Monday 18 June 2012

How to mess up Cake Pops in 44 Steps.

So I bought the Cake Pop tray from Woolworths and decided to have some fun.  Here are my steps to making a right royal mess of cake pops.  Hey its the Queens Diamond jubilee.  I had to do something in her honour!

STEPS
1. Purchase a cake mix.  I chose this one.  Yummo.


2. Mix up cake mix to specifications on packet.  Easy no probs.

3. Read instructions for cake pops ... hmm suggestion to add an extra egg to mixture for density.

4. Add extra egg.  Looking great

5. Pour mixture into bottom tray.  Hmm not telling me how much and because it needs to raise up into the top tray I poured in as much as each round dip would take.

6. Attach top tray and clip in place.  

7. Place in oven heated to specifications on the cake pop instructions NOT the cake mix.  They are smaller and cook faster.

8. Twenty five minutes late and I have 14 little cake volcanoes


9. Prior to pulling trays apart, remove excess cake.  If cake is good place in another bowl and set aside for second experiment.  Waste not!

10.  Let cool.

11. Melt a small amount of chocolate and dip in the top of the pop stick.

12. push on a cake ball.  The warm chocolate will set and hold the cake in place making it easy to decorate.

13. Suddenly realise you have no thing to stand them up in, gently lay them on a plate and place in the fridge for the chocolate bind to set. 

14. Decide to make first time cake pops difficult and make up mint cream (that would normally go in the centre of the cake).

15. Run out of butter.  Send mother across the road to friendly neighbour to borrow some butter.

16. Remove cake pops from fridge and layer the outside of the cake with the cream.  Using holes in the cooking tins, stand them up.  This is cream, it does not set and if it touches another one it will just get messy.


17. Mix in left over mint cream with experiment number 2 - crumbled up unused cook cake mix.

18. Get brainwave and mix up the chocolate icing that I was not going to use.  Still have enough butter.

19.  Mix chocolate icing into the experiment number 2.

20. Return attention to cake pop experiment.

21. Clear a whole shelf in the fridge and place cake pops in.  You have had enough for one night and the final of dancing with the stars in on.

22. Next day after work, carefully remove from fridge and prepare cooking chocolate for melting.  NOTE: Nice mother has bought a block of foam flowers stand in so you can stand up your cake pops.

23.  Carefully follow microwave instructions.

24. Microwave instructions are crap.  Chocolate congealed into a hard fudgy blob. 

25. Mix so called melted chocolate hard fudgy blob by hand into experiment 2 (hands were cleaned).

26. Go to shop and buy more chocolate.  Bought 2 packets just in case.

27. Wasted half a packet following same instructions.  Should never have bought the same chocolate.

28. Mix wasted half into experiment 2.

29. Decide to do the old pan of hot water on the stove and melt the chocolate that way.  Looking good.

30. Grab first cake pop.  Chocolate not deep enough to dip so you have to spoon it on.

31. Hot chocolate meets mint cream, you do the math!.

32. Stand in flower foam

33. First two cake pops look great then chocolate decides to stiffen like it did in the microwave.

First to be coated
 8th to be coated. 
I can see the cream and the cake.

34. Only cover 8 cake pops fit on the flower foam so give up fighting with the chocolate and leave 6 not done.

35. Place chocolate coated ones in the fridge.

36. Prepare a flat baking tray with baking paper for experiment 2

37. Melt remainder of chocolate to best of your ability (yes second packet was opened).

38. Pour half the melted chocolate onto the baking tray.  Do your best to try and spread the thick goo that it is.

39. Take experiment 2 and squash onto chocolate on the tray.  Take note that this mixture would have been better on the cake pop sticks than what is currently on there.

40. Pour rest of chocolate on the top and spread out.

41. Scatter sprinkles over top.  

42. Run out of sprinkles with only half done.



43. Place in Fridge to set.

44. Come to computer and write an instructional blog while thinking of how to store the remaining cream covered cake pops.



1kg 225g of chocolate was abused and sworn at in the making of this.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Celebration

My cousins beautiful daughter is turning 12 this Saturday.  She has also chosen to be baptised on the same day.  Unfortunately they are interstate and I can't be there on her special day so I have made something special for her instead.

She loves butterflies.  My original design was to have a butterfly where the 'scroll' is and have some nice words elsewhere.  First I couldn't really think of the right words and second, there never seemed to be a right place to put them without breaking the balance of the piece.

My answer finally came in the mail yesterday.  I had ordered some moulds and one of them was this nice little saying on a scroll.  I coloured it up with gilding wax and am very proud with how it turned out.

The main part is made with inchies attached to a small canvas.  Actually I call them minchies as they are smaller than an inch.  I like it so much I think I will have to make one for myself.