Cake Balls and Awards

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I love trying new things when it comes to sweets, surprised?  Ha - well I don't always love trying new things.  I just know what I like.  If I know how to do something and I like the result why change it?  I've been told change is good - but I am not so sure.  

Anyway - if you read my blog you know that I don't love dipping desserts.  It seems tedious and messy and it takes me FOREVER!  But I got a new Christmas present and have been using it a lot.

The Wilton Chocolate Melter.  It is awesome!  (No - they aren't paying me - wish they were :))  It melts my chocolate without burning it and it stays warm.  Staying warm is a huge plus for me because I am really, really slow and usually my chocolate gets cold.  So I enjoyed making these cake balls much more than I thought I would.  One of my favorite blogs, Mrs. Fox's Sweets, just made very similar cake balls.  Of course hers look fantastic!!  You should check out her post.  Her cake balls look gorgeous and next time I am going to do better.  I think mine were a little lopsided and I love the candy liner idea.

Next order of business!

I was awarded two awards this week!

 

                                                        

First I was given the Liebster award for the second time (wow!) from Crunchy Creamy Sweet.  If you haven't seen Anna's blog yet you need to fly over there!  She has so many great recipes and a baking chart page that is so cool.  It gives you all of the conversions you need.  I can never remember that 3 teaspoons equal one tablespoon. Should be easy right?  Not for me! 

A Liebster Blog Award is given to talented and loved bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

Just a few rules:
-Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
-Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
-Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
-Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
-Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

I have given the Liebster Blog award to these five blogs that I love:

Adele's - The Dutch Door Kitchen

Angie's - Angie's Sweet Natured Treats
Heather's - Made Famous By....
Hayley's - The Domestic Rebel
Sarah's - Dwell On Joy


Then I found out that Randee over at Randee's Organized Chaos awarded me The Versatile Blogger award!  I am speechless!  I love Randee's blog.  She is a Mom like me and knows life can get a little chaotic.  I always relate to her posts and she makes me laugh.  Now I get to give this award to seven of my fellow bloggers and I have to tell you seven facts about myself (you guys are learning a lot about me this week!)


1.  I stay up way too late every night.  My husband and I always say we are going to go to bed early, but we don't.
2.  I love to bake but I hate to clean up! - Surprises you I know :)
3.  I have a cat named Caly, she is 15 1/2 years old.  She has been with me for a long time.  I have known her longer than my husband!
4.  I love to swim.  When we go to the pool I could spend hours (literally) in the water.  I don't mind laying in the sun - but I prefer to be in the water.
5.  I absolutely HATE to run.  No offense to the runners out there.  It just kills my shins.
6.  I was a certified step aerobics instructor and used to teach (that was a lifetime ago!)
7.  I grew up with horses and used to ride competitively.  I miss it horribly!

Whew - OK.  Now that we are best friends let me tell you who I passed on this beauty too:

Elizabeth at Act Fast Chef
Joan at Chocolate, Chocolate and More
Bridget at Flour N' Friends
Hilary at My Blog Review
Chrissy at The Taylor House
Terry at These Peas Taste Funny
Robin at Bird on a Cake

I hope all the bloggers I awarded tonight enjoy their awards!  Go check out their blogs and show them some love!  You won't be disappointed.   I love reading what everyone writes and I enjoy the blogging communtiy so much.  I am so honored to receive these awards and it make me happy to be able to share the love!

This post may be shared with: Flour Me With Love - Mix It Up Monday, Alderberry Hill - Make The Scene Monday, Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms - Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Clairejustineoxox - Creative Mondays, Skip To My Lou - Made by You Monday, Sweetology - Tea Party Tuesday, Crazy for Crust - Crazy Sweet Tuesday, Uncommon - Uncommonly Yours, Mandy's Recipe Box - Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Reason To Skip The Housework - Tuesday Timeout, Inside Bru Crew Life - Trick or Treat Tuesday, Mrs Fox's Sweets - Sweet Party, Made Famous By - Famous Linkz Party, Junk In Their Trunk - Link It Up Wednesday, The Kings Court 4 - What's Cooking Wednesday, Hugs and Cookies XO - Wonka Wednesday, Food Corner - Midweek Fiesta, Something Swanky - Sweet Treat Thursday, These Peas Taste Funny - Link It Up Thursday, Talking Dollars and Cents - Sweet Temptations, Happy Hour Projects - Freestyle Friday, Tidy Mom - I'm Lovin' It Friday, Susie QT Pies - Happy Friday Link Up,  Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons - Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday Link Party, Dwell On Joy - Dwell On Friday, Toys In The Dryer - Fun Stuff Fridays, Alli-n-Son - Sweet Tooth Friday, Crumbs and Chaos - Seasonal Inspiration, The Country Cook - Weekend Potluck, Mama Mias Heart 2 Heart - Sharing Saturday, Sweet As Sugar Cookies - Sweets for a Saturday, Randee's Organized Chaos - Sleepy Sunday, Country Momma Cooks - Saturday Link & Greet, Well Seasoned Life - Sweet Indulgences Sunday, Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo - Crafting Cooking From The Heart Contest, Southern Mom Cooks - Valentine Party, Cupcake Apothecary - A Themed Baker's Sunday

Blue Cake Pops

Ok - I have a confession.  I love cake pops.  This is the third time I have made them and it gets easier each time.  I used chocolate cake and vanilla frosting.  I melted my candy in a double boiler instead of the microwave.  I found that worked better for me, no burnt candy!   I did add a little shortening to the melted candy to get a smoother consistency and to make dipping the cake pops easier. 

I have seen so many beautiful cake pops decorated with sprinkles and it seems easier than doing a Jack O' Lantern or something else.  Since I was short on time I decided not to decorate them in much detail.  I did try decorating them with three different kind of sprinkles: Rainbow Nonpareils, Polka Dot Nonpareils, and White Sparkling Sugar Sprinkles.  The White Sparkling Sugar Sprinkles won.  They worked the best with the blue color of the candy.  They tasted really good but didn't quite give me the look I was searching for.

I will keep practicing with cake pops!!  So yummy.

Jack-O-Lantern Cake Pops

In the spirit of Halloween and our trip to the pumpkin patch I decided to make Jack-O-Lantern cake pops.  I have made cake pops one other time and they came out pretty good (no pictures of them - darn!) so I thought these would be a breeze.  And they aren't that hard, but there are a lot of steps and in-between the steps you need to chill the cake pops so it can be time consuming.
I made my cake, let it cool and crumbled it into pieces with my hands.  I looked at Bakerella's blog for inspiration.  I don't want mine to be too gooey so for one cake I used 1/2 cup of frosting which is Wilton's recipe.  I mixed the frosting in with my hands and rolled them into cake pops.  It is like rolling meatballs!  The neat thing is that you really can do any shape, think - ghosts or train - whatever!  After you roll them they must go into the fridge for a couple of hours.  When you take them out you are ready to insert the lollipop stick.  Dip your lollipop stick into melted candy - color of your choice, I used orange- and insert stick half way into cake pop.  Make sure you  use the same color for the stick as you are going to use for the pop.  Then back in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes until the candy has set.

Next dip the cake pop into your melted candy.  Here is where I had trouble!  You can melt your candy in the microwave according to the package directions or using a double boiler.  I chose microwave - anything to save time!!  My problem - I burnt my candy first time around.  I kept thinking it wasn't melting and would put it in again.  When you overheat the candy it gets really thick.  YUCK!  I had to throw it out and start over.  The trick is to really, really stir the candy between each microwave trip.  I got the candy right and dipped my pops.  Once you dip you can gently tap the pop against the side of the bowl to remove excess candy.  Then back in the fridge!

Now that my pops are covered in orange candy and chilled I can decorate.  I used green icing to add the pumpkin stem and black food coloring to draw the faces on.  Let me tell you - the food coloring is really hard to use as paint!!  I wanted to use an edible pen but only needed black and didn't want to buy the five pack of pens so figured I could just use food coloring - Wrong!!  The pen would have been much better and that is what I will use next time.

So lessons learned from Jack-O-Lantern cake pops - 1.  Don't overheat your candy melts!!  2.  Buy the right tools, in this case the edible pens!

Cake pops definately catch my interest.  They are so versatile.  I am sure you will see them again.  And the most important thing??  Very tasty!!