800 Cake Pops!

Recently, I was asked to donate a certificate for cupcakes to a charity auction. The event was for the Bal Swan school here, where my friend's son attends. It's a yearly event, and they raise tons of money. So of course, I was happy to donate my services for a good cause!


I also inquired about desserts for the event, and offered to make cake pops and balls to have out in dishes for everyone to munch on throughout the evening. Since they expected about 500 people to attend, they asked for 800 pops and balls, a mixture of both. So I got dipping!


It was a fun project, although time consuming and exhausting. I did everything in stages, first baking the cakes, then forming the balls, then dipping and decorating, all while bopping to the music of the 80s.
They turned out great! I did half pops, half balls, both chocolate and vanilla with lots of fun sprinkles. And everyone said how wonderful they were at the ball. It was a great experience for me, and great exposure to a new community. Although I'd rather not see a cake pop for a while :)

PS- speaking of cake pops, I hear Starbucks has them now, 3 different flavors. Must try them out!

Holiday Baking

As I'm trying to get my business up and running, I'm trying a few test-runs, including selling holiday treats at my husband's office. I had quite a few orders, and they all turned out great!
I made mini Derby pies, red velvet cake balls, pumpkin cake pops, and red velvet cupcakes. I was a baking machine for a few days! Oh, and just for fun, I made sugar cookies, and decorated them too.
Check it out!
Sugar cookie snowflakes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie candy canes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie Xmas trees with royal icing, sanding sugar, and silver dragees.


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting and holly berry sprinkles.


Mini Derby Pies: Chocolate Chip-Bourbon-Pecan.


Red Velvet Cake balls- dipped in Red (vanilla) and Milk Chocolate with holiday sprinkles.


Pumpkin Cake Pops- dipped in white (vanilla) candy and topped with holiday sprinkles.

I had so much fun baking all these treats, I can't wait until I get paid to do it all the time!

Holiday Cake Balls!

So I had a few leftover cupcakes from my holiday baking the other day, and what better way to use leftover cupcakes and frosting than to make cake balls!
I usually make cake pops, but decided this time to omit the pops. These look like little truffles, but are really cake, and are a bit easier to make than cake pops, since there are less steps.
I made two kinds, chocolate peppermint and gingerbread, both with vanilla frosting. I dipped them in dark chocolate, and garnished with either crushed up candy canes or holly berry sprinkles.
I was concerned with the dipping technique, since I usually have problems with this. The candy was smooth enough, and I followed the instructions in the Cake Pops book exactly. I found a good method, dip the cake balls, spoon chocolate over them to cover, and lift them out with the spoon. I used 2 spoons, the other one to take the ball off the first spoon and to drop it on the wax paper. I found that cut down on the amount of extra chocolate on the cake ball, so it didn't get too messy.

You have to decorate these immediately, since the chocolate starts to harden after only a few seconds. I learned that with the first one I did.
I packaged them up in little mini cupcake liners to bring to a friend's holiday party tomorrow. So cute! I'm thinking about making more next week to send with my xmas packages to family.
Super cute and yummy!