Valentine Love for his class tomorrow

OK, I have made these the boring way for years. Can you imagine, plain brown cookies with a Hershey kiss in them?!

With his birthday party this weekend all the other stuff going on, I just bought a roll of already made peanut butter cookie dough and added red food coloring then stuck it in the fridge until I had time to make them.

I saw this on Pinterest and they had added pink sparkles for "bling" so, I got myself some pink sprinkles too! Plus I HATE sprinkles so I thought I would eat less, I was wrong, they're tasty!

I put mini liners in my mini muffin pan, preheated the oven and unwrapped enough kisses for the pan. I rolled little balls out of the dough and then rolled the top in sprinkles I had in a little dish. ( I think it's a soy sauce dish) Then placed them sparkle side up in the liners.

Bake for the amount of time the recipe or package calls for, and once you stick the hugs in, you will want to wait a bit before you try to take them out, that chocolate can get a lil runny. I have several pans for this reason, this has always been a staple in my holiday cooking, I like to add the chocolate as soon as I pull them from the oven so the chocolate can melt around the base of the cookie. Yummmmmmmmm....But you can wait a bit if you prefer a better formed kiss <3

My cake ball experiment...

So I tried out cake pops last night and the directions from Miss Bakerella were deceptively simple. I was smart enough to read the comments from people who had tried them and gave it a go. Now, my finished product looked like a 6 yr old made them, but I did it. More importantly, I learned a few things along the way and while I decorated the young master's birthday cake today, I did a little experiment of my own.

I had accidentally cut open a box of lemon cake last night in a flurry of cake baking, and decided that I should run another test round before making some for shorty's class party on Tuesday.

First of all. I have never been a fan of icing. (unless I have PMS in which case homemade chocolate cake w chocolate frosting is ALL I want) Anyway, I baked up a 13x6 sheet cake of lemon cake. I skipped the extra vegetable oil I usually add to cakes for moisture as these things are wet enough without it. Once the cake cooled, I used a fork and scraped lightly at all the cake inside the outer baked edge...it probably would work fine, but I was going for even texture and this oven blows.

Now one hint I had read said she put the cake and the icing in a large zip lock bag to combine them. Sounded brilliant but, turned out it just made a bigger mess and wasted both a bag and precious cake. I used about 2/3 of a can of regular white icing with the cake minus the outside edge and the texture seemed right. I rolled them right way into little balls to chill as we had only a couple of hours to get to the party and I still needed a shower.

Here are my little cake balls waiting to be refrigerated for a while. I showered then mixed up some cookie icing. I used about 2 cups of powered sugar and 2 tbs of milk. I know the almond bark helped hold the cake balls together and on a stick but this icing dries hard and it's not quite as overwhelming as the candy coating IMO. Anyway, I got the first coat of icing on the balls hoping to have time to coat them again before heading to Mason's party and getting some feedback from those in attendance.

This glaze is really quite thin when you first make it so it was super easy to roll the balls around in and I had no problem with the cake coming off in it. Since I didn't have time for them to dry before I left, I had to serve them with just one (still damp)coat but maybe next time I will make this icing in advance so that it goes on thicker and only needs one coat.

This is how I served them, more to find out about the taste since I know most people like more frosting than me and they were a huge hit! I will definitely to these again, decorated etc. with the thicker glaze.

Anyway, I am super excited to find a less rich, still plenty sweet combo that works...and not just for me!

So, if all goes according to plan, check back tomorrow for the pink Valentine peanut butter hugs cookies I am making......the dough is already tinted and waiting for me in the fridge :)

OK, it seems appropriate that my first post with photos be of my darling son's birthday cake. Yes, he is 12 and yes, it is a Caterpillar but A) he is developmentally disabled and B) my kid brother requested that mom make him this cake for his 18th Bday so.......

Here is the finished product for today....















There are a million variations for this cake but I have a to do list a mile long and this is what I ended up with this time, not bad considering I am still working with most of my stuff in boxes eh? lol
First I made the cake mix, just a white, super moist cake mix and added some color so this bug will have green guts when you cut into him. I used Wilton leaf green icing color but you could use regular food coloring if that is all you have. WARNING! If you have never used the icing color before, it is very concentrated and you need to use a toothpick or some such tiny thing to add this stuff...it's potent. I took a photo during the icing tint to show how little you need. But here's the green batter.........

Now, once you have your cake batter tinted whatever color your heart desires, simply put MOST of it in your bundt pan. You need to save a little for a muffin. I used regular muffin size in the past but decided the head would be better as a monster muffin size. If you only have regular muffin pans, it works fine too. Also I decided when I constructed this cake, that I would make a regular muffin as well next time to round off his little behind, but it isn't necessary...

Once your cake and muffin(s) are cooled get your platter or whatever you are going to serve it on ready. I found this great microwave tray at Goodwill for $2, but in the past I always just cut a piece of cardboard and covered it with foil.

Now, cut your bundt in half and place on your platter in an "S" shape.Then add a bit of icing to the bottom of your muffin (I cut a bit off the bottom and the top of the base to make it sit better and used a toothpick to hold it in place (just in case). For my icing, I just used a can of plain white icing and tinted it blue with Wilton's royal blue iciing color. I added a little at a time to get the right shade, I didn't want it to be too dark and over power all the candy decorations.



First mix needed more blue



Now I coated the cake with my blue icing....usually I am waaaaay more anal about spreading it on, I like to keep it kind of thick and try to maintain the curves from the bundt form but today I was in a hurry and just slathered it on...

Now to cut one large marshmellow in half, the sticky inside is perfect for holding the M&M for the eyes. I stick a toothpick through the back down into the muffin part to hold it in place, probably not necessary but I wanted to be sure...then I cut some licorice into different sizes, then made little cuts on the end to look like "feelers" and stuck those down in where I had attached the muffin to the body. I didn't love how empty it looked, or really how my licorice appeared so I added some red Dots candy along there and was happy enough to keep going...

I also took a red Dot and rolled a can of soup over it until it became this adorable little tongue. In the past I have used gum drops and cut out adorable little lips but...I like this too. Next I cut more Dots candy in half and placed here and there (gummy side down) Then I added some Sixlets I found at the $1 store and filled in with the rest of the M&Ms and Dots until he could hold no more. The icing had dried a bit while I worked and the round candy caused some gaps in the icing. I just used a toothpick to add a little of the left over icing around the candy,
I think I decided that next time I am going to crumble some Oreos (to look like dirt) and top off with the gummy worms around him but for today, I only had the worms...

There you have it, a cake mix, some candy and a little time and you have a special fun cake for your little one! I don't think he turned out half bad for being made on the fly with only a few things to decorate him...

Trial and error...

OK, been a busy week. Got short stuff all set to FINALLY start school on Monday. Tomorrow is his birthday and I decided with all the creativity going on around here, I should make him a catapillar cake again. ( plus I can take pics and use it for a Pin  :P)

The oven temp knob on my stove is broken so I fooled with it this morning and felt pretty good about it but made a plain sheet cake first since I planned on trying my hand at cake pops anyway. Everything came out fine so I baked the bundt cake for his birthday and set everything out to cool, then started the dough for some pink peanut butter kiss valentine cookies for his class party on Tuesday.

Now mind you, I still am barely moved in this place and only have about 3 feet of counter space but, I did it. I had to do dishes about 5 times and there is yet another sink full to do now but...I'm rockin' it.

I did a test batch of cake pops since in reading the comments where I got the recipe seemed as though it may not be as easy as it looks. I only had one can of cream cheese icing so I whipped up some butter cream from scratch and set out on my mission. I would have to say that I should have tried the first batch stick side up, simply for level of ease on a new project, but I was feeling adventurous and tried it cake ball up. I repurposed some styrofoam veggie containers and an empty coffee can for my stand while creating. I think dipping the stick in chocolate prior to inserting in the ball was a great tip but I am absolutely going to add a hint of shorting on the next round to thin out the chocolate for dipping. Also, I didn't "dip" the balls, I held the cake part over the melted chocolate and used a teaspoon to pour the chocolate over it then spun the stick between my fingers to shake off excess chocolate.

The original plan was to form hearts but...I was kidding myself, again reminding myself that just because Bakerella makes it sound simple, I should probably get some sort of candy form to try that...instead I just made round balls and the plan was to use the chocolate to attach a conversation heart to each one, but this is also where laying them flat would have helped. The ball is so round, and those candies are hardly well formed....having the face of the chocolate be flat will also improve this. Lastly, I made my cake/icing combo about the texture of mashed potatos. Since I was only doing a little to test it, I didn't have exact measurements to work with and I thought it seemed too soft but then after some time in the fridge it seemed I was wrong about that.....I sampled one and I was right, needs more cake and less icing. It was just too wet.

Anyway, pics coming tomorrow once I finish his catapillar and I will post pics/ instructions for that too....is it bed time yet? lol

Let's get this party started shall we? lol

Well, I have thought about creating a blog for a long time but when my darling sister in law discovered Pinterest, she quickly created one and I just couldn't resist doing one of my own finally. I have never done this before and am far from tech savvy but, I do love to craft and with the new flood of inspiration from Pinterest, I figured now is definately the time.

Still moving into the new place, on the other side of the country from where I have spent many years, I have so far found about half of what I need for several new crafting projects, so, fun stuff to come soon.

Also, as a little disclaimer, as the title says, I Want to Try Everything! I have a sewing machine (though far from skilled in using it) I knit a little, though that obsession has waned with the loss of feeling in my hands but I can paint, glue and IMAGINE with the best of 'em so.......stay tuned and I am going to try to post some cool stuff :)

Thanks for checking me out!