Because that’s what the kids will be behaving like, after consuming this much sugar and food colouring.
You can totally steal this serving idea too – it’s cute and eco-friendly!
Cookies are simple sugar cookie recipe, decoration inspired by LilaLoa, though hers are much prettier!
Inspired by two of my favourite blogs, RetroMummy and Bakerella, I embarked on a Cake Pop mission today. I don’t know why cake pops haven’t occurred to me before – bite size pieces of cake on a lollipop stick decorated to suit any occasion – but I did give mine a bit of a twist. The Bakerella Cake Pops are truly works of art – it would break my heart to eat one! So I started with a simple version I couldn’t really stuff up, and maybe I’ll graduate to characters for Lil C’s 3rd birthday!
First, I made the RetroMummy Rumball mixture, with a teeny splash of Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau or rum. I also used a store-bought fruit cake instead of madeira cake for extra festive flavour. I let that sit for a while in the fridge to harden up, then used a melon-baller to scoop out litle balls of yumminess. This got old quite quickly and I ended up reverting to the spoon and hand-rolling method, but if the mixture was hard enough, the melon baller would work.
When you have a plate full of little balls of cake mix, put your lollipop sticks (or bamboo skewers or popsicle sticks would also work depending on the size of your cake balls) into the little balls, then put them in the freezer. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. You must have put the sticks in before you put them in the freezer, otherwise they will fall out during the coating process. I learned this the hard way.
Leave them for about an hour (you can keep rolling more cake balls while your waiting if you have the freezer space). When you’re sure the mixture is firm enough and the sticks are wedged in tight, melt some dark chocolate (or milk or white if you would prefer) in a bowl. I added a little dribble of vegetable oil to make it shiny and thin enough to work with. Gather your decorating materials now too – I used coloured sugar crystals, chocolate flakes, hundreds and thousands and the perennial christmas favourite, coconut. Put each of your decorating things into separate bowls and line them all up on your kitchen bench.
NOW you can get your bare cake pops out of the freezer. Dip them into the chocolate mixture (holding on gently to the lollipop stick), using a spoon to coat the area closest to the stick. Hold it up and let the excess chocolate drip off, or smooth it out with your spoon if it’s too thick. Quickly transfer your chocolate truffle to one of the decorating bowls, and coat the cake pop in delightful coloured christmassy goodness.
Ooh, I forgot, you also need to have found some styrofoam to stand your cake pops in while they set. This was harder than I thought, as we did a big cleanout of our styrofoam earlier in the year. Luckily the packaging from my new sewing machine was still sitting in the studio (and lord help me if I ever need to post that somewhere for repairs).
When your cake pops are coated in chocolate and decorations, stand them up in the styrofoam. I found it useful to ‘pre-pierce’ a hole with a sharp bamboo skewer as the blunt end of the lollipop stick wasn’t very nimble and my truffles fell off a few sticks while trying to get them to stand up. (Another reason they need to be frozen.) The chocloated coated pops will set in just a few minutes in normal weather.
Repeat this process until you’ve run out of lollipop sticks or cake balls (or make some standard truffles or rumballs without the sticks to use up your mixture like I did).
Bon appetit! The rumball mixture is so soft and gooey when you bite through the chocolate coating. I was most impressed with myself on this ‘hacker’ recipe. Even Lil C approved.
These lovely little treats are going with Miss C for her daycare class and carers, and a batch is also coming to work with me for our festive lunch.
I’ve lost my Mini-Pinny mojo for the day – I’ve stuffed up two already so time to give it a rest. Instead, I’ve turned my hand to the kitchen and whipped up some yummy ‘leftover cereal’ munchies for us and for Playgroup. I call them my Cereal Crackles.
These are perfect for using up the leftover dregs of cereals, nuts, dried fruits and even fresh fruits sitting in your cupboard. You just bung them all in loose quantities into a bowl, then add melted butter, honey and peanut butter and bake for 25 mins!
Want to make some of your own? Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
100g butter
100ml honey (or golden syrup)
1 heaped dessert spoon of peanut butter (you could try nutella or even tahini)
2 tablespoons of coconut cream (this is optional – you could add more honey or something else creamy)
1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
1 cup leftover cereal (I used Cheerios, but cornflakes sultana bran and rice bubbles work just as well)
1 cup (of combined) raisins, dried fruit or currants, dessicated coconut or other chopped up nuts
1/4 cup ground almonds, hazelnuts or any kind of ‘meal’ (I used besan today – whatever you’ve got in the cupboard!)
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of orange, lemon or lime zest
a splash of vanilla essence
(and I threw in the pulp of two passionfruits for extra sweetness)
Instructions:
Melt your honey and butter together, stir in the peanut butter until it’s liquidy, then pop in the coconut milk. Mix up until smooth.
Bang all your dry ingredients into a bowl and give a quick stir to combine.
Sprinkle the zest (and passionfuit pulp) over the top, then make a well in the centre of the bowl.
Add the honey/butter/creamy mix in three portions, mixing the dry ingredients well between each pour.
Mix until all the dry ingredients are moist, shiny, and sticky. If you think it’s still looking a bit dry, pop a little bit more honey in (I find the squeeze-bottle honey is easiest for this step)
Scrape the sticky mix into a slice tray lined with baking paper (overhanding the edges so you can easily remove it later), or if you’re lazy and don’t want to have to cut it up (like me), line some muffin trays with patty cake wrappers and put one spoonful of the mix in each patty pan. Squish the mix down firmly into the trays/liners with the back of a spoon or base of a cup.
Bake for 25 minutes at 170 degrees celcius.
Remove from oven and cool until the mixture is firm.
Lift out using the baking paper ‘handles’ and slice with a sharp knife.
Store in an airtight container in the cupboard for up to a week.
These quantities made 24 mini crackles
and 12 muffin-size crackles for me.
Bon appetit!
This week, we have been crafting up a storm for our part in the CHA Craft Swap. My partner is the lovely Lana from AromaPlay Clay, which seems to be the hottest new kids product in town! Gluten free, bright colours and infused with aromatherapy scents to invigorate/clam your little people – what’s not to love! Our task was to create something for our PARTNER, not their children (!) so I had a lovely time freebasing some crochet goodies, trialling a few tutorials from Craftster and I couldn’t resist adapting some of the Bloombub catalogue for a grown up. Here’s some sneaky peeks of what Lana can expect in the mail later this week:
I have also tried my hand at patchwork this week. What. A. Frustrating. Art. I hope the Merry Church Mouse’s skirt turns out okay, cos I’m pretty sure it will be the last time I attempt any kind of piecing work. I won some lovely charm squares from the Lily and Will bunny range at Sunshine and Stitching, thinking: I know, I’ll make a lovely little skirt for Claire. The lovely Ally was also kind enough to throw in a cute spotted fat quarter to coordinate, and another spotty FQ from my stash rounded out the lineup. And then the pattern matching debacle began. Three days later, this is where I’m at:
Oh, and I managed to thread my overlocker wrong and snap two needles just as I was about to begin, so no doubt that dampened my enthusiasm for this project as well! I’ll do the gathering tonight and MAYBE finish of the layers tomorrow (if the terrible two-yr-old doesn’t go on another sleep strike). I admire all you ladies who quilt and patch regularly – you must have the patience of a Saint!
I had some Mummy-time-out on Saturday and took a wander through the Matilda’s Market at Eagle Farm Racecourse. I hadn’t been out to the new venue, and was impressed by the scale, though it is still difficult to manouvre through the room with all the prams and baby bellies. In wonder if maybe MM should investigate designated ‘No Pram’ visiting hours so shoppers can get up close to the stands. I had a chat with Stephanie from Mon Petit Poppet, who was a stallholder for the first time, and talked about joining the BrisStyle team and attending their markets later in the year. BrisStyle have a new twilight market in King George Square on a Friday evening, which sounds like a much more civilised way to shop, especially during summer!
To cheer ourselves up we made some brownies this afternoon. YUM
Claire has clearly enjoyed the batter and the finished product. The sugar high continues….
And tonight we’re taking her for her first haircut – the Albert Einstein look is no longer becoming. Stay-tuned for neatness and (hopefully) girly curls.
Check out what everyone else is doing this week, at Lou’s blog!
What are we doing this week, asks Lou…
Well today, it’s a bake-a-thon!
The non-waster in me MUST use up all the excess fruit that hasn’t been eaten in the house, so today we made:
(not very successful) banana/sultana mini muffins
Jaffa upside down cake (this one’s heading to Playgroup tomorrow to be devoured by frazzled Mums)
Tonight, we’re also going to bake:
Orange shortbread stars (WIP)
and a belated Hapatooie cake for Daddy to take to work and celebrate with his colleagues (because his lazy family didn’t get him any gifts yet, and the trial cake we made last week was devoured before the actual birthday).
What do you get a Daddy for his forty-somethingth birthday? He asked for new headphones and a tie, but I think that’s a bit dull. Any other suggestions?
Four hours of baking & decorating later, we had ourselves a lovely Rainbow shaped cake at Playgroup today. The M&M toppings were a huge hit with the kids, though I did notice a bit more rambunctious activity after morning tea.. perhaps a few too many colours and additives??? Oooops.
Claire loved her cake, but we didn’t have enough breath to blow out the candles. It was quite an effort, even for me! Thanks to Lizzie for taking such beautiful pictures of us – there are never enough photos of Mums and Bubs together – Mums are always behind the camera!
Tonight’s task: top these rainbow cupcakes with icing and sprinkles for the final Birthday extravaganza, at daycare! Let’s hope 17 cupcakes is enough… as I’m all baked out. We made a chocolate cake for Miss G’s birthday this evening too, that’s tonight’s dessert (as if I hadn’t eaten enough cake and ‘faulty’ M&Ms today already).
**If anyone is interested, I took some photos during the construction of the big cake, so will attempt my first tutorial on the weekend.
Many happy returns!
Recent Comments