Funfetti Cake Balls

So I have been pretty busy here lately and havent been updating the blog much, but that doesnt mean I havent been baking.

These are just some pictures I took recently of some Funfetti Cake Balls I made. I made a batch and sent them to some girlfriends in Dallas. They arent here much to taste my goodies, so sometimes I have to send them some love! :)









For a recipe on how to make cake balls go here or hop on over to Bakerella's site and check out her video tutorial.

To ship these cakes balls, I put them in an egg carton and shipped with gel ice packs in the box! I think they arrived fully in tact :) Print This

MIA Lately but... I have cute ladybug cupcakes to make up for it!

So I know I have been MIA lately and haven't visited anyone's blogs. Life lately has been a little crazy. From packing up the apartment and now unpacking in the new house while we are also trying to remodel some...it's been a little hectic. Hopefully after a girl trip this weekend to Vegas my life will slow down a little.

A friend of mine from work, Shelley, had a birthday party for her little girl's 1st birthday. Once she decided on a ladybug themed I started to brainstorm possible ideas.


We decided on ladybug cakeballs and used those to top the cupcakes. For centerpieces I put a few of the ladybugs on sticks and had them in ladybug pots (see picture below).

In order to make it look more like a plant, I crushed up Oreos and sprinkled them in the pot to resemble dirt. However, I can't take credit for these cute planters, Shelley found them at Hobby Lobby. I used a round Styrofoam ball and cut it in half to hold the pops in place.



I tested out a few way to make the lady bug pops but in the end used 2 size cake balls for the head and body and use candy melts to attach them. Below is a picture of the antennas. Which were also attached with candy melts to the head after the body and head were attached.

Below is a picture of the ladybugs drying before I added the eyes. Looking back I probably could have added a red smile line or something and made it even more lifelike.

I used buttercream as the frosting and tinted it Kelly Green to get the grass effect before adding the ladybug toppers.

A few I just used white frosting and added red sprinkles for a little contrast!

Here is a picture of her dessert table, if you look in the back you can see one the centerpieces with the ladybug pops! Sorry I must have spaced out and not taken any :) Off to the sides is Avery's special cake :)

A close up...










How cute is the birthday girl and mom too!!

For Avery's cake, I made hers a little bigger than a cupcake. It's a 2 x 2 inch cake with 2 layers with a ladybug on top of course!

These cupcakes were so much fun to make! If you look closely you can see the birthday girl liked the green icing as well! I promise I will be back to visiting your blogs and baking soon! Enjoy :) Print This

An Award & Cake Ball Pops Recently

Last week I received a fun award from Michelle of One Ordinary Day. Thanks Michelle! Not only is this my first blogger award but this one has a fun twist with it!

Soo...here is what you do.

1. Thank the person you gave you the award. (Thanks again Michelle!)
2. Copy the logo and paste it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you.
4. Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself and at least one outrageous truth.
5. Allow your readers to guess which one or more is true.
6. Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
7. Post links to the seven blogs you have nomiated.
8. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them!

And now for the creative part....UPDATE actually two of the below are true!

1. I secretly love watching CSI Miami.

2. Carrot cake is my favorite cake of all time.

3. I auditioned to be on Real World while in college.

4. I hate watching TV.

5. I was a superstar athlete as a kid.

6. As much as I love desserts, I love working out more!

7. I had a custom pink bowling bowl with my name on it as a kid.

Now can you guess which one is true?

Other Creative Writer Bloggers: I choose these 7 because I love reading their blogs and thought they might have some fun with this award!

1. Bake*tastic

2. Ice Cream Before Dinner

3. Me & My Pink Mixer

4. Sara's Sweets

5. What's for Dinner

6. Diana's Cocina

7. Symphonious Sweet


Now...on to the cake ball pops!

My boyfriend is in the process of buying a house and a few weeks ago we showed our realtors my blog. She asked if i could make her something for an open house that was coming up. After discussing we decided on cake ball pops since they are easy to display and have very little mess and clean up.

The pops before I packaged them.

All packaged up and tied with a pink ribbon.

I filled the glass vases with M&M's and mini M&Ms. We did one vase of red velvet pops and one with vanilla pops!

I heard they were a huge hit and I think I might have gotten another customer out of it! So thanks again Sharon & Buck I really appreciate it!!

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Baby Shower Cupcakes & Karsyn's 3rd Birthday

A friend of mine from work, Shelley, was co-hosting a baby shower and birthday party for a friend of hers. She asked if I would make some cupcakes for the shower and something special for the little girls 3rd birthday.

For the shower I made 48 cupcakes, using vanilla, chocolate, oreo, red velvet, chocolate & peanut butter, and snickerdoodle as the flavors. I used chocolate, vanilla (which I made baby blue), cream cheese, peanut butter and seven minute frosting for all the icing! On top of the cupcakes I made airplanes out of a chocolate mold in all the primary colors of the babies nursery. I think they turned out super cute. Here are a few photos I snapped for delivering.


Here are some of the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes!


A shot of the box, all chocolate and vanilla with a few red velvet!


Snickerdoodle cupcakes with 7 minute frosting. (From Martha Stewart's Cupake Book)


Oreo Cupcakes....

Red velvet cupcakes....

And the favorite from what I hear, chocolate & peanut butter cupcakes!


Another shot of the other box.


Here are a few pictures they sent me afterwards on the set up! I think their presentation was adorable!
A little closer up on the cupcake plate!

For the little girls birthday, she wanted to do so strawberry cake pops. So how could I go with anything other than pink! I picked up a square 6 inch vase from Michaels and we order M&M's with the little girls names on them in both the light and dark pink. I filled that vase up a little more than half way with the M&M's and they stuck the cake pops in! This was the only picture I got before I left, but I thought it showed all the cute sprinkles!

Below are a few more shots she sent me after the party! How cute is this presentation! I love it!One with the cute birthday day girl, Karsyn!

Recipes of the cupcakes soon to come!!! Just thought I would share a few pics :)

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Birthday Cupcakes & Cake Balls

My aunt had a surprise party for my uncle's 60th birthday last week, and I was in charge of making desserts for the event. It was a low key thing she had at a sports bar so I didnt want to get to crazy with a cake since many people dont eat cake and drink at the same time. Anyways I decided I would be pretty simple and stick to basic, vanilla & chocolate cupcake and red velvet cakes balls or cake ball pops since I put them on a stick!

It has taken me a few days to get a post together mainly because I am a moron and didnt take any pictures or anything, not during or even after. Though I will say I got stuck at work later than usual last Friday and was in a rush to get everything ready and out the door for the party. Thank goodness my mom was there and she got a few pics so I can share with you guys!

I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with both vanilla bean and chocolate frosting. I also made chocolate letters that spelled out happy birthday on the cupcakes just for added decoration. Every sprinkle I had just seemed to girly to me. So I went for simplicity on these! :)

Billy's Vanilla Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising*

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes (Room Temperature)

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat cupcake pans in nonstick spray with flour; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour. Consistency will be crumbly.In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.Divide batter evenly among pans, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hershey's Chocolate Cupcake

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

3. Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Makes about 30 cupcakes.

Vanilla Bean Frosting from Cupcake Bakeshop via Monica at Lick the Bowl Good

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
4-5 cups powdered sugar ( I used 4 cups)

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Then add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

All in all the cupcakes turned out great, but the vanilla vanilla cupcakes were by far the best! I am acutally going to use this cupcake recipe for mini Tiffany's Box Cakes I will be doing for my best friends brial shower coming up here in a few weeks!

The dessert table where clearly I was unaware of the color scheme :) haha I was originally going to do a Houston Astros theme, which is why I went with the red and yellow. I change my mind when I decided to go for a more simple look.

Another picture, and you can see people started to get dessert at this point, the "B" in birthday is gone and the cake balls are starting to disappear!

Haha again with the "B" missing..

Sorry I didnt get anymore photos, I promise next time I will do better! Thanks mom for taking the pics you did :)

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Cake Pops!

I have been wanting to make cake pops for months now after I saw them on Bakerella's site and popping up all over the blog world. I just never got around to it. This weekend I had a few things to go to and didn't want to show up empty handed so I finally decided to try them out.
They are super cute! I can't believe it took me so long to make these. I don't know why they are so much cuter on a stick, they just are! It did take me a little while to figure out the best way to use the flower cookie cutter. I had to make the balls a little bigger since my cutter was 1.5 inches wide. Also they definitely are easier to work after being in the freezer for about an hour or so.

The process took me a little longer than expected so I was really not sure how I was going to serve the cake pops. At the last minutes I filled a glass with M&M's and put the pops in there. If I had more time I would have color coordinated the M&M's with the colors of the pops but either way it worked out.

I didn't get too many photos of these either, just the last 4 leftovers I brought home with me. So next time I hope to get more photos to share.

Cake Pops (Orginally by Bakerella)

Make your favorite flavor cake balls (see recipe)

Put in fridge for several hours or about an hour in the freezer will help speed things up.

Remove. Begin to shape into cupcakes using a small flower-shaped cookie cutter. Take the chilled ball and roll it into more of an oval and then slide into cookie cutter. Push it into cutter until about half fills the cutter and the rest sticks out of the top in the shape of a mound. Then push the shaped cupcake carefully out of the cookie cutter from the bottom. Set right side up on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Continue with remaining balls.

Once shaped, cover and return to freezer. (5-10 minutes)

While cupcake shapes are chilling, begin to heat up your chocolate bark.

Brown or white chocolate bark for the bottoms. Pink or whatever color chocolate for the tops.

Follow the instructions on the package for melting. Most recommend heating for 30 second intervals at a time and stirring in between. You can also do the double boiler method.

When you are ready to dip, remove from freezer and set up another wax paper covered cookie sheet.

Take the cupcake shaped mixture and dip bottoms into the melted chocolate - just to the point where the mounded shape starts.

Remove from chocolate, turn upside down and wiggle so that the excess starts to slide down slightly.

Then lay on the wax paper upside down. If you want them to be lollipops, then go ahead and insert the lollipop sticks while the chocolate is still wet. Continue with rest of the cupcakes. You can also leave some without the sticks. They’re just as cute as Cupcake Bites.

TIP: Dip end of your lollipop stick in the melted chocolate before inserting into chocolate bottoms. Not sure if this helps a lot, but it couldn't hurt.

Dry completely. (15-20 minutes)

Once dry, dip the tops of the cupcakes in the pink or other chocolate color. You may need to move it around a little to cover all the exposed areas.

Remove from the pink/white chocolate and turn right side up. You may need to hold and rotate it if there is any excess so that it doesn’t drip down too far.

Continue holding and place an m&m on the top and add sprinkles. Let them dry in a styrofoam block that you have already poked holes into.

When completely dry serve as you wish. I placed mine in a glass half full with M&M's. Enjoy

The few pitful pictures I took late that night after getting home! Ill have to get better ones next time :)

The next day at work, one of my devoted tasters enjoying his afternoon snack! (Haha-Kevin)

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Cake Balls

On a quest to find a "go to" yellow cake recipe, I somehow stumbled upon Bakerella's site, and sat there for hours as I poured over all her posts. I was drawn to the Red Velvet Cake Balls, I needed to make them immediately! I am so glad I did...they were amazing!! I took them to work the next day to let my co-workers give them a try and they loved them!

They were such a hit, I made them the following week for a family BBQ...and score...they LOVED them as well! Although the first few times they didnt look so pretty, once you make a few you get the hang of it. It does take some serious patience and is time consuming, but totally worth it.

This was the original post I wrote for these but never had any pictures to share. I have been wanting to make them again and finally my sister bugged me enough to try a new flavor! These really are so much fun to make and this time I tried strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. They were yummm-o!!

Cake Balls

1. Bake a cake from a mix and follow the instructions on the box. (Use any flavor you like)

2. Let it cool completely.

3. Crumble the cake into little pieces into a large bowl. (Fine consistency)

4. Add a can of cream cheese frosting to the cake crumbles. 5. You can blend together using your hands or large spoon. (This can get pretty messy) Make sure to blend thoroughly! I usually use my hands but this time I tried using the mixer and it worked out perfectly and is definitely less messy!

6. Roll your mixture into balls and place on wax paper or a cookie sheet.

7. Cover with foil and place the balls into the fridge for several hours or in the freezer to speed up this process. It will help to have them chilled later in the dipping process.

8. Once chilled, begin to heat up your bark coating or candy coating. Use heating directions according to package usually in 30 sec intervals. (I used both white chocolate and chocolate to add some variation of color)

9. Dip the balls one at a time in the melted chocolate until covered. (I switch off between forks, spoons and using candy dipping tools. Use whatever works best for you.)

10. Place on wax paper to dry. At this point you can decorate them any way you choose, use sprinkles, drizzle chocolate over them, or just enjoy them as is!

I hope to tackle the cupcake pops next, these seemed to be a little to moist to get the cookie cutter to come off. So hopefully next time that works out better!

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