Monday, March 19, 2012

Pastel Cake Pops

Posted by - Rena

As usual, I was standing in Michael's staring at pastel colored nonpareils. I had to have them.


I decided to make my pumpkin "fake cake" as my base. The cake is a can of pumpkin mixed with vanilla cake mix. The combination makes the most delicious cake ever with barely any calories. The cake is very moist because of the pumpkin so I didn't need to add much frosting. I really didn't need to add any but what fun would that be?

I dipped the cake balls in white candy melts which you can find at Michael's as well. I guess they are mostly for candy molding but they worked perfectly for the cake pops. I then dipped them in the nonpareils. They were mighty tasty!

I didn't realize how dark and fuzzy the pictures were until it was too late - meaning they were in my belly already - so you get vintage-looking photos. Imagine my mom making these with my help in the 70's while I'm wearing my patchwork overalls.


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Pot of Gold Cake Pops

Posted by - Vivian

I've had Bakerella's Cake Pop book since it was released... but have I ever made cake pops before??? Nooooooo.  I was excited about this month's challenge because it forced me out of my comfort zone and into the land of cake pops.  Aside from having to make my own black colored chocolate, these really weren't that difficult to make.  Of course, these simple pots of gold are nothing at all like the beautiful creation in the Cake Pop book.  I used a simple cake mix for my cake and had leftover home made Malted Frosting left over from a cake I made last month.  These were a big hit with my Sunday school class.  Thanks for the challenge!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St Patrick's Day Cake Pops...

My very first attempt at Cake Pops...and look how it went...I chose to use Green Velvet Cake as my base (basically Red Velvet, but green!)
 I deconstructed, added frosting (cream cheese of course!) and re-constructed to a cakey dough...
 Rolled into balls, and popped them in the fridge...to set...
 ...melted some white chocolate and set the sticks in using some of the chocolate...
 ...dipped and decorated...Green Velvet Cake and green sugar for St Patrick's Day...
 I'm pretty chuffed with the results...would have prefered a 'greener' cake, but that's the perfectionist in me!! 
I even had enough left over to make some pretty Cake Balls...all in all a great first attempt at "The Monthly Challenge" Sara xx





Posted by - Sara.

The less successful cake pops...

Posted by - Hannah

Well I have to admit I tried this months challenge and it didn't go so well! I waited especially untill I went home from Uni for the weekend so I could use all of mums food dye and sprinkles and things. I've given up chocolate for lent so I planned to use icing instead. My brother decided to join in (He's better at baking than me really so I wasn't complaining!). It all started off well, we made a normally sponge cake and cut it all up a bit to cool....
 Next we put it in the food blended to make it into crumbs and then mixed it with some cream cheese icing. The difficulty I found was no one seems to have a exact recipe for this,so it was all a bit of a guestimate. Anyway next step we made it into the balls (At this point everything seemed fine!)
 
The next stage was dipping them. As I said no chcolate for me :( Unfortunately icing doesn't appear to work! It kind of half absorbed, half slid off. And then one of the balls broke in the icing... not pretty! So we compromised, I'm afraid my cake pops never really made it to the tradition being on sticks stage but we did put them in little cases and decorate them so it wasn't too bad. Hopefully next month I'll be more successful!
 
The finished product...

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Lamington Inspired Cake Pops

Posted by - April (Miss Conversationalist) @ Tête-à-Tête 4 Food



Miss C "after seeing that this month's challenge was making Cake Pops I was really excited. I decided to make lamington inspired cake pops as I love a little twist to classics" 


Miss C "i thought this would only be, bake a CAKE + FROSTING + COAT with CHOCOLATE + DECORATE = CAKE POPS, how wrong I was! Yes, those are the basic steps but it isn't that easy"


Cake pops "getting the amount of cake and frosting ratio is crucial, as this determines whether they can be formed into balls


Cake pops "also, finding a good glaze will insure the coating and decorating process is a lot easier"

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Cake Pops!

Posted by - Anuja @ http://simple-baking.blogspot.in/

I have been thinking of making these for some time now but somehow couldn't get around actually making them. Then Rena from Have the Cake posted her March challenge....ta da.. Cake Pops! It was a sign..I have to give it a try. This is a very simple ‘how-to’ for making them, I am in no way an expert and will gladly leave that title to Bakerella!



Basically to make cake pops you need to make a cake.  Then you deconstruct ( well actually smash) the cake and mix it with an icing ( any icing or frosting will do).  Then you roll it into balls, chill them, then pop in some sticks and dip in melted chocolate.


I made it into a weekend fun project as Saee was at home and boy did we have fun!! I managed to get only half the quantity of pops done as the other half was gobbled up by my sous chef.


You can use any cake recipe or even a packet mix is fine. Check out the great tutorial by Instructables here.

Oh and BTW they are supposed to look like cupcakes :).


Thursday, March 1, 2012

March Challenge: Cake Pops

Posted by - Rena

Everywhere you look, there are cute little cake pops popping up at parties, weddings & even Starbucks! Let's have some fun! Our challenge this month is to make cake pops. The possibilities are endless.

One of my favorite bloggers, Bakerella, has an amazing collection of cake pops. She is truly an artist. The combination seems to be fairly standard: bake a cake, mix with frosting, make balls and coat with chocolate. Instructables has a great tutorial on their site.

Have fun!

Muppets Cake Pops by Bakerella. I mean, really!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

February Roundup

Beautiful! I think this is one of the prettiest collection of photos we've had! Thanks to everyone who participated in our latest challenge. All the cookies are represented! I hope you enjoyed making them as much as we enjoyed drooling over them. Looking forward to next month!


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tropicana Lace Cookies

Posted by - www.LinsFood.com


Intricate!


This is my first month with this wonderful group and am looking forward to more, more, more! This month, we had a choice of 3 wonderful cookies: Black and White, Linzer and Lace Cookies. I opted for lace cookies as I am a huge fan of them and have been making Brandy snaps for as long as I can remember. I love developing and creating new recipes and was really looking forward to what I could produce with this. Ok, I thought I had a month but the extra day not withstanding, I was running out of time! So, I had to get going!

I had some friends over last weekend and took that opportunity to bake this challenge. I tweaked my old recipe here and there, added some condensed milk and desiccated coconut and voila - I present TROPICANA LACE COOKIES!

As a little kid, I used to make coconut fudge with my older siblings, my earliest memory of this is when I was 6, which means my sister was 9 and my brother was 8, with no parental supervision.  The ingredients were essentially freshly grated coconut and condensed milk. To this day, I fall to pieces at the merest hint of this combination! That's the memory I went for in creating Tropicana Lace.

Dry roasted coconut
Ingredients (makes about a dozen)

4 tbsp freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut
1 tbsp golden syrup

20 g butter
1 tbsp condensed milk
2 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp rose essence

Spaced out blobs!
 
Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160 Fan. Line a baking sheet with baking paper if you have to.
2. Heat a small frying pan on low heat and dry roast the coconut until golden brown and the aroma hits you. Set aside.
3. Add the syrup, butter, milk and sugar in a small saucepan and heat, stirring to mix.
4. At the first sign of bubbles, add the flour, mix and take off the heat.
5. Add the coconut and rose essence and mix well.
6. Drop half a dozen spoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheet, spacing them well apart as they will spread A LOT. If the mixture thickens, just heat it up again gently for the next round.
7. Bake for 6-8 minutes until completely flat and a uniform dark brown in colour.
8. Leave to cool completely, they will harden as they cool.
9. You can shape these cookies if you fancy, wrap them around a rolling pin about 30 seconds after they come out of the oven, before they get a chance to harden.

These are perfect as they are or served with ice cream. Even great crumbled over cakes and sundaes.

Pretty as a picture



Monday, February 20, 2012

Black and White Cookies

Posted by - vivian


Black and white cookies have always interested me.  Never having tasted one, I was just intrigued by the name, so when this month's Have the Cake challenge was to make either Black & White Cookies or Linzer cookies... well, of course I had to make the Black & White!  From what I understand, these cookies are quite popular in the North Eastern states, particularly New York. They are more cake like in texture rather than the crispy or chewy texture one would expect from a cookie.  I did a combination of two recipes, the dough from Smitten Kitten and the glaze  from Joy of Baking

Black and White Cookies
 Smitten Kitten's recipe which she adapted from a bunch of places, but mostly Zabar’s

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Glaze:
from Joy the Baker
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 - 1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ounce (30 grams) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped 

Directions: 
 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 baking sheets with nonstick spray, or use a Silpat (silicone baking sheet).  I don't like to use parchment paper on sticky cookies but that is an option, too.

In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter; mix until fluffy.  Generally this takes 3-5 minutes, it will depend on room temperature, temperature of the butter. You can tell when they are “light and fluffy” by the appearance; it should be very light in color. Next, add the eggs, milk and vanilla and lemon extracts; mix until smooth.

In medium bowl, combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt; gently whisk together.  Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. 

Place heaping spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets;bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cookies cool completely.

Glaze:
Place the confectioners sugar in a large bowl. Gradually Stir in the hot water (it is best to pour in a bit at a time so that you can keep track of its consistency easier), add corn syrup and vanilla extract, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick, smooth, and of spreading consistency. Add more sugar or water if necessary to get the right consistency.

Remove about 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the frosting and place it in another bowl. In a small microwavable bowl, add the finely chopped chocolate. Melt on high for about thirty seconds; stir. Add the melted chocolate to the 1/2 cup frosting.

Turn the cookies so the flat bottoms are facing up. Spread white glaze over half the cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies. If the frosting/glaze thickens too much, add a few drops of water.

Once all the cookies are covered with the white frosting, then cover the other half of each cookie with the chocolate frosting. If the chocolate frosting becomes too thick, add a little hot water to thin the frosting.