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!

A Little Give Away- 101 Post

What post is complete without a picture of Pork Chop?

  Okay seriously this is my 101 post, which if you think about it is crazy.  I never thought that I would do so many things, or share so much personal stuff.  But I am so glad I have.  So many fun things have happened and this is like a personal journal almost.  And I some times look at my posts and think that things seem so long ago.  And it's nice, because I am so busy now, and my scrap booking has taken a back seat to life.  And here I get to share it all.  And the best part for me is the comments you all leave.

  I love reading the funny comments, the supportive comments, even the quick short ones, they all mean so much.  I love that all over the world others are reading about the times I almost killed Pork Chop, or the many many times I proved Hubby wrong.  And I hope to have many more times to share that too.  I mean that never gets old does it?  Well he may say different, but since he has never once left a comment, he gets no say!

  So just for a little fun I thought I would share a few of my favorite posts, a few of my most viewed and a few funnies.  So it is going to be like one of those TV episodes where they just do flash backs.  Because I totally think those are all about the writers being lazy and what not.  I am totally all about being lazy, you guys know that, so there is no way you have to pretend I am not being truthful about that. Because there are some things you can find out with blogger, and man I want to share that with you all.  And to top it all off, a tiny little give away.  Nothing big at all really, but it's cute and it makes me happy!  Also I am starting a two week vacation today, so that is worthy of a give away.  I mean time with my family will give me lots to write about, maybe not a lot of time to get to other blogs, but you know I will try.


 So without further ado, her are my most favorite posts.  And I also had big plans to put a picture here with each post, but then I forgot and we have to leave for our fun day out in like 10 minutes, so just click and see, you will not regret it.

The Wall O Sprinkles

Peppermint Patties

Cake Pops

The Yearly Gingerbread House

My Shopping Finds

Irish Cream Bunt Cake

  And then these are my top three posts according to blogger, which is kind of funny because for the longest time the second top one was not even baking related. Which gives me a kick, because I got to see my sewing on my blog page for the longest time.  I love that.

So in first place as of today:


#1 Toy Story Cake Pops!

#2 Cake Boss Black And White Cookies

#3 My Steam Punk Outfit

  Also,  I check out what people are googling and such when they come upon my blog.  And I cannot get to it now for some reason, which stinks.  But there were a few x rated things people tried to find, and they found me.  Which is sort of disturbing because they were not x rated in the fun way that  I would have hoped.  One of the terms that was found was "$&#% in a bag"  And I bet if I go back and look, I had to of written that some where right?  Or something like it.  So I have to try and remember that my mom reads this blog, some times, if she can find it that is.  So I should try to keep it clean.  Also my son may read it one day, then where will I be?  I don't have lot's of money for the therapy he will surly need.  So maybe I should put more x rated stuff and get some sponsors or something.  Yeah, that's it.  Sponsors.

  Anyway I want to say thanks again for you all readying and commenting on my silliness and what not.  So to do that, and to thank you for indulging me by reading my super long, self absorbed re run post.  I have a small give away.

  I found this cute purse note pad, that has cupcakes and a sparkly stone on it.  How can you beat that?  Well don't answer that, I know real diamonds and real cupcakes are better, but you know I am on a budget right?  Well I am..  I am also coveting a few Coach purses, so lets just pretend this is huge, okay?  Also I will throw in some super cute cupcake erasers, because that is how much I love you all.

This could be all yours!  I know lame, but I spend most of my money on butter and sugar it seems.

*** Give Away***



  So my little thank you give away includs a cupcake note pad and some cupcake erasers.  Which now that I type that out, seems really lame considering all the writing I just did, and you had to read it all.  Or if you were smart you just skipped down to this part and it will seem like a huge give away.  And then it's all good.  Also this is open to anyone, shipping may take longer if you live really far away, but you can still win.

  So the winner will be picked on July 16 at noon, Toronto time.  All you have to do to win is leave a comment.

 For an additional chance to win, become a follower, I like followers, makes me happy to know I am not alone in the world.  And I know that is overly dramatic, but that is how I do it, sorry. If you are already a follower I love you more than chocolate.  Well you are a close second, sorry.  But just leave a comment to let me know you already follow.

  And I will post the winner as soon as I can, because I am on vacation I promised Pork Chop I would not be on the computer too much.  If you can believe it I am hiding right now to post this so we can head out to start our vacation fun.  Today's fun trip?  The dentist.  Which I know is lame, but hey at least we are getting out of the house.

Brownie Balls, the better Cake Ball And winner announced

I cannot even tell you how good these are.  And don't judge by the picture, they are yummy.  Oh and those are my moms chocolate chip cookies, also really good.

Okay so today we are going to take a look at the brownie ball.  Way back when I first started making cake balls, I was looking for different things to make.  This was way before I really got into reading blogs.  One of the things I though up was brownie balls.  And yes I totally know that I am probably not the first, but I was the first of my friends, so that totally counts!

So the first time I tried and brought them to work I got a lot of compliments, they were amazing.  If I do say so myself.  People, and I, both agreed that they were richer, more sophisticated in taste and just perfect.  I know, that sounds stupid, but it's hard to describe how good they are.

So today, since I had to make a bunch for my moms annual party, I thought I would share with you how I make mine. 

To start, as always we are using a mix.  There are two reasons, one, making brownies from scratch to just crumble up and destroy seems wrong. And two, the box mixes are just way easier.  So there you go, scientific proof as to why box mix is better.

I used four boxes, if you could not tell.  I got just over 10 dozen.  And yes I ate some myself.

So the box mixes we have here make a 8x8 pan of brownies, which does not give you a lot of stuff to work with.  In the states I think they have a family size box or something, I so want that here!  Anyway, I usually remedy that by making two box mixes in one 9x13 pan.  That gets me about 4-5 dozen balls.  

So to start, when buying a mix, I always get the one with the frosting. This way I don't need to buy frosting alone and it just makes life easier.

So make your brownies according to the box, just use two boxes and use the 9x13 pan.  Bake  them until they are almost done, you know, putting a tooth pick in and having a bit of crumbs is good.  You don't want a dry brownie.  Once they are baked, cool them fully. I was once in a rush and did not fully cool them and they mixed up without any frosting as they were so moist.  Then once I left them over night, the next day the balls were hard as rocks.  I had to microwave them to soften them then mix them with frosting.  So trust me, cool them.  Put the whole darn pan in the fridge if you need to.

It is really hard to not eat spoon fulls of this while I scoop it out.

Once you have them cooled, use a spoon or your hands or whatever to scoop them into your mixing bowl.  Now brownies make a very thick dough when mixed with icing, so I beg of you, use a kitchen aid or food processor or something.  Trust me.

This is the left over crispy bits, but since I hate crispy brownies  I never eat it. I know, it's a waste.

So once you have scooped all the brownie out, leaving any really crispy bits of brownie in the pan, you are ready to go.  I find that one pouch of frosting works perfectly for each double batch of brownies.  I just dump it in and let the kitchen aid mix it all up.  Then I just scoop out the balls into a parchment paper lined cake pan and put them in the fridge.  I do not roll them, as they are sticky.  I leave them for at least 30 minutes, then pull them out of the fridge and roll them into nice ball shapes.  Then back into the fridge for a few hours, or the freezer for about 20 minutes.

And it looks gross when all mixed up, but man is it thick.  I have broken spatulas before, so use a super strong one.

I love the rich chocolate of these, and some people may like to dip them in white or dark chocolate.  But since I hate dark chocolate more then laundry, I won't use it. I also hate white chocolate and if these are for me, I use what I like.  So just melt you chocolate of choice, mine being candy coating, and dip all of the brownie balls and place them on wax paper to dry.  You can use sprinkles to decorate them, but I wanted the classic look, so I just drizzled white chocolate over them.  These freeze really well, the only issue is they get some condensation on them when they thaw out, but you know, it won't kill them.

Also I have no idea why I didn't take any progress pics, but you know, a scoop of filling, rolled and dipped is all the same right?  Well take my word for it, at least this time.

I hope you try them out, because of all the things I have made, these always get the most thumbs up.

I am famous for these, at least in my family.

Also I have a winner for my Sky Zone passes.  Cheri is the only person who is in Canada that commented so that was an easy win.  Yay for Cheri, I will send you an email today so you can get those as soon as possible.  Thanks all for reading

< imgalt="Our Delightful Home" src=" http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r525/ourdelightfulhome/odhbutton1.jpg>

And we have a Winner!!

So totally nothing to do with this post, just picked some pictures I had on my computer.  Here is Pork Chop at Great Wolf Lodge.  He got the choice between this and a big party, he chose well. Although I still did a family party, it was no where near as much work.

 Just a super quick post to announce the winner of my give away.  I have been dealing with being a little sick, and so is Hubby and now poor Pork Chop is bad.  But apparently a bunch of kids from his school are sick, so there are a few of them not getting to enjoy the March break.  Poor things.  But that means I get to cuddle and not be on the computer too much, so I will just announce the winner, and put in a few pictures to share, because what is a blog post without pictures, even if they are not relevant at all.

So I used Random .org and I was given the number 10.  I was so happy because all the entries managed to get the right answer, which is amazing, I chose a hard question.  I will go easier on you all next time!  So the winner is !

Dorthy at Crazy for Crust, and this totally means she has to make something with this stuff and show us.  So Dorthy I will email you, and thanks all for entering!

Pork Chop after going under water, he is all "look what I can do"  then I think of that Mad TV creepy kid and want to call him "Stewart"

Try to ignore the flab, no one, and I mean no one over the age of 10 looks good in a bathing suit.  And if you are a freak that does, I hate you, on a superficial level that is.

See how nice he looks, and almost cute?

Well he is evil deep down, he gets that from me.  So I cannot be too mad.

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