Happy Halloween {Ghost Cake Pops}

I thought I would jump on the cake pop bandwagon. I mean, why not? It seemed super easy and kind of fun. I tried a first batch for the baby shower, but those didn't work out how I wanted. So rather than bore you all with the recipe (they can be found all over the internet, pretty much the same method everywhere), I thought I would share my tips for success.

1. Don't use too much frosting. The first time I made cake pops, I put the whole can of frosting in and they were just too wet. Cake pops, by nature, taste (to me) like not-fully-baked brownies. So they are going to be super sweet and gooey no matter what you do. No need to make the matter worse by putting in too much frosting. Start with about 1/2 a can and go until you feel you have a consistency just sticky enough to keep their shape.

2. Freeze the cake balls on the stick before coating. The first time I made these, I just refrigerated them and none of the pops would actually stay on their sticks. The second time, I put them in the freezer and they were much more successful. However, with this in mind ,I realized that to take all of the pops out at once, some of them were 'thawing' too much before we dipped them. So if possible, leave the pops in the freezer in batches until you are ready to dip. (The pops seem to stick just fine once you're all done.)

3. Make sure your candy coating is thin, thin, thin. The fact of the matter is, if the candy is too think, you are going to get clumpy, lumpy blobs. I added shortening to thin mine down and it worked great, but you can also just use liquid veggie (or some other flavorless) oil.

4. Do not overheat your candy coating. Yes, the stuff can burn, even by putting it in the mircowave for one minute at a time vs. the 30 seconds suggested. Perhaps I know from experience. It didn't taste terrible, but it did make some little lumps in the candy. (I didn't want to waste anything so in the pictures you can actually see a few ghosts with this "burnt candy" result).

5. Experiment with tools to decorate. My friend splurged and bought us the edible markers to draw faces, and that just plain didn't work. I'm not sure why, but it made it near impossible to see. Instead, we used tubes of gel frosting color.

6. Use this project to teach the love of food and baking early. This is a great and easy project for kids, and these two four-year-olds had a blast. It's hard to get it wrong when one of the directions is "crumble a giant cake."

So there you have it. All my tips from my failed and mildly successful attempt. If you want full instructions, I recommend watching this video by cakeb0t.

Happy Halloween and enjoy!

Shower Power

Last weekend I threw a baby shower for a friend, and I kind of went all out on the baking. I mean, what better gift exists than something homemade, and baking is currently what I feel I do best. Plus it gave me an excuse to try out some new cake decorating tools (i.e., teach myself how to actually pipe frosting).

So by the mom's request, I made a revised version of my original from-scratch cupcake creation, the lemon curd wonders. I used the same lemon curd recipe as before, just lots of egg yolk, butter, lemon, and sugar, but this time I used a scratch version of My Baking Addiction's lemon meringue cupcakes. I finally splurged and bought some cake flower, and I saw a huge difference in my cakes. Seriously, I may have been the last to figure this out but it is worth it to get the cake flower. It solves the problem of making the cupcakes feel heavy like muffins. The cupcakes were light and moist, and I was super pleased with the end result.

For the frosting, I just made some homemade cream cheese frosting (my favorite staple) and finally let me Kitchenaid run beyond speed two. This made a huge difference in how creamy the end product was, and I was very happy with it. Then some gel food dye and two different Wilton piping tips and you get a pretty decent beginner cupcake. Though I have to say, it's all in the presentation. The cupcakes wouldn't have looked half as nice if it wasn't for that amazing cupcake stand that a friend let me borrow. Note to self: purchase a cupcake stand.

I was feeling a bit off because there wasn't any chocolate on the menu (and how can you not have chocolate for a shower?) so I threw together some chocolate covered strawberries. Talk about simple, delicious fun. Using two colors makes all the difference, and it really doesn't add much more work. They were a hit, and I think everyone was very happy with the final results of this venture.

Marshmallow Fondant

So I was gifted this really awesome "Zombie Cupcakes" book as a gift and while flipping through the pages I saw a "Biohazard" cupcake that looked absolutely perfect for my tech-industrial sister. The book, of course, made it look so easy.

The cupcakes were straightforward, a key lime mix that actually was more like a muffin consistency (very heavy) in the end rather than a cupcake. But this was my first foray ever into fondant and I was intimidated, to say the least.

I had talked to a friend who once dated a baker, and he suggested I use marshmallow fondant. So after a search I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try.

Making the fondant was a challenge, not because it's actually tricky but because it is a sticky, sticky mess. I mean, let's think about it. Hundreds of melted marshmallow with nothing between you and them except for some powered sugar? It's a bit insane. But trust me from my lesson learned: When you feel like giving up just add and knead, add and knead. It will get there eventually.

So after all the work I got the color I wanted and some pretty tasty (surprisingly) fondant. I was patting myself on the back for this and thinking that I am a magnificent baker.

Then it came time to cut and mold.

Let me say this now and say this clearly. Do not do this without the right tools. Secondly, toothpicks and butter knives are not the right tools.

You can see my failed attempts at the biohazard sign here. I have since this time ordered Wilton's "fondant student kit" and will be going through the motions. Then we shall see who rules!

Til then, just know I found a good recipe and still have a lot to learn.