Cake Pops

This holiday season I was introduced to cake pops - a highly addictive and easy to make treat.  My husband came home from work one day praising a new sweet he had tasted at work.  A wife of one of his co-workers had made the cake pops and my husband was relentless to get the recipe.  I'm glad he did... sort of...I've put on a few pounds because of these.

Clearly I took the liberty to use a lot of chocolate, which is why my cake pop is sporting a crew cut.  They're supposed to be completely round. Some people decorate them to look like Rudolf the red nose reindeer (here).

Here's a peek at the inside of the cake pops...

The above cake pop is made with funfetti cake.

This one is made with red velvet cake.  Me like-y a lot!

Here's how I made mine:

Ingredients

• Cake mix or make your own cake from scratch.  So far, I have made cake pops with pumpkin cake, red velvet cake mix and funfetti cake mix.
• Cream cheese frosting or make your own from scratch (mix powdered sugar with cream cheese until it taste like frosting).
• Dipping Chocolate
• Paper Sucker Sticks
• Wax Paper

Directions

1. Bake the cake by following the box directions or your own if making from scratch.
2. When the cake has cooled, crumble the cake into small crumbs in a bowl with your hands.  The cake mixture should be fine.
3. Using a rubber spatula, mix in cream cheese frosting a 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix in enough cream cheese frosting until the cake mixture is moist enough to roll 1" balls.  You probably wont need to use all of the cream cheese frosting.  
4. Roll 1" balls out of the mixture and place them on a wax paper lined pan (jelly roll pan or cookie sheet). 
5. Stick the sticks into the center of the balls.  Freeze for about 15 minutes.
6. Prepare the melting chocolate by following the instructions on the bag.  I melt mine in the microwave by heating and stirring in 30 second intervals until the chocolate has melted.
7. Dip the pops and cover them with chocolate.  Let the excess drip off (I usually skip this part).
8. Place the pops back onto the wax paper with the stick facing up.  Let it cool.

That's it!

After Googling cake pops it turns out there are a couple of cake pop cook books and a Martha Stewart appearance.  I have not had the opportunity to flip through the cook books, but I imagine there's a whole new cake pop world out there waiting for me to explore.

Cheers,

Jamie

Bird and birdcage ornament tutorial

For Christmas this year I decided to make Christmas ornaments for my kids' teachers and friends of mine.  The ornaments turned out to be quick and easy to make!  In fact I made extras for unexpected guests that visit me over the holidays.  This way no one leaves empty handed.

I don't have a tree yet to hang them on; however, they do sit nicely on my shelf.

I also like them without the Christmas bling.  This one could be a year around decoration.  

Here's how I made the ornaments... 

Materials

• Bird template (link)
• Festive paper for making the bird.  For the fabric birds, I glued plaid fabric to card stock (another option).
• Spray adhesive glue (I used craft bond).
• Floral wire that looks natural.  I purchased mine at Michaels for under $4.00.
• Embroidery floss or string that matches the floral wire.
• Thread for hanging the bird.  I used nylon thread (not pictured) because it is clear.
• Safety pin or something sharp for poking a hole into the paper.
• Embellishments such as: glitter, berries, bells or flowers.

Lets begin!

1.  Glue the non-printed side of the festive paper together.  To do so, fold the festive paper in half so that the printed side is visible on both the front and back of the paper.  Unfold the paper and spray the wrong side (non printed side) of the festive paper with the spray adhesive glue and glue the wrong sides together.  You should now have the print on both the front and back of the festive paper.  

Fabric bird option - For fabric birds, cut 2 pieces of fabric the size of the card stock paper.  Spray the adhesive glue to one side of the card stock and glue the fabric to the paper.  Once the glue is dry, turn  the paper over and glue the fabric to the reverse side of the paper.

2.  Print out the bird template on plain paper to use as a tracing template or print the template directly on the festive paper.  If you are using it as a tracing template, trace the bird and wings image onto the festive paper or fabric.  

3.  Cut out the bird and wings from the festive paper or fabric/paper.  Cut the slits as indicated on the template.

4.  With a safety pin, poke a hole into the tips of each wing.

5.  Slide the wing's slit into the bird's slit.

6.  Fold the wings upward (along slit line) to create some dimension.  Set the bird aside until step 11.

7. To make the base, coil the floral wire until it is about 3" to 3 1/2" in diameter.  Cut off the excess wire.  A 3" circle is included with the bird template to help reference the size.  Using the embroidery floss or string, tie the end of the floral wire to the wire next to it (shown in the photo below).  It's OK if the base is uneven or "wonky" as I like to put it.  However, if there is extreme wonkiness to the base you may want to tie down some of the wires that are causing the problem to the wires that are more stable.

8.  From the floral wire, cut 2 wires that are 11" in length.

9.  Wrap one end of a wire around the outside wire of the base.  You only have to wrap the wire once to secure it.  Next, arch the wire to the opposite side and wrap the opposite end to the base.

10.  Repeat step 9 with the second wire.  With the embroidery floss or string, tie the wires together at the top of the cage.

11.  Thread the thread through the holes on each side of the wings.  Tie the ends of the thread to the top of the cage.

12.  Measure the circumference of the cage.  Cut a wire that is approximately 1 3/4" longer than the measured circumference.  Make a circle with the wire and overlap the ends by 1".  Twist the ends together. 

13.  Place the wire over the cage and slide it down to the middle of the cage.  The wire should be snug.  Optional - You can secure the wire in place by tying the circular wire to the cage where the circular wire and cage wires intersect.  

14.  Coil a piece of wire and leave one end straight for wrapping around the top of the cage.

15.  Wrap the straight end of the coiled wire around the top of the cage.

16. Embellish the cage to your hearts desire!  You can spray the cage with adhesive glue and sprinkle glitter on it, or you can wrap Christmas berries around the wires.  A few more options are bells, dried flowers, or you can leave it  a la naturale.

Enjoy!

Jamie