sweet inspiration & fun baking ideas

The last five book and kit signings were such a blast. When I started the book tour the end of last year I had no idea how much fun they would be and how much I would miss meeting you guys when they were all over. Thank you so much to everyone that came out to one of the 20+ signings. Along the way I have tried to get pictures of everyone that came by to say hi and also recap each city on the site. This time I combined the last several cities in one big giant post.

San Francisco, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego and Austin.

There are a few photos from each city below as well as slideshows of all the photos from each. Feel free to use any of the pics from flickr if you find one of yourself.

It was so great starting off the signings at Chronicle Books Headquarters in San Francisco. Say hi to Emily. She designed the kit and the notecards box sets. So so cute.

There’s nothing like watching the excitement on little ones faces when they look through the book. It’s still such a gift for me to see.

There were lots of fun and friendly faces in San Francisco.

Like sweet Melissa of Best Friends for Frosting. She did a little interview with me while she was there.

Here’s the San Francisco Slideshow…

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The Barnes and Noble in Orlando brought more friendly faces.

Like my friend Robyn from Add a Pinch. She lives out of state, but made time during her family Disney vacation to stop by. She really is the super sweetest.

And here’s Julie from The Little Kitchen. So glad to see your smiling face!

I just want to take a minute to thank everyone at all the signings over the last year or so that brought such sweet gifts to share.

You guys made me feel so special through your many talents and your kind words. I can think of several right now that even brought tears. Sweet happy tears.

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my happy heart.

Here’s the Orlando Slideshow…

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The Phoenix Barnes and Noble was a lot of fun, too.

These girls were a blast. They were a great group of bloggers that all came to the event together.

Cute suede shoes. Guess which ones are mine.

I met Amy of Amy Miller Designs. She makes faux cupcake ornaments and shipped some special cake pop ornaments for me a while ago. And look at these Muppets she brought to the signing. They are faux Muppet Cake Pops. And they are fantastic! I need to take a better pic and share it on Twitter.

This is Jennifer. Check out her site if you make lots and lots of cake pops at a time. She has a cake ball roller that could help you out.

It’s Phoenix. We had to have some cactus cake pops of course. Excellent use of white jimmies, Arianna!

Here’s the Phoenix Slideshow…

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San Diego. Yay!

Check out Kris. She makes the fantastic hot air balloon cake pops and much more.

And look at these Marshmallow Treats by Alejandra. Amazing.

Look at this cutie pie!

Hi there little one. So glad to meet you and your mom and learn what we have in common. Big big hug!

And sweet Julie from Jaybird Quilts. My mom and I had the most fun talking with you.

Here’s the San Diego Slideshow…

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The last book signing was in Austin at Book People.

My friends Georgia Pellegrini, The Girl Hunter and Marla of Family Fresh Cooking came with me to the signing. Love you guys! We all had plans with several more bloggers the next day for a fun Girl Hunter Getaway hosted by Georgia. More on that soon.

There was lots of signing. And some note taking, too.

There were hugs…

And even some extraordinary chickens.

Here’s the Austin Slideshow…

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That’s it for the signings. For now anyway. ; )

Oh, and big thanks for the awesome marquis sign, Book People. That was a nice surprise.

If you are near any of these stores (addresses here), I left behind some signed books and kits if you want to give them a call and see if there are any left.

If you aren’t near any of the stores, that’s ok, too. I thought I would do an end-of-the-year giveaway to anyone that wanted a chance to win some Cake Pops stuff.

I’m giving away five (5) Cake Pops gift sets that include:

A signed Cake Pops book, the Cake Pops Kit and the notecards set, too.

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And if you’ve managed to make your way this far down on the post, that’s not all.

Did you know that Cake Pops is available on the iPad? That’s not very helpful unless you have an iPad though.

So one (1) of the five winners will also win a brand new 16 gb WiFi iPad. Yay!

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Enter for a chance to win a Cake Pops Gift Set that includes a signed Cake Pops book, a Cake Pops Kit and a Cake Pops Notecard Set.

• Five (5) winners will be chosen at random to win a gift set. One (1) of the five winners will then be selected at random and will also win a 16 gb WiFi iPad in their choice of white or black. (That means 4 gift set winners and 1 gift set plus iPad winner.) Yay!
• To enter, just leave your answer to the following question in the comments section of this post.
• What is the most recent gift you’ve purchased for someone?
• Deadline to enter is Tuesday, December 20th at 8:00 P.M. ET. Sorry, Time’s Up. Winners announced below.
• The five winners will be announced sometime Tuesday evening on this post.

Good Luck!

Note: This giveaway is completely sponsored by me. Thanks y’all!

Here are the winners of the Cake Pops Gift Sets. Each of you will get a book, a kit and a notecards set. And one of you is going to also get the iPad. YAY!

Shannon T, Fenny Chandra, Alicia, Jennifer B and Tara. Congratulations on the Cake Pops Stuff!

Now for the big winner. After a random drawing, Shannon T – you win the iPad, too!

Hope you have fun with it.

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I made some peanut butter cookies the other day and topped them off with Hershey’s Kisses. Yum and yummer!

You know the kind I’m talking about. They’re an oldie but a goodie – and one I never get tired of.

Peanut Butter Kisses. Peanut Butter Blossoms. Whatever you want to call them they are hard to resist.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had these simple cookies, but I still feel the same excitement whenever they come out of the oven.

I mean look at these tempting little guys in all their melty, chocolaty topped goodness and try not to eat one. Just try.

Aren’t they a happy cookie?

And they are so easy to make. Roll the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.

And then roll the balls in sugar.

Bringing back any memories yet?

Bake. Let them puff up…

And then press.

Push the Kisses into the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.

The heat from the cookies, will slightly soften the chocolate and give the candies a wonderful glossy look.

And that’s exactly the best time to take a bite.

Have a voice of reason nearby so you don’t eat them all in one sitting.

You can also use the same cookie dough with Reese’s.

Roll the balls again.

But this time press the dough into a mini muffin tray. Just leave enough room to place a peanut butter cup in the middle.

And bake.

And bite.

And try to behave.

And if you make cookies with both of the candies, just use some of the extra Kisses to decorate.

Heat them up in the microwave and use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off to drizzle the melted chocolate across the tops.

You can bake them in the pan with or without liners. Whatever you prefer.

Or you can make them like the Kisses Cookies and just press them into the ball after they bake.

Either way, enjoy!

Chocolate Candy Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Hershey’s Kisses or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or both

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Sift flour, soda and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
• Beat butter and peanut butter
• Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
• Add egg and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture and combine.
• Roll dough into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls and then roll the balls in sugar to coat.

For Peanut Butter Kisses:

• Place rolled balls on parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and press an unwrapped Hershey’s Kisses candy into the center of each cookie.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For Peanut Butter Cuppies:

• Press rolled balls into the cavities of a mini muffin tray.
• Place an unwrapped Reese’s peanut butter cup into each.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes.
• Remove. Let cool and then drizzle with chocolate if desired.
• Note: you can bake these in wrappers or directly in the pan.

Note: There are about 36 Reese’s and around 70 Kisses in a regular size bag.  I forgot to count how many this recipe will make, but if you go with Kisses, you’ll definitely have enough candies. Guess I’ll just have to make them again. Darn.

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Hey guys. I have a new book trailer video for Cake Pops. It’s up on Amazon if you want to watch.

Don’t worry, the first one is still there, too if you want to see my how-to on dipping. I’m glad they left that one up, because I think it’s helpful if you’re just starting out making them.

The new video is a little different though, but still cute. Alex and Joelle from 4SP Films made all the magic happen. They have created several videos for Chronicle Books in the past. So, if you want to see a little behind-the-scenes or links to the videos themselves, read on.

I made the cake pop props in a few of the designs from the book.

And carefully drove them all over like this to my friend, Cupcake Julie’s house for the video shoot. You know the one I did the Candyland Christmas post on. Well, she has a super cute cupcakey kitchen … with a pink island, of course. Perfect for a cake pop video.

I brought just a couple of sprinkles and such, too. : )

This is the stressful part of working on a video away from my kitchen. I am so worried I’ll forget or need something, or that a pop will break in transit, that I just bring everything and it’s distant cousin, just in case.

It does make things easier if you are prepared and organized though. There is so much time involved in set ups and lighting, that I would hate to add to it by fiddling for stuff.

This was an overview beauty shot of bowls of colored candy coatings. It helps to have cool gadgets like this little monitor tethered to your camera so you don’t have to hurt your neck looking through the lens in awkward positions.

There were many, many different set ups like this that all had to be lit separately depending on the subject and angle. Tedious and challenging sometimes, when light is bouncing off of things here and there. Here the marble countertop was the culprit.

So, instead of fighting the light, we fixed it another way – with a cute yellow fabric.
Problem solved. And instantly cuter.

And all of this for a 2 second shot in the video.

Hi.

Here I was waiting to reach into the bowls for a shot of me grabbing some of the coatings (carefully, through the tripod for the right angle). There are lots of little camera tweaks, so once you get everything in place, it’s best not to move if you can avoid it. Plus, there’s less chance of tripping over light stands and messing up your setup. I’m not naming names, but she has her hand raised.

P.S. This reaching shot didn’t even make it in the video. But, that’s what I like about Alex and Joelle. They get lots of different shots, just in case. Kinda like me when I bring all those extra sprinkles.

This shot made it in though. It’s a sliding shot moving across the candy coatings with a cool camera gadget to make the move seamless. I don’t know it’s real name, but slider thingy sounds good.

By the way, he’s shooting with a digital camera that also shoots video. I actually have the same camera, but I’ve never shot video with it. Note to self: Need to learn.

Sprinkles beauty shot.

Panda Cake Pops in varying stages.

Joelle took care of the sound, just in case the Pandas said anything funny.

More tweaking. It’s the tiny adjustments like this that make all the difference on screen.

Here’s another digital camera. On Steroids! With lots of attachments that are all bigger than the actual camera body. Crazy!

The shoot was long, but lots of fun. Hope you like the video.

Hope it makes you smile.

Or laugh.

That’s ok, too.

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I also worked on second video for the Cake Pops Kit that just came out.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might remember this pic from a few weeks ago when I was in San Francisco.

While I was there, I met up with 4SP Films again and we put together some more cuteness.

Of course, I brought a few things with me.

By the way, if traveling a few miles with pops, is stressful. You can imagine what flying cross-country is like carrying cake pops and hoping you have everything and hoping when you arrive that you don’t have broken pops.

Luckily, I’m obsessive.

On the shoot day, there was book lifting by Joelle.

Cake pop twirling for the camera by Peter.

Curled ribbon dropping.

There were cute tags…

And bags and tying tricks, too.

And all in a super cute gift box.

This video is a lot different than the first one. It was shot on green screen so they could change the background and it’s also animated. The pops had to be individually shot in varying stages of completeness as well as shot from different angles to make them move if we wanted.

Tee – deee – us.

But actually not as hard as the first one. Because it was shot on a tabletop in one direction, there was basically only one lighting set up with a few adjustments. So that saved a lot of time.

I’m glad my mom could be there with me to watch all the fun. She enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff, but I don’t think she realized how long it would take. She’s pretty entertaining though and kept us all in smiles. If any of you have met her at any of the book signings, you know what I mean.

Here they are. Glad to finally show you guys.

Cake Pops Book Trailer – on amazon, the new one is the 2 minute video.

Cake Pops Kit Video – on youtube. It will be added to amazon soon.

Thanks 4SP Films!

P.S. – If anyone is wondering, I bought the Alphabet cards last year at Saint Cupcake Deluxe in Oregon. I’ve been waiting for a reason to use them for something. And the pink striped wood cake pop stand is from KC Bakes.

Note: This post contains some Amazon Affiliate links.

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The season of giving will be upon us in just a few short days. I love December. People start baking and sharing sweets with friends and family … even people that might not normally bake any other time of the year. There is just something about the holidays and baking for others that makes people feel good to give.

I like to give fudge, pies, cake balls, cookies… cookies … and more cookies. I don’t really have a favorite kind though. But, one thing I like to do is make people smile, so I thought I would make some sweet little gingerbread cookies to share and get the season started off right.

I like my sweets on the smaller side, so I end up with larger numbers. That way I have enough goodies to give away and enough to keep for me. I wanted to make gingerbread men, but I decided to just make the heads for two reasons:

One … more cookies.

Two … I could have fun and focus on their faces …

oh and three…… less piping and less chances for my icing to look crooked. : )

Ooooh, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.

Can you smell it?

Add the spices to your flour … it will make your dough delicious.

I don’t have pics of the rest of the ingredients, but we don’t want to look at those anyway.

We want cookies. Cute cookies.

I used a small cookie cutter to make the base for the faces.

Little bitty blank canvases.

Where to start?

Well, I have to start by drawing ideas out first. Otherwise my faces would look all mangled. I use the same cutter to make several circle shapes on paper and sketch away. Then I place sprinkles on top of the drawings to see what works. It helps for me to have a point of reference when I start piping.

Ugh. I’m all excited about the possibilities up until right before I actually start. I always envision the cookies perfect in my head, but my hands just don’t like to play ball. They get shaky and then I get nervous and then my lines get more wobbly than they would if I just wouldn’t think about it.

This is pretty good though and probably as good as it’s gonna get.

Can someone please tell me how to make the lines meet without overlapping. My release needs work.

Since the edges of the cookies weren’t completely flat, I tried using the cutter dipped in flour to make a guide on the cookie. You can see a hint of the outline above.

It helped some… or not.

Once you pipe on all the details, you can start adding sprinkles for accents.

Or you could pipe them on in different icing colors. I chose sprinkles so I could control the shapes and so I didn’t have to mix a bunch of colors for tiny details.

Confetti sprinkles in different sizes, shapes and colors worked great for cheeks, eyes and bows.

Gingerheads. Look how cute. These are sure to make someone smile.

Big smiles. Big cheeks. And hopefully happy recipients.

See how versatile the jumbo flower sprinkle is.

When I finished playing with gingerbread heads, I powered up to pipe snowmen faces.

Looking good.

By the way, so glad I stocked up on black confetti sprinkles this Halloween. They do come in handy.

I’ve only really made decorated cookies a handful of times. And they’ve all been since I started blogging. Usually I will pipe the outline and let it dry before filling in the shape. But I wanted to be like my cookie decorating friends and make my edges look seamless and my tops puffy.

So I tried my icing consistency somewhere in between the outline and the flood consistency. I drew the outline and started filling in right away.

Crossing fingers it doesn’t flow over the sides.

Yay! Success.

I think I like doing cookies this way better.

These were easier than the gingerbread faces because you aren’t as focused on lines that could be wonky.

Again, I just used sprinkles to make most of the accents.

Confetti sprinkles, sugar crystals and coated sunflower seeds, too.

Just place them carefully in position while the icing is still wet.

Wait to draw on any details though, until completely dry.

I think this little guy might be my favorite snowman face. His hat is so sweet.

The earmuffs are tic tacs which don’t really go with gingerbread, but they were the right size and color.

Pipe the bottom half of the face first and let it dry. Then outline the shapes for the hat and fill it in with more icing. While it’s still wet, dip it in sugar crystals. If you lose any of the shapes, you can press in slightly with a toothpick.

I don’t know what she’s wearing. It’s not really a bow or a hat. Let’s say she’s British and call it a fascinator if anyone asks.

These were incredibly fun to make and so colorful for using only white icing. So even if you’re not a cookie decorating wizard, you can still make adorable treats with simple sprinkles. Which ones would you like to be given?

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Gingerbread Cookies

5 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 cup butter, slightly soft
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses

• Sift flour, soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add egg and mix until combined.
• Add molasses and mix until combined.
• Gradually add in flour mixture and mix until combined and a dough forms.
• Divide dough into four sections and shape each into a flattened disc.
• Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
• When ready to bake preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Roll out each disc between two sheets of parchment paper using a rolling pin.
• Flour the sides of the paper that will touch the dough to make it a little easier to release.
• Cut out shapes and remove excess dough to reuse.
• Leave cutouts on parchment paper and transfer to cookie sheet.
• Bake for 8-9 minutes. Cool on cooling rack.

For the icing, mix together four cups confectioner’s sugar and four tablespoons meringue powder with about four tablespoons water. If it’s too thick, add more water a teaspoon at a time. Or if it’s too thin, add more confectioner’s sugar. Decorate using a #2 to outline and #3 tip to fill in.

P.S. Thought you might like to see my mess. I usually place sprinkles I’m using in the caps of the containers they come in so I can sort through and find the color I need. But when I get excited and impatient, things start to look like this. I waste a lot of sprinkles this way.

Do you give goodies during the holidays? What’s your favorite sweet to share?

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This post is sponsored by Glad. Did you know that you can turn your sweet tooth into a donation to help support pediatric cancer research? Visit Glad to Give™ for more information.

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I know I just posted Muppet Cake Pops, but I have some more character pops to show you. Hope you don’t mind seeing pops back to back like this. I usually space them out with other goodies in between, but these just went live Wednesday and I wanted to share them with you.

I did them for Target’s recently launched blog, A Bullseye View. It’s a behind-the-scenes online magazine for the brand.

I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty excited about being able to make cake pops for them and getting to work with one of the stores I’ve shopped at forever. Pretty cool.

And pretty cool that they carry my Cake Pop Kit and Book, too. I actually saw them both at the store yesterday when I was picking up a few things for Thanksgiving. Awesomeness!

FYI, the book is on sale if you’re looking to get one.

I get giddy when I see these in stores. Still so unbelievable to me.

Anyway, want to see the cake pops I made?

Think spots.

Bullseye!

Or rather Bullseyes.

Target’s adorable little Bull Terrier mascot in cake pop form.

Visit A Bullseye View to see how to make them.

And if you want to stay on Target, follow them on twitter @aBullseyeView.

Now, I know these are specific and spotted and you’re not likely to have a Target-themed birthday party anytime soon, but you can definitely use these cake pops as a base to create other doggie designs. These are pretty different from the Puppy Pops in my book, so take a look and get your creative juices flowing.

And if you could care less about cake pops, that’s ok, too. You might like this.

When I was at Target, I saw a cute little Bullseye Gift Card at the checkout. So I couldn’t resist grabbing a few to give away with this post.

So here goes.

Enter for a chance to win one of three (3) $100 Target Gift Cards.

• Just leave a comment on this post and tell me what you’d buy. Electronics, toys, groceries, Christmas gifts, clothes, candy? Do tell.
• Deadline to enter is Sunday, November 20th at 5 pm ET. SORRY, TIME’S UP!
• Three $100 winners will be chosen at random and announced sometime Sunday evening on this post.

Good luck.

Ruff. Ruff.

P.S. This giveaway is offered by and sponsored by me.

Okay, I just picked the three winners of the $100 Target Gift Certificates. Yay! Yay! Yay! And here they are…

Congratulations Marianna, Corinne and Suzanne. Have fun shopping!

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