sweet inspiration & fun baking ideas

It’s real. It’s printed. It’s on its way to warehouses and bookstores and stuff. And, it’s crazy. When I started this blog I would never have thought of myself having a book. Ever. Especially one about cake on a stick. I mean really. It’s crazy. Crazy wonderful. I can hardly believe it.

But it is real. My publisher sent me an advance copy to prove it… and I was just plain giddy when I opened it. I gave it a big hug. There was a significant amount of squealing, too.

I really have to thank all you guys. When I first started making the cupcake pops I didn’t realize how popular they would become and especially how quickly. So many of you had questions and were excited to make your own that it inspired me to want to keep making them for you. And then I wanted to make them better and see just how far I could take them. I made so many that after a while, it just made sense to put them together in a book. A book that would also hopefully help answer some of the questions you’ve asked along the way. So thanks for inspiring me to push myself.

Want to see?

Just a little maybe?

Okay. You talked me into it.

Look at the cute, colorful cover.

Hardcover. Yay!

And here’s the spine…

…with wiro-binding inside!

Pink wiro-binding which is extra awesome.

It makes everything prettier when it’s laying flat.

Oh yeah… there’s also a bunch of pop projects inside. Some from the site and just as many brand new.

And look… there’s even some step-by-step stuff. I hope this helps.

P.S. That’s me pretending to be a hand model.

Pages. Real pages and lots of them.

All that rolling and dipping and decorating. The writing and photography and editing. Hours and hours at the computer. Did I really do all that? Was that me? So much work, but so worth it to see it all finished.

Plus, when I look inside … it just makes me happy.

I hope it makes you happy, too. Especially all of you who’ve made cake pops. Give a shout out if you’ve tried them before. I’d love to hear.

Cake Pops available in September or you can pre-order from the following…

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Borders

Chronicle Books

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Just thought I’d say hi with a few Aloha Cupcakes.

Hi there. Hello. Howdy. How ya doing?

These are Pineapple Mango Cupcakes. All tropical like. With graham cracker crumbs for sand and fondant flowers for the leis. They’d be super cute for a luau party. They’re really pretty easy to make once you have all the pieces and parts.

First start with some cupcakes. Any cupcakes. But if you want to try the ones I made, here’s the recipe.

Pineapple Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained and pureed*

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tray with 24 paper liners.
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer for several minutes. Add the eggs one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl with each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in three additions with the milk in two additions (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour) Mix until combined with each addition
• Add the pineapple and mix until combined.
• Fill cups about 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes.

* I pureed the pineapple in a food processor. I’m not a big fan of fruit chunks. Flavor yes. Chunks. Not so much.

Mango Frosting

1-2 Mangoes
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 lb box of confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

• Cut mangoes. Instructions here.
• Place mango pieces in food processor and puree enough so you have about 1/3 cup.
• Beat butter and vanilla until creamy.
• Add confectioner’s sugar in several additions. beating until well combined with each addition.
• Add 1/2 cup of mango puree and beat until completely combined.
• Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes.

So that’s the cupcakes. But what about the fun stuff. Who’s ready to play?

Okay, fondant first.

You’ll need some to make these lovely little leis.

You’ll need:

Fondant
Icing colors
Toothpicks
Powdered sugar
Wooden skewers
String or twine

Oh… and a Flower Plunger.

Break off a small amount of fondant. Dip your toothpick into the icing color of your choice and wipe it on your fondant. Begin kneading it to incorporate the color… but not all the way. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on your work surface and rolling pin.

Then roll out the fondant evenly and pretty thin. By not kneading the color completely into the fondant, you’ll get these marbled looking streaks.

Then use the flower plunger. Cut the shapes along the color variations to make flowers that appear to vary in shade.

Repeat with a few other colors if you like.

White works, too.

The flower plunger cuts the shape and also creates an indention in the center of the flower when you press down.

Then you can use wooden skewers to pierce through the center easily. Slide flowers on the skewers and let dry. Make these the day before so the fondant has time to dry out a little. I let them rest on a baking sheet overnight. Just make sure they aren’t pressed together tightly on the skewer or they will dry attached to each other and be difficult to separate without breaking the little flowers.

When they are dry, slide about 50 flowers (depending on the thickness) on a string about 12 inches long and tie a knot.

That’s it.

But what about the cute Aloha signs?

When the cupcakes are cool and frosted, dip them in a bowl of finely ground/crushed graham cracker crumbs.

Sorry, forgot the photo for this one. But you get the idea.

Then make your signs. Just kidding.

I made it easy for you with these…

You’ll also need:

Wooden cookie sticks
X-acto Knife
Scissors

Cut the cookie sticks down in size. Mine were about 12 inches long so I cut them down to pieces about 4 inches.

Print out the tags on heavyweight paper and cut them out individually. Then use an x-acto blade to cut two slits along the diagonal on each side of the tag.

Slip the sticks through the paper and then insert the sticks straight down into the center of the cupcake.

Like so.

When I first planned these out in my head, I thought they leis would be super cute draped over the signs. But in practice, they worked out better laying around the sign and on the sand.

Hope you like em!

Aloha and … Bye for now.

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Ice Cream!!!!!!!!! Sorta. Kinda. Okay, not so much. These are all cake and candy impersonating cute little ice cream cones. The cool part is they don’t drip. Their frozen parts are frozen. And unlike the Burgers and Bees Cake Pops from a couple of weeks ago… these ARE in the book. And they are one of my favorites. I think because they look so real. The dark chocolate candy melts as syrup really sell it don’t ya think?

See… it’s cake inside just in case you didn’t believe me.

The bottoms are sawed off waffle cones to make them extra tiny and the cherries are peanut M&M’s.

The best part about these cake pops is that you don’t have to be good at dipping. No need to try to get the coating smooth. The drips make them look better.

And if you really can’t get the dipping down, then you can try something like this. Dip the cake ball and place it on wax paper allowing the coating to pool at the bottom and then stick the cone on top at an angle. Add a little spoonful of coating over to the side and some sprinkles and you’ve just made a happy accident… on purpose.

The full instructions will be in the book, but here are the basic cake pop instructions.

If you’ve been reading the site for a while, you may remember first seeing them in March 2009 when I showed this one during The Pioneer Woman’s Cake Pop Party. I was just showing the concept to some of the guests so it was a little plain. But, a few minutes later, I turned around and PW’s girls had turned out these cuties and without any instruction. They are so sweet. The girls I mean. Well, the cake pops, too.

Their smiles still make me happy inside. I bet you’re smiling too, aren’t you. Double scoops with banana Twizzlers are hard to resist.

That’s one of the things I love about making cake pops. How much joy they bring to other people.

It’s fun to show an idea and then see what amazing things you guys all come up with.

Take a look at recently added Pop Star Aimee…

She made these delicious looking ice cream cone cake pops… and I bet she probably didn’t even see any examples before she made them. And, they look fantastic. Great job Aimee!

The Pop Star section is growing and I still have lots of pops waiting in my inbox to be added. Lots of them. Be patient if you’ve already sent something in. I’m working my way through them all.

Now, can you help me out with something…

See these?

I recently visited General Mills and their test kitchens for a fun project (more about that in a few weeks). Anyway, they had these little guys in their stash of sweet stuff. Unfortunately, the packaging was long gone. Anyone know where to find these mini cones or their maker? They’re the perfect size for ice cream cone cake pops. For realz!

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I just tried out a book that’s all about Whoopie Pies. One of the writers of the book (Amy) is also the editor of my book, Cake Pops. Amy sent me a copy to check out and I couldn’t be more excited for her.

I made and fell in love with these sugar-filled sandwiches. They are delish! They’re like little cakes shaped like cookies… (but pie-like… not so much.)

It’s funny… when I gave these treats away, everyone loved them, but no one knew what to call them. Everyone asked “What are they?” It made me wonder how common they are in other places. Have you made whoopie pies? Heard of them? Seen one out in the wild?

No worries if you haven’t. Now you can make your very own. The book is organized for easy reading.

There’s a section devoted to cakes…

And a section devoted to fillings. Great for mixing and matching and making whoopies.

Lots and lots of whoopie.

Yum!

I decided to make the classic chocolate whoopie (big surprise) and paired it with peanut butter filling. The recipe called for dark brown sugar. I used this dark muscovado sugar instead because that’s all I had on hand. It made them extra tasty.

After you mix up the batter, drop it by spoonfuls on a parchment covered baking sheet.

After they bake and cool for a few minutes carefully remove them from the parchment paper.

Place them flat side up on a cookie rack. Then you can spoon the filling on…

Or pipe it on.

I like piping it on. It’s much more fun.

And prettier to look at.

Sandwich the filling between two of the cakes.

And press gently. That’s it.

Whoo-hooo for whoopies. Now go make some.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie
from Whoopie Pies

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
• In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
• Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
• Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
• Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.
• Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.

Salty Peanut Butter Filling
from Whoopie Pies

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (or crunchy)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

• Beat peanut butter and butter on low until creamy using a mixer.
• Add sugar and salt and beat on low to incorporate. Increase speed to medium and beat for about four minutes until the filling is light and fluffy.
• Spread filling on flat side on one cooled cake. Top it with a second cake and press gently.

Store whoopie pies in an airtight container.

You can also roll the edges in sprinkles, chopped chocolate, nuts, etc. or in this case, peanut butter morsels.

Ummm… can I say these are just about the most fun things to eat. They’re so good you kinda feel like you’re being bad when you sink your teeth into them.

Want to make some whoopies?

Amy sent me a second copy to do with what I want. And I want to give it to one of you. Want it?

• Leave a comment on this post and tell me if you’ve ever made whoopies… Heard of them?… Know the best place to get them? Or just want to learn more about them.
• Deadline to enter is Monday, July 12 at 5:00 p.m. ET Sorry, Time’s Up. Winner announced below.
  
• One winner will be chosen at random and announced sometime Monday evening on this post.

Good luck!

Whoopie!!! We have a winner and boy are they in for a treat.

Congratulations Neddy (# 1413). Now you can try lots and lots of whoopie pies.

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Not cake, but ice.

Two weekends ago when I spent the afternoon judging for Hands On Atlanta, we all had a special treat. During the event, the King of Pops was on site selling his handcrafted popsicles. Usually he’s pushing his cute cart around the streets of Atlanta, but instead he was kicking it inside with us for the event. I was super-excited because I had already heard his story a few weeks before when a friend ran into him at the local farmer’s market. He was buying gobs of strawberries. So many, it prompted her to ask what the heck he was going to do with all of them. Then he handed her his card in the shape of a popsicle. Turns out he’s the King of Pops.

When she told me about meeting him, I decided I was going to track down his cart one day to try some of his icey pops. Luckily, that Saturday, all I had to do was turn around and there he was.

Say Hi. This is Steven. The King of Pops.

Follow him on Twitter if you’re in Atlanta and you can keep up with his flavors and where he’ll be next. He was also featured just yesterday on CNN. Check him out here.

I had the Blackberry Mojito – YUM – but I’m still hitting myself for not trying the Chocolate Sea Salt, too.

You know, I think the only kind I’ve ever made myself are the ones you buy at the grocery store. You know the flavored water kind in those long plastic tubes.

Yeah, those.

So, I decided I wanted to make my own handcrafted popsicles with real fruit.

I just used some paper candy cups I had on hand and wooden popsicle sticks to play with.

It’s really easy to make your own.

Pick a fruit. 2 cups strawberries in this case. Hull and half them.

Throw them in a food processor with 1 Tablespoon super fine sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

Then blend it all together until completely smooth.

Pour and freeze.

These were layered with yogurt in between the strawberry. They were pretty tasty and the perfect size for me.

The recipe came from the book, Ice Pops which has tons more treats like these.

And because Steven can’t show up to everyone’s house with his cart filled with handcrafted popsicles, here’s a chance to win your own Quick Popsicle Maker for fast freezing fun…

…along with the book, too.

Enter for a chance to win:
Zoku Quick Popsicle Maker and Ice Pops book

Just leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite fruit flavor.

Deadline to enter is Tuesday, July, 6th at 5:00 pm ET. Sorry, Time’s Up! Winner Announced Below.

One winner will be chosen at random and announced sometime Tuesday evening.

P.S. Giveaway purchased and sponsored by me, but you can find the book and Zoku pop maker at Williams-Sonoma.

Good luck and stay cool!

And the winner is… #4035. Congrats Marta. You get the Ice Pops book and Zoku Pop Maker. Now you can make your own Raspberry Lime Pops.

Next… I had a treat in my inbox today. Statistician Don… you know Pioneer Woman’s Statistician Don? The numbers guy?

Well, his wife told him about the giveaway I was having and he took time out to pull together these numbers for me. Then I made a little bar chart for you guys from all his hard work. Check out your favorite fruits.

Thanks Don! You’re the sweetest.

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