid, and I replaced some of the water with red velvet flavoring.

At this point I was all, "oh god, it looks awful"  But relax it turns out better, I swear!

  So to start you will need to find the flavoring.  I found it at my super kitchen store,  I had a nice gift card and this was one of the things I got, and now need to have again and again.  From reading the label it is actually for you to use in cakes, you use it to make your cake red velvet.  It has the colour and flavor in one, so it really was neat. It said to use 1 TBSP per 12 cupcakes, so I figure 2 9x13 pans is like 48 cupcakes so I used 4 TBSPs.   Also this is the colour of blood and my darn marshmallows started off looking like a big bowl of blood.  Pork Chop was all "your a vampire!!!" When I showed him the stuff.  Sigh.

See it's a nice light red now, and I sort of wish it was darker, sort of.

Red Velvet Marshmallows
Adapted from Martha Stewart

This recipe makes 2 9x13 pans, so you can half it. ( and if you feel the need for less marshmallows I don't know how we can still be friends.)

-5 TBPS unflavored powdered gelatin (or 6 packets)
-1 cup water
-1 cup water minus 4 TBSPs
-4 TBSPs red velvet flavoring
-1/2 TSP salt
-2 cups light corn syrup
-3 cups sugar
-2 TBSP vanilla bean paste
-butter and icing sugar for the pans

See how fancy I am?  I know, you cannot see it, it is something you need to witness in real life.  Sorry.

Start by preparing your pans, butter and dust them with the icing sugar and set aside.

Mix together in your kitchen aid bowl, the 1 cup of water, taking out 4 TBSPs, the red velvet flavoring and the gelatin.  Set it aside.

Have I mentioned how much I love being able to crop out stuff in pictures now?  Well I do, there may have been a layer of icing sugar on everything I own.  Maybe.

Mix everything else, except the vanilla, into a sauce pan, and put over medium heat.  Cook until the sugar is dissolved and then turn up the heat, attach your candy thermometer and cook until it reaches the firm ball stage.   Once it has reached the right temperature, take the pot off the heat and pour into your kitchen aid bowl while mixing with the whisk attachment on low.  Once it is all in, turn the speed up and whip it until the volume triples and the bowl is cool to the touch. Then add your vanilla paste and mix in. The best way to know if the marshmallow is done is to take the whisk attachment out of the bowl and see how the marshmallow flows.  It should not flow off easily, if it does whip it some more.  You want to have to actually work to get the marshmallow off.

This really has nothing to do with the post, but that right there.  That is my new box of candy melts.  I use so much of it, and this way it is so cheap.  I also can brag about having a 50 pound box of chocolate in my house.  I mean I got to have something to brag about right?

Then after they are dry you are ready to get to work.  I had plans to make these star shaped and then cover them in gold edible spray paint.  But I actually decided to use some chocolate transfer sheets.  I got them at the bakers warehouse for less than $3 a sheet and they are big sheets.  Basically a chocolate transfer sheet is a plastic sheet that is covered in cocoa butter art.  They make different colours of the cocoa butter and make a thin layer of pictures on the sheet.  Then as you place wet chocolate on it, it will harden onto the chocolate creating a design.  It looks super fancy but takes almost no skill, I mean come on, I was able to do it.

That is 50 pounds people, just so you know, I will not share.  Okay maybe a little.

Once it is ready pour it into your pans, sprinkle the top really well with icing sugar then use your hands to press it into the pan evenly.  If you start to stick to it, just dust it some more.  Then  you need to leave your marshmallows out to dry over night.  If you need to leave them longer just cover the pan after letting it dry for at least 8 hours.

I wish you could see it better, but this is the back side of the sheet, you put the wet chocolate on this side.  It's like magic.  Magic for bakers. 

That is like the best bowl of stuff ever, just chocolate candy melts.  I love them.

This is one that looks good on the front.

But the back of the marshmallow tore a bit, oh well it still tasted great.

  So I set to work cutting out my marshmallows, and I regret the choice to do stars now.  Only because there was a lot of waste.  I ended up just dipping the left over bits and everyone ate them anyway.  So I cut out my shapes, I did not bother to dust the whole marshmallows as they were going to be dipped in chocolate.  I then melted the chocolate candy melts and set to work dipping them.

I would lay them out as close as I could so not to waste the image.

I first dipped the lolli pop stick in the chocolate then placed it half way into the marshmallow, being sure to hold it until the chocolate set enough that the stick would not be pushed back out.  Then I dipped the whole thing.  I made sure to tap off as much of the extra chocolate as I could as I didn't want too much to pool when I set it down.  So I did that then set it on the chocolate transfer sheet. I tried to put the flattest side against the paper.  Then I had to let them fully dry, so that the image would stick.

I wrapped them all up like this. I now want one of those cake pop tie thingies, that would be cool.

Once that was done I put them in my cake pop holders and got all excited because I felt like a star.  No pun intended I swear.  Okay, maybe a little pun, but you cannot prove it.

So I wrapped them up and set them in the basement to wait for Pork Chops hockey game so that they could be handed out.

I usually bring my baked stuff in a shoe box like this.  Or rather I sent it like this with Pork Chop and Hubby.  I miss a lot of his games because they always are last minute times and it's hard to work around.  But when I do go I sit there thinking "I have no idea what's going on.  OMG did Pork Chop just fall into the boards?! When is this going to be over?! Why don't I have candy to eat while we watch? Look how cute Pork Chops little bum looks!  I should win an award for being here, in the cold and only really complaining in my head. Do you think Hubby would buy me a pony?  How come parents have to support their kids?  Could he not like watching cooking shows instead of hockey?  Will this game ever end?  Why did that mom give me "that look" when I was cheering?  Was that a goal?  Are they going the right way?  How the heck are you supposed to even know what icing is, and off side?  The whole game is crazy!"  Basically I am a saint, just so you know.

Anyway, the flavor was really sweet on these, that red velvet flavoring really adds a nice touch.  I like that I didn't have to add food colouring too, it was an all in one. I will do these again, but not in a star shape, that was just crazy!

Phineas and Ferb Party for Pork Chop

Happy Birthday Pork Chop!

Well now that we have had a few days to sit down and sort through things, I can finally share some of the party pictures. Tomorrow I am going on a class trip with Pork Chop, which is sort of scary.  I can hardly keep myself from killing him, how am I going to do it with lots of other peoples kids.  Well I made cookies so maybe that bribe will help, who knows.  Anyway.

  Now I didn't do anything too crazy this year for his party, just no time, but it was still good.

But I have lot's if pictures.  Some of which are even in focus, so you know, it could be worse.

These are almost perfect, I used coloured candy melts and will from now on.

So I already shared with you the Perry the Platypus marshmallows I made.  Other than that I didn't do too much.  I made some cake pops, some chocolate covered pretzel rods, cupcakes and a tiny cake.  Then we played some games.  So lets get to it.

Sort of messy, but not too shabby!

These are my tiny little spring form pans, they are perfect for mini cakes.

  Firstly the cupcakes, I made cupcake toppers like I usually do. I found some images of Perry on google and printed out a few sheets onto edible icing paper.  Then I cut them out, and put them on a layer of fondant/gum paste and let them dry out.  For some reason I felt the need to use a lot of icing sugar and this made the pictures sort of dull.  And well, I have no idea what I was thinking really.  Other than I was in a rush and at the time it seemed really smart.  It was not, but whatever, it still turned out sort of okay.

These are all the cupcake toppers I made, you can sort of see how I covered some in icing sugar and  they look dull.  Oh well.

  For the cupcakes and cake I just made the basic vanilla, chocolate and red velvet batters that I have shared here before.  For the cake I made two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla.  Then all were iced with vanilla butter cream, in bright colours to match the theme.  The cake I just decorated with a few left over strips of edible icing and then I tinted the icing a few colours.  Super easy.

A cake decorator I am not!

  The cake pops were your basic chocolate cake, formed in my My Little Cupcake Pop, mold.  And dipped in orange and some purple candy melts.  I think this is the way to go for me.  I am able to get a good flow on the coloured melts.  Not something I can get in the white melts so much.  So once I finish the 50 pound box of white melts, I am not getting  any more, I will stick with the coloured ones.  They may cost more, but man they work so much better for me.  I can for see a lot of bark being made to get rid of the last pounds of melts I have.

I don't think I have done an actual edible image wrapped around a cake before, not too bad.

  I decorated them really fast, by drizzling on a bit of the left over melts and sprinkling on some co ordinating sprinkles.  Simple and fast.

  The pretzel rods got a dip in milk chocolate and a simple drizzle of candy melts and sprinkles.  I was in a rush.  Pork Chop had one big request, he wanted candy Lego men.  Last year I made them for his Lego party and I said why not.  It was easy, I just used the left over candy melts and made them in the silicon Lego mold I had.  He was thrilled and the kids at the party ate them like crazy.  So that was great.

Perry is all "oops, sorry I'm all over your cake."

Why I picked those most girly colour I have no idea, but it worked.

  At his party we decorated simply.  I had coordinating table cloths, only one was an actual theme cloth.  Then we hung up some large pictures I got in the theme section of the party store. I had a center piece which  I think for the $7 really ties the theme together.  I also got a roll of themed streamers and a few balloons.  That was all I bought to decorate with.  And my mom, sister, aunt and friends really did a great job.  I set up the main table with that, then put the desert table together.

I didn't want to put pictures of other peoples kids, and I have no idea how to cut or blur them out, so you get to see Pork Chop.

Hubby and him think the underwater camera is awesome.  

  I used my two cake pop stands, that mom got me when she was in the states.  They were made my KC bakes, and I wish I had more, I mean how many do I really need, but they are awesome!!!!  Then I used my cupcake stand, it was a plain make it yourself stand that I got over a year ago.  I put my colorful cupcakes on it and the one on top I decorated with a Perry the Platypus vinylmation.  It was simple but easy and I loved how it turned out. I had to watch as a few kids were all, "that is my cupcake!" I told them it was for the birthday boy, and they could have any of the other ones.  I was a little surprised that the kids all wanted the red velvet cupcakes, they went first.  Which was good.  Pork Chop got to blow out the candles on his mini cake.  And a few kids were yelling "the cake is so small, we won't get any!"  Which was right, but they all got cupcakes and I didn't have to cut a thing.  As a matter of fact we never even got to his cake until 4 days or so later.  But cake stays well if it is iced fully, so that was not all bad.

That's my dad, he was wearing a Perry coloured shirt and he didn't even know it. Try not to look at the kids, pretend they are not there.

  We played a few games, which I wish had been spread out better.  The party started out with an hour pool party.  We rented out the whole pool for the party, it was huge and really the cost was nothing at all so the kids got to tear around and Hubby got in with them.  Thankfully another dad did too.  But I asked parents to stay and watch in case their kids needed help to change or were not strong swimmers.  Not a big deal really, there were comfy seats and the time passed fast.

And there you go, if he gets any older I may need a bigger cake to get all the candles on.

  But I really thought this would wear the kids out, being that the pool part was over at 6:30 at night.  But no, the kids were crazy!  So as soon as they were all in the room they were tearing around like they were full of sugar, but they hadn't had any yet!!!

My poor hand was feeling the heat!

  So as soon as they all got in the room and got seated we had pizza, and of course Pork Chop would not eat any.  But I had told him if he wants a large party we have to have pizza it is the most economic thing to serve really.  So we did that.  Then the kids ran around a bit.  And I was all "we have to stop them, someone is going to get hurt."  My solution?  Give them cake.  I know, I am smart.

Hubby tried to get a picture but it was dark.  

    So everyone sat down again and we sang happy birthday to Pork Chop and he was all "this is so embarrassing"  And he blew out his candles.  Then the kids got cupcakes and Pork Chop ran for a cake pop.  I told him no, that those were for after the party, because I had like 60 cupcakes and they had to be eaten!

 So after they were all done we played some games.  I had a few.  One I did a few years back, was basically a quick one.  You print out a picture like 100 times, make them the same and all of them get tapped all over the room. So it is like a decoration, but you are going to use it. Then you tell the kids to find them and the one with the most wins a prize!  So not only are they having fun, they are also cleaning up some of the decorations.  I know they may figure that our in a few years, but for now, I'm good.

My sister got these pictures for me, that is my desert table.

  After that we played a game that I read about on line.  In the TV show there is an older sister who is always trying to bust her brothers.  So we played "busted"  basically I blew up a bunch of balloons and one of them had a paper inside that said "you win!"  So I let them loose and let the kids pop them until they found the winner.  Then I got them to clean them all up, because bits of balloon were everywhere.

  The last game was going to be a dance contest.  But Hubby was not able to get the song I wanted.  Gangam Style, sure you have heard of it?  Well basically Pork Chop was going to use his "dance inator" to get the kids to dance.  Because another character is always making up silly "inators" so that was good, until one kid was slamming into the floor, so we cut it short as he was just being too silly and was going to hurt himself or someone else.

Not the most detailed picture, but the best I got.  Considering I forgot to take any.

  Then we had like an hour left.  So I gave each kid a tattoo of Phineas and Ferb.  Hubby's mom even got one, and one kid wanted one right in the middle of his forehead, I told him his mom might kill me, so we stuck to hands and arms.

  Then the kids tore around for like 20 minutes when I figured we needed to bring it down.  So we let Pork Chop open his gifts.  I don't like to do this as usually he is not the most subtle when he doesn't like something or already has it.  I talked to him about being great full and told him the only thing I wanted to hear him say was "thank you" and that was what he did, even when one toy was something he already had.  No matter he was very good.

 As kids started to leave they each got a Marshmallow pop, a cake pop and a pretzel.  So it was a good day.

This was the table, see those tiny pictures?  Those were one of the games.

  We got home and Pork Chop begged Hubby to start putting together his Lego's  I told him if he helped me sort the pieces I would do one too.  He said it was his birthday and he didn't have to sort if he didn't want to.  I have no idea how you respond to that, so I said, "okay we can do it later, when it's not your birthday"  And so there you have it.  Pork Chop is officially 8, he doesn't need a booster seat anymore, but I don't know how I feel about that.  He is old enough but not tall or heavy enough.  We will see, he is not bothered by it.

And next year, watch, I bet he will be all, "I want a Lego party"  And I will have to break his legs.  Think I can talk him into a sleep over, with like 1 friend, and I go out and Hubby deals with it?  Well I have a year to work on it.