Smore Cake Pops!

In getting ready for my sister's wedding in June, I offered to make some cake pops as treats for the reception. So until then I have been putting in some practice on making the goods.

The first time I tried it the basic way where you make a cake, mash it and mix it with frosting and then form into balls. I am not going to lie, I wasn't very impressed with this way of making them, and for some reason the idea of doing it this way made the whole task seem overwhelming. Maybe I didn't pick a good cake recipe, or a good frosting recipe, or didn't pick good chocolate to coat it with it all, but I just didn't like how it all turned out, especially the taste. I think the mix of cake and frosting in the middle with chocolate on the outside made the whole bit almost overwhelming and way too rich for my liking. From this one experience many months ago it has taken me a long time to want to practice making them again...
Until I saw this beauty for only $15 at Walmart:

Sorry this pic is blurry, I got it right from the walmart website, I felt lazy and didn't want to take a pic of the actual one I bought, but it looks just like it though :)

 Getting this lovely thing for such a good deal, I couldn't resist giving the pops another practice round. So finding out that today was my neighbor's birthday, I thought it would be a perfect day for a new adventure.

Now even though this practice round is "Smore" flavored, I might not actually be making them like this for the wedding (unless she'd like them now after seeing them :) since I am going for Coral colored ones to match her colors for the wedding. But either way, I figured this round would be fun and new, and would at least give me the dipping practice for making them pretty and such.

I must saying getting this little machine was a great investment, and I am positive I will use it more than just her wedding. It was fast and easy, and I liked that I didn't have to mix the cake with frosting, making it too rich, but left it with a nice fluffy middle flavor. The only complaint so far is that they didn't turn out completely round when they were done, but that could have also been the recipe I tried, because it might not have had a chance to be fluffy enough to rise to the top mold. I will have to keep giving it a good practice. Especially since I actually enjoy eating these and will probably practice much more.

So long story short. I made "Smore" cake pops. I used THIS yellow cake recipe for the batter, although I halved the recipe (which I am glad I did, because even cut in half it made a lot). Then after making all the balls I put them in the freezer to get firm and easy to dip. Then from a suggestion from a friend I poked them with a fork instead of the sticks so that the ball wouldn't slide around like it did to me before, then gave it good dip in the melted chocolate. Before the chocolate got firm I sprinkled it with graham cracker crumbs and mini marsh mellows (that I cut into fourths). And Wall-ah! Yummy Smore cake pops! (and for this round I put them in mini cup cake liners, instead of on sticks, mostly because I am cheap and didn't want to use my sticks yet, I am saving them for the wedding. Plus the cup cake liners gave it an elegant chocolate sort of look, right? :)

And the best part of this whole process, was my husband asked me if I got this idea from pintirest. Ha ha, oh he knows me too well. But believe it or not, there are still SOME creative thoughts left in this universe and I did put the idea of it all together by myself...although I am sure there is a good chance someone out there still thought of the idea too. Either way they turned out yummy and I can't wait to try making more again!

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time!

Birthday Blis!

My handsome hubby had his birthday for the year, so here are some goods I put together for him on this blessed occasion. Since my little girl's birthday is exactly a month apart from my hubby, and we were greatly honored to have the presence of his parents for the weekend too, we did a party for the both of them!

 Michael's parents brought his childhood Legos as an early treat so we can play with them now, and then Addie can join us when she isn't in the "put EVERYTHING in her mouth" stage. So with a little bit of a Lego theme, I made Lego shaped cakes! I know, I know they look horrible, and well...just WEIRD looking, but like they say, practice makes perfect, and I still need lots of practice in the cake realm! I heard that marsh mellows work really great for the top, but I didn't feel like running to the store at the time, so I just used some extra part of the cake, so they turned out super weird, I know. Then to accommodate my mother-in-law's health, and trying to not give my little girl too much sugar, too early in her life, I use the carrot cake recipe and sugar free cream cheese frosting recipe from THIS website. The only added "sweetener" was from applesauce and apple juice, and it turned out pretty yummy if I don't say so myself! :)

 Then my poor hubby had to work on his actual birthday, so I made him these fun little "time passer" cards. I made a card for every hour that he would be at work, and at that hour he could read another card, on the back I put cheesy birthday jokes or facts, or something I adore about him. It was a fun way to let him know I am still thinking about him on his special day, even if it had to be spent mostly at work.

 And of course I mustin forget the decorations! And we had to get a helium balloon for Addie, EVERY TIME we go to the store and she sees those floating up above she will laugh or smile or try and reach for them, so it was very fitting to get!

 Then for a fun, memory capturing present, I put together the hand picture. The easiest sentimental present I've ever made. I just got my little girls hand and put mine on top of our scanner, and pressed "copy" and wall-ah! Any easy picture that captured my little girl's hand, the hardest part was making sure she didn't move too much. I saw this brilliant idea in my pinetrest scanning one day and couldn't resist trying it out, and this was probably my husband's favorite gift by far!

 Then I got him some olive oil for giving blessings, he was getting low on his supply.

 The poor guy keeps trying to wear shorts to bed for pajamas, and it is FREEZING at night, so I got him some long PJ pants!

 Then also repaired his camel pack bag upon his request as a birthday gift,

 Along with repairing his messenger bag, he was excited to have them all ready for school soon!

 Then he got an atomic watch from his parents and. . .

 A fun little armor statue thing for the "Whole Armor of God" parable, also from his parents.

 Then my real work of birthday preparations was put to the test in making this little book, which I will share in more detail in my next post. This was sort of a joint present, a fun book that he can read to little Addie, and it is a "touchy feely" book, which she LOVES!

 Then for Addie's presents, we got her this fun bike/walking scooter thing, she loves being able to get around the house even more effectially than just wall and couch surfing!

 And of course I had to put all the presents in a big fun box, cuz boxes are always so fun to be in!

 Then Michael's parents got her this fun little doll house that makes sound effects for the door bell, telephone, bath tube, washing machine, and of course the toilet!

 Michael also got her this fun toy lion from work for free (yeah!), it makes fun sound effects too! Then I also made her a pillow pet, seen above, which I will also share details on in a near future post!

It was a great fun day, celebrating my two most favorite people in the whole world! I am so blessed to have such gems in my life!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Since I didn't post last week due to Thanksgiving busy-ness, I will post twice this week, lucky you! :)

Until next time!

I like to Party!

For this lovely Fun Find Friday, I found that it was my lovely friend, Maria's, Birthday and she invited me to her little birthday festiveness. She rallied up a bunch of friends and we played ball in the park and had some cake and watermelon (well not me, cuz I am allergic :( saddest finding of my life!)

 And I built her a cake or something :)

Happy Birthday Maria- thanks for giving me opportunity to get out of the house and celebrate the lovely great person you are!

Sorry for the short post today, but because of the lovely festivities my normal house cleaning got put on hold and I need to hop to it all now before the hubby gets home, but thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely rest of your Friday evening. And don't forget to stop by for tomorrow's lovely Sun-up Saturday!

Until next time!. . . .

Red, White and Blue!

Yep that's right! The fourth of July, the celebration of our country's independence- the big bang fire work day is just around the corner! So for this "We-flecting" Wednesday I thought I would share in a little fun with some white and some blue, and then a little more recent venture that I am actually currently working on for the up coming big day!

I made this skirt and tie for our wedding. We wore our little matching polka dot attire for while we were at our luncheon so we wouldn't spill food or anything of the likes on our lovely wedding dress and tux. But It has the fun patriotic colors in it that could be great fun to wear for the big day (although we wont this year).

 This skirt is pretty simple to make, I simply cut out 6 panels, they start out smaller at top and get larger on the bottom and I basically just cut out enough to fit around my hips. I honestly can't remember how much material it took me to make this, and if you can't tell I had to tweak it a little anyway cuz I didn't have enough of one so I used two variations of polka dots and staggered it. I would recommend doing a zipper on the side, but I was lazy and didn't on this one, so it is a little snug and tricky to slide into over my big rump. If you want more details on how to make a skirt like this let me know and I would be glad to help and sorry for not showing it off more stylishly- if you haven't noticed I have been a lazy photographer lately- sorry! :)

 Here is my husband's lovely tie (and my toes, but don't mind them), I made him to match me. I made it the same sort of way as I made the tie for my lovely husband for his father's day present which you could read about HERE. I love to be matchy matchy, especially for special occasions- it makes me feel all giddy and happy inside.

So there is this lovely polka dot funness- and because of their blue and white nature I suppose they could always be back up matchy matchy for future patriotic holidays and then all we would have to do is throw in some red to our attire and we are set!

But since I am trying to get a little ahead on my game for our matchy matchy this year, this is what I got going up my sleeve and you are more than welcome to copy if you want to as well.

I got my little girl a regular white onesie, I am using one of my husband's old regular white t-shirts, and then I am making a little white tank top shirt to wear over another shirt, and on all of them I am gonna to paint matchy matchy "I love USA" on it. So far I have finished my little girl's and this is how it turned out.

I use this picture (I got it HERE from a google search):

as my basic format. I opened it in a word document and sized it to the dimensions I wanted them to be on our shirts. I sized it to a good 5x4.5inches and it turned out quit nicely. Then I printed it. Then I tapped the lovely freezer paper over the top of it and etched out the design as kinda seen below.

 From the brilliant idea of a good friend Lindsey, I etched out the design with the waxier side down, so that when I was ready to paint, all I had to do was iron it on to ensure a nice bleed free paint job

 I wanted to spice it up a little, so I made the heart a flag instead of just a regular red heart, now to wait for it to dry...

 And wall-ah! Here is my little girl's shirt. I am still debating how ambitious I feel, but I might make her a cute jean and red and white polka dot skirt to go with it, or I just might be lazy and use her regular jean skirt that she already has, either way I will put up pictures of our all fun matchy matchy next week after the festivities (probably on Tues though, cuz Monday I am gonna play with my family and friends ALL day!)

On other patriotic festive thoughts, I am also debating on a fun red, white, and blue sort of treat I want to make, here is what I am down to in my decission process:

 Doesn't this just look so yummy? And I love the fruit idea on top, maybe we'll make this, but still not sure.

 We made this cake about a year ago, it is a Jello Cake (idea also from the same Lindsey), it is so yummy (that is if you are the kind of person that really likes super moist kind of cakes), all you do is bake the cakes like normal, when it is done, preferably more cooled off, stab it with a bunch of holes with a tooth pick, then on the side make up your jello and pour it into the holes soaking up the entire cake. Then put it in the fridge and let is set up inside the cake. It is simply a most marvelous flavor- also another delema if we should make this cake again (but decorate it more festive like though).

Or these jello cups look fun and festive too (although I probably wont go to all the extra work to make them look this fancy).

Or we might cancel these all together and make some peach cobbler (even though its not red, white and blue) with homemade ice cream (we are getting 25 lbs of peaches this Saturday, so it would be a great way to use some of them up!)

Either way I hope it gives you some ideas for this lovely holiday coming up if you are in need of ideas, and I will be wracking my brain (or more like my cravings) and see what we come up with. And I will most likely share some pictures of all the happenings.

Anyway, that's all for today on this We-flecting Wednesday. I hope you have fun preparing for the fun holiday coming up, and I would love to hear about all your plans or even fun traditions you do- this is such a great fun time of the year!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!. . . . .

Hamburger Cake!

In having the next several days filled with family fun in honoring my little brother for his graduation, I will be posting this weeks "We-flecting Wednesday" today, on this lovely Tuesday, and I won't be posting for this Friday and possibly next Monday- we'll see how it all comes together :)

This past venture I did while I was still in high school, also for this same little brother's birthday ( I think it was his 12th or 13th birthday? I can't remember which one). I thought it would be very fun and fitting to share this venture for this week since there are so many birthdays in my family this month, this week especially!

 For the cake as a whole, I believed I used two store bought cake mix boxes. I poured some in a glass bowel (that is oven safe) to get the round top bun shape (I believe I used two round bowels, one for the top bun, one for the bottom bun, but for the bottom I cut off a little to make it more flat on the plate). Then I poured the remaining cake mix to a regular 9 in a flat round cake pan. I used a chocolate flavored mix so that the "hamburger" would have a natural brown sort of look

 I used whip cream as the frosting and used food coloring to make the bum a more tan color. I also used the same whip cream to color some yellow and red (it actually looks pink though) for the mustard and ketchup look. Then for the "lettuce" I used coconut and died it green with the food coloring. I also layered it with strawberries, to look like tomatoes.

 Then I topped it with some De-shelled sun flower seeds to give it that much more of a "hamburger" look

Now all topped and ready to blow out the candles! So yummy!

On other notes, my sister April, the same sister previously mentioned in the little fairy girls post, also made a fun hamburger cake, here is how hers turned out:

I personally like hers a lot better- I like that hers is so much more colorful looking! For her mustard and ketchup she also used frosting, but got a much truer, deeper colors than what I got! Then the "lettuce" on hers is gumdrops rolled in sugar. Doesn't it make you want to go eat a yummy hamburger? Or even better- a yummy cake hamburger!

Have you ever tried to make a fun cake that looks like something else?

Anyway, hope you have a lovely Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!

Until next time!...