Giveaways

There are SO many giveaways going on right now with Dee's-licious Desserts. My 150 "likes" giveaway (here), Michelle Renee Photography (here), AND I just sent out Cake Pops to Mommy Needs a Break so we should be doing a Mother's Day Giveaway here soon. I'm so excited! 

So last night I played around and made some Twix Cookie Bars and they turned out pretty darn good. I ended up selling some because I was afraid I'd eat them all. I love finding new recipes to try, it gets me all excited. 

I did some bright fun Cake Pops today, I'm thinking about making more of these little fondant flowers for the Mother's Day Cake Pops. What do you think? I have so many to do so these seem simple enough. I hope they ship alright, though. I guess we will find out shortly because I'm shipping some tomorrow. 

I'm all backwards today because my husband is home. He is on day shift for a couple weeks so I get spoiled by his awesome cooking skills. It's funny I can bake anything, but tell me to cook dinner and I end up burning something. Tonight is grilled chicken salads. YUM!

I dream of Cherries.

When I first started making cake pops I couldn't believe the prices of sprinkles. Someone asked me where I bought my decorating supplies. Here it is, (this) is the website I use to buy most of my decorations. I also get my Merchens candy melts there. I get Wilton candy melts when they go on sale at Michaels. I also buy 1lb bags of white sanding sugar and make my own sprinkles. Here is what I do :

Buy a few bags of these, add a few drops of food coloring, mix, sprinkles!

My Little guy will be 5 months old tomorrow, I CANNOT believe it! Where has the time gone? He now gets up on his knees for a few seconds before he face plants. (lol) I swear he's going to start crawling in a few weeks. Maybe I should start baby proofing while I can..

Maddy stole a biscuit. Haha I had to share. One time she ate our Lasagna right off the counter, we call her our Italian Bulldog ;)

My Rose bushes are blooming! Gorgeous, huh?

 So these are the Mini Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes. They are my new favorite. I LOVE cherries, and well, I love chocolate. :) I have a feeling after this picture makes it's way around base I'll have a few orders. ;)

Lady Bugs are taking over my Kitchen!

 I am SO excited how this Lady bug order turned out. I had so much fun playing around with them. My customer was nice enough to let me play around with some and do what I want. I am just in love with the little guys on the white pops. It took me about 5 hours to decorate. I don't think people understand how much work goes into Cake Pops. All together including baking these babies I probably spend a good 7 or 8 hours. I'm only charging $1.00 per pop. I guess I just LOVE doing this. I'm not really looking to make a bunch of money, its just fun to do. I also made about 45 Cookie Dough Pops this morning, and dipped some Cherries for Mini Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes I'm doing tomorrow afternoon. This is going to be a short update as I've still got the Kitchen to clean up and a quick shower so I can hopefully run to a "girls night" for a bit. We've been living here going on two years, and I still BARELY have a handful of friends..time to get out and make some friends..oh and they promised me wine ;)

Aren't these so adorable? hehe

Behind the scenes

So last night when I said I was done for the evening I lied. My little fell asleep so I messed around with some eggless cookie dough and made a cookie dough pop! Mmm, they're so delicious! I know everyone wants the recipe so (here) it is.. only i tweaked it to my liking ;) I 1/4th the recipe so I only made about 10. I already have about 45 to make this weekend! 

Little man had carrots today, and some how managed to get it on the bottom of his foot. . He knocked the spoon out of my hand and got carrot to the eye. We had fun, until it was time to wipe his little face off. I guess you could say we enjoy playing with our food in this house.

I got a request to show how I make my cake pops. Although I'm not making pops today, I am starting my Autism Awareness balls. Same thing, only it's not on a stick. Before you make cake pops/cake balls for the first time you should read my tips (here)..

First, obviously is cake. You've got to bake it. I am only baking 12 cupcakes because my orders are chocolate and vanilla. Recipe for 12 cupcakes (here) or if you are using cake mix (here). - I chose to do cupcakes instead of using a cake pan, but you can use whatever you like.

After your cake/cupcakes are cooled toss it in the Kitchen Aid for a few minutes until it's crumbled (you can also do this by hand). 

Slowly add frosting until it is completely mixed and forms into a ball on your attachment (lol). If you're mixing by hand just make sure there is enough frosting for the ball to keep it's form, but not too much that your hands get caked in frosting. 

Now it's time to roll. I use about 1.5 tbs per ball. Again, if your hands are caked in the mixture you added too much frosting. Don't forget to add toothpicks if you're doing balls.

*If I were making cake pops I would chill the balls for about 10 minutes in the freezer, melt some chocolate, dip sticks in chocolate and then in balls*

Chill for a bit in the freezer. These guys were in there for about 50 minutes because that's how long it took me to clean up and attend to my munchkin. 

If you're like me and have 20 other things to do along with these babies, you will have to let the balls sit out for a bit and warm up. I get my candy melts ready for dipping. (Remember the key here it to get the candy just warm enough to melt and the balls should be chilled, but not frozen.) 

Are you ready? when I dip you dip we dip - After the coating is dry I pull out the toothpick and add a bit of chocolate to seal the entire ball so we don't get leakage (again tips here).

Time to decorate. These are for Autism Awareness so they're drizzled in red, yellow, green, and blue. 

Enjoy!

One busy lady..

Today was a busy day and it started at nearly 7 AM thanks to my ever so wonderful (almost) 5 month old, but first I have to tell you about all the goodies I bought last night at Michaels. Wilton Candy Melts were only $1.97 (GASP) - I KNOW! As soon as I saw that on my phone I packed up the diaper bag, grabbed the kido, and darted out the door. I bought about 20 bags! Although I prefer Merckens I couldn't pass up that deal! I also finally bought some wood to make some cake pops stands which my lovely husband helped me with Today. Anyways, point is I ended up spending just under $60.00 and got a TON of stuff. So if you're near a Michaels and need to stock up I suggest you do so fast, my local store was already out of pink and the sale doesn't end until Saturday. They are also offering 50% off cake decorating classes!! 

So today I finally had the time to start up Blogger (yay!) now I wont have to work so hard updating my blog on Dee's-licious Desserts. I have to say this is much easier. After finishing that up I ran to the post office to ship out some cake pops, and ordered my boxes to ship out all the Mother's Day orders. I am in shock at how many orders I already have! I've already started prepping the bubble wrap and will hopefully soon start on the tags. If I don't start now I will be in over my head come the time I need to fill orders. 

I tried a new fondant recipe (here) and it turned out ..alright.. luckily it will work for what I'm doing with it. I didn't have any clear vanilla, but I don't think it made much of a difference.. it's still pretty white. I also started on little lady bugs for a Cake Pop order. I am really excited about these, I have never done lady bugs before! I may still play around with it though, I'm never really satisfied with my work. I also baked the cakes to roll up for the Autism Awareness balls I will be doing tomorrow at some point. I was expecting more people to order them, but any donation will help, right? I only got 7 orders I believe, but will be rounding my donation up to $10.00. After all that's why I am doing them.

Now it's time to clean up and give my little man a bath. He has a photo shoot tomorrow with his favorite photographer and Momma is excited! 

(and yes, I made ALL that fondant for those ladybugs..luckily this stuff stores pretty easy)

It's a GIRL!

I so knew it would be a girl! When I was dipping the pops ALL the blue ones came out perfect and a few pink ones cracked. Figures. Luckily I only had to fix one. I was a nervous wreck all day wondering if I put the correct pops in the bag, even though I dotted the bottom of the pink pops. I probably went back to the bag to check 5 or 6 times. My husband wasn't helping either with his "are you sure they're the right ones?" comment every few hours. 
Today I also got another homemade apron in the mail from my talented Grandmother-in-law. I have a little collection going. I still manage to get covered in flour every time, don't ask me how... I wont be covered in flour tonight, I have the entire evening off to relax. Tomorrow though, I've got some exciting little fondant lady bugs to make!

Hooray!

If you're reading this then my long night was worth it! This is my first official blog on my new domain! Yay!!  I always get awkward when I'm supposed to tell people about myself, so I'm just going to skip that part. I'm sure you'll learn more about me with each and every post.
A previous customer emailed me yesterday and asked if I would do Gender Reveal Cake Pops, I was so excited she came to me. She had ordered some Easter Pops for her kids and told me she contemplated hiding them and keeping them for herself. It's always nice to hear how much my customers enjoy their goodies. She's delivering me a sealed (hopefully) envelope tomorrow with the gender of her baby. I knew I couldn't keep her waiting so I made blue and pink cake pops ahead of time. All I have to do is give her the bag containing the pops with the correct gender. This was so much fun to do - I had to snap photos along the way. 

After eating a couple (hey, I had to!) I decided I should probably give the others away or I'll eat them all myself. So if you haven't yet go to my Facebook page (here) and like the giveaway status. We find out tomorrow if it's a boy or girl! (and who gets the free cake pops)