crafty night with kaci and alyson, take four.

(... in which we create spring sweets that are not jelly beans, peeps or chocolate bunnies)

aw and i are crafty friends. we meet once a month at each others houses (alternating) and host craft nights. the host makes dinner, the guest brings a seasonal, new craft. so far we've made skylines, paper hearts, clothes pin wreathes, and now... our new favorite.. cake pops. ah.maz.ing.

cake pops are inspired by bakerella, a fantastic lil' blogger here that now has her own book and crafty cultfollowing. i chose the cake pops as our april craft, because a) i like to bake, and i thought it apropos to make a bakey craft; b) they looked fun, and i have been wanting to try them since i found the cake pops book; c) i love, love, love easter (fav holiday besides v-day), and d) hi. have you SEEN how cute the easter cake pops are?? oh.my.gosh.(look here and get ready to fall in love. with cakey sugar).

so. here we go, a step by step guide to cake pops, as told by kaci j...

1. bake a cake. not a fancy cake, with an amazing recipe- just a boxed cake will do- regular ol' cake mix, oil, eggs and water. easy peasy.

2. put the baked cake in a bowl and turn it into crumbs. you can use a fork you can use your hands you can use whatever you like. just mash that cake up.

3. dump a whole tub of frosting in there. again, not fancy frosting with an amazing recipe. just canned frosting (whipped is my favorite) will do. i'll say it again, easy peasy.

4. (here's a fun part): mash the frosting and cake together, with your (clean!) hands. just mash it all up, mix it up, until it's a uniform mess, and your hands look like the swamp monster, all gooey and lumpy.

5. put a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet, and take the mashed up cake/frosting goo and form it into balls- the more uniform the better. or, if you're going for shapes (we were looking to make some egg ones), then by all means, create shapes. just know that the candy melts don't hide lots of imperfections.

6a. place balls (that look dis.gust.ing.) in the freezer for a bit, while you do step 6b.

6b. while your cake is firming up in the freezer, melt a few candy melts in a bowl (making CAREFULLY DOUBLEY sure not one drop of water makes it near the candy melts), a few seconds at a time.

7. take your cake out of the freezer, and one at a time dip a lollipop stick in the candy melt, and then into the cake ball, to make the pop. 

8a. freeze your pops for another 15-20 min or so. 

8b. while they are freezing, melt some candy melts (yellow and white for us, for easter) and set out all of your beautiful candy stashes and decorations.

9. taking only a few pops out at a time, dip each one (works better to dip than it does to spoon it over), being careful to tap off the excess candy melt, and twist the pop at the end to catch the drip. also be careful that your cake doesn't fall off the pop!

10. press any decorations you want into the coated cake pop while the coating is still soft (only a few seconds), or use a toothpick to dab some melted coating from the bowl onto your decorations and then stick on the pop. either way works well.

11. stick each finished one in a styrofoam block to dry, or on the cookie sheet.

12. take a few more pops out, continue decorating and having a blast.

13. lather, rinse, repeat!

14. then eat. duh. (which i didn't do, since i'm not eating anything sugary and delicious until after easter).
they were a fun craft, but i definitely could use some practice with the techniques before doing them professionally. guess it's just another excuse to make more! (they are that fun!)

 

my favorites: the sheep... oh, how i love these lil' sheep! i would like a whole flock of 'em.

an ode to my new favorite blog, hyperbole and a half. this is my cake rendition of the cute allie and her lil' blonde hair and 'scariest story' face. looooove.