Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Surprise!!
We had the surprise baby shower for our controller last Friday. Here are some pics from the party! She was soo happy :) which was the most important part. Everyone had a wonderful time!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Lemon Cake Pops & Chocolate Cupcakes
Baby Shower Goodies round 2!
Last night i finished making the lemon cake pops, and also made chocolate cupcakes. Let me just be straight and say I USE CAKE MIX AND IM NOT ASHAMED! When it's something simple like chocolate or vanilla, i just use cake mix. you cant taste the difference and its a lot less work. If im making something more interesting (key lime cupcakes, peppermint chocolate chip cupcakes, etc) then I will make it from scratch. Almost everything I make, I make from scratch. Basic Cakes and cake pops are the exception!
For these cupcakes, I used Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix, with Pilsbury's Extra Creamy Strawberry Frosting. Just bake according to the directions, and let them cool completely before frosting them. I used a Closed Star piping tip and piping bag, and frosted each cupcake. Im going to put the little cupcake charms that I made on Sunday, on the cupcakes right before the party
For cake pops i ALWAYS use cake mix and canned frosting. its way too labor intensive/expensive otherwise. You bake the cake as normal (a drier cake is better than a super moist cake for cake pops), then put it in a large mixing bowl after it has cooled. dump a can of frosting in the bowl, and use a mixer to blend the 2 together until you get a doughy substance. I have found that using the mixer is much easier and cleaner than using your hands :) Use a 1" mellon baller and scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Freeze the balls for at least 1 hour (I did it over night). Reshape the balls into a sphere and place it on a lolli stick.
Place the cooled cake pops in little cello bags and tie them off with a piece of ribbon. look how cute these came out!!
Last night i finished making the lemon cake pops, and also made chocolate cupcakes. Let me just be straight and say I USE CAKE MIX AND IM NOT ASHAMED! When it's something simple like chocolate or vanilla, i just use cake mix. you cant taste the difference and its a lot less work. If im making something more interesting (key lime cupcakes, peppermint chocolate chip cupcakes, etc) then I will make it from scratch. Almost everything I make, I make from scratch. Basic Cakes and cake pops are the exception!
For these cupcakes, I used Betty Crocker's Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix, with Pilsbury's Extra Creamy Strawberry Frosting. Just bake according to the directions, and let them cool completely before frosting them. I used a Closed Star piping tip and piping bag, and frosted each cupcake. Im going to put the little cupcake charms that I made on Sunday, on the cupcakes right before the party
For cake pops i ALWAYS use cake mix and canned frosting. its way too labor intensive/expensive otherwise. You bake the cake as normal (a drier cake is better than a super moist cake for cake pops), then put it in a large mixing bowl after it has cooled. dump a can of frosting in the bowl, and use a mixer to blend the 2 together until you get a doughy substance. I have found that using the mixer is much easier and cleaner than using your hands :) Use a 1" mellon baller and scoop balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Freeze the balls for at least 1 hour (I did it over night). Reshape the balls into a sphere and place it on a lolli stick.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and dip/cover each ball. Decorate the cake pop before the chocolate dries. I used three different types of pink sprinkles. Usually I would stick the lolli on a piece of styrofoam to dry, but I didnt have one to use. Instead i just put them back on the cookie sheet. the tops flattened but its not super noticable once in the cello bags.
Place the cooled cake pops in little cello bags and tie them off with a piece of ribbon. look how cute these came out!!
the party is in a few hours, so I will post pics from the party this weekend. Happy Friday, Everyone!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Baby Shower Treats: Chocolate Covered Oreos and Pretzels
Last night, Paul and Jen helped me make some treats for the Baby Shower :) I started the prep work for the lemon cake pops, and we made chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered pretzel rods.
First, we melted Wilton Candy Melts in plastic piping bags. I love using the candy melts, they come in all sorts of fun colors, taste great and really easy to use! You just pour the chips into a bag, melt them in the microwave according to the directions, snip the end of the bag off, and squeeze! I got a pack of 12 plastic piping bags at Mitsuwa for $1.95, they are SO much easier to use than the ziplock baggies i used to use for this.
I found a really cool Wilton candy mold at Michaels to make chocolate covered oreos! You just squeeze melted candy into the mold about 2/3 full, and stick and oreo in the middle. I used pink and white candy melts for this project. Arent these just the cutest things ever?? After they cooled in the fridge until they were solid, I put each oreo into little cello bags and tied it off with with some super cute pink ribbon that says "Its a girl!" in pink glitter.
Next we made chocolate covered pretzel rods. I found this Wilton candy mold at Michaels as well. Same as the oreos, you just decorate the mold with melted chocolate, and stick a pretzel rod in it and cool. Thank you Jen for your awesome work on these! We put the cooled pretzel rods in cello bags and tied off the end with the same pink ribbon.
Here are all the goodies we made last night! We made a total of 16 chocolate covered oreos and 9 chocolate covered pretzel rods. I think in total we used 1 bag of pink wilton candy melts, and 1.5 bags of white wilton candy melts.
First, we melted Wilton Candy Melts in plastic piping bags. I love using the candy melts, they come in all sorts of fun colors, taste great and really easy to use! You just pour the chips into a bag, melt them in the microwave according to the directions, snip the end of the bag off, and squeeze! I got a pack of 12 plastic piping bags at Mitsuwa for $1.95, they are SO much easier to use than the ziplock baggies i used to use for this.
I found a really cool Wilton candy mold at Michaels to make chocolate covered oreos! You just squeeze melted candy into the mold about 2/3 full, and stick and oreo in the middle. I used pink and white candy melts for this project. Arent these just the cutest things ever?? After they cooled in the fridge until they were solid, I put each oreo into little cello bags and tied it off with with some super cute pink ribbon that says "Its a girl!" in pink glitter.
Next we made chocolate covered pretzel rods. I found this Wilton candy mold at Michaels as well. Same as the oreos, you just decorate the mold with melted chocolate, and stick a pretzel rod in it and cool. Thank you Jen for your awesome work on these! We put the cooled pretzel rods in cello bags and tied off the end with the same pink ribbon.
Here are all the goodies we made last night! We made a total of 16 chocolate covered oreos and 9 chocolate covered pretzel rods. I think in total we used 1 bag of pink wilton candy melts, and 1.5 bags of white wilton candy melts.
Tonight I will be making mini chocolate/strawberry cupcakes as well as finishing the lemon cake pops, so I will post on those goodies on the weekend!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sneak peak: baby shower crafts!
The girls in the office are hosting a baby shower for our Controller this Friday :) I'm in charge of making the decorations for the shower. I'm also making chocolate covered pretzel rods, chocolate covered Oreos, chocolate cupcakes and lemon cake pops. I am making those on Thursday night, but I worked on the decorations today!
My co-worker is having a baby girl! She loves lemon so we decided to throw her a pink/yellow themed shower with pink/yellow/lemon goodies.
I made a sign for the shower that says "its a girl" out of some felt I picked up at Michaels. I cut the letters out of paper on my Cricut and then used them as templates to cut the felt. I cut all the felt letters out and glued them to the pennants. It's soooo cute!!
I also made little tags to stick into the cupcake. I laid them all out on the gypsy and cut them out on the Cricut. The animals were welded in 2s. I sprayed adhesive on the back, placed a toothpick in the middle and pressed it closed.
More to come at the end of the week!
My co-worker is having a baby girl! She loves lemon so we decided to throw her a pink/yellow themed shower with pink/yellow/lemon goodies.
I made a sign for the shower that says "its a girl" out of some felt I picked up at Michaels. I cut the letters out of paper on my Cricut and then used them as templates to cut the felt. I cut all the felt letters out and glued them to the pennants. It's soooo cute!!
I also made little tags to stick into the cupcake. I laid them all out on the gypsy and cut them out on the Cricut. The animals were welded in 2s. I sprayed adhesive on the back, placed a toothpick in the middle and pressed it closed.
More to come at the end of the week!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Moving In and getting organized
So now that I'm getting married, I get to move in with my husband to be! Combining all of our things is super hard and we just don't have enough space! We have been trying to get everything organized to be more space efficient. I lost count of the number of plastic storage bins we have bought in the last 2 months @_@.
We also got some glass jars to store a lot of our baking stuff: flour, sugars, etc. I made cute little tags using my Cricut to put on the outside so we know what's in them :)
The wedding is coming up so fast!! Been super busy with that too. Bachelorette party in a few weeks and the bridal shower the weekend after!! Trying to tidy up the house, unpacking boxes, and doing wedding stuff makes weekends super hectic.
My co-worker is having a baby in march so me and the other girls in the office are throwing her a baby shower this Friday! I will post all the cool things I'm making for it :)
We got these awesome stackable bins from the container store to organize the pantry. I use the same kinds in my craft room as well. They're great because they come in all sorts of sizes for whatever you need them for AND they stack on top of each other.
We also got some glass jars to store a lot of our baking stuff: flour, sugars, etc. I made cute little tags using my Cricut to put on the outside so we know what's in them :)
The wedding is coming up so fast!! Been super busy with that too. Bachelorette party in a few weeks and the bridal shower the weekend after!! Trying to tidy up the house, unpacking boxes, and doing wedding stuff makes weekends super hectic.
My co-worker is having a baby in march so me and the other girls in the office are throwing her a baby shower this Friday! I will post all the cool things I'm making for it :)
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