Pigeon Cake Pops and Light Blue Cake Balls - November 2012

So, after I made Carissa's Mo Willems themed birthday cake and her Pigeon Cupcakes to celebrate her birthday at school, I decided to use the leftover cake to make Pigeon Cake Pops and some Cake Balls for us to enjoy at home.  [I'd made cake balls before, but this was the first time I'd made cake pops, definitely a bit tricky.  These were just for fun, and good thing because some of them came out pretty funny looking, a couple aren't even pictured here.  :) ]

To make these Pigeon Cake Pops I started with the recipe found on Bakerella's website for cake pops (using light blue candy melts for my coating).

 

After the step where you dip the cake pop into the candy melts to coat it, I inserted yellow candy coated sunflower seeds into the candy coating to be the beaks.  (For the bottom half of the beak, I cut a little of the end off the sunflower seed, so it would be a little shorter than the top one.)  You have to insert the beaks quickly before the candy coating hardens.  On the cake pops with the smaller candy eyeballs (made by Wilton) I also had to put the eyes on each side before the coating hardened.  So, make sure you have everything set out and ready for each cake pop, so you can grab it and put it on quickly after you dip the cake pop.

 

For the cake pops with the larger flatter eyes I waited until the candy coating was hardened (still put your beaks on before the coating sets), and then I piped on the eyes with some white candy melts.  To get the white candy melts ready to pipe on, I heated them per the instructions on the package and put some in a piping bag with a round tip (I think it was a #3).  After the eyes hardened I used black food coloring to paint the pupils on the eyes.  On the last cake pop pictured with this type of eye, I just used one sunflower seed to make the beak.  I used a black food marker to make the line on that beak.

 

The kids enjoyed seeing the finished product.  They enjoyed eating the finished product even more, and even the funny ones still tasted good!  :)

  

 

I only ended up making about 7 Pigeon cake pops, so below are the cake balls that I made as well.

 

To make these cake balls, I just used the recipe found on Bakerella's website for cake balls.  These were chocolate cake mixed with vanilla icing, and I used light blue candy melts for the coating, topping them with white crystal sugar sprinkles before the candy coating hardened.

Yummy!  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Don't Let the Pigeon Eat All the Cupcakes! - November 2012

I made these Pigeon cupcakes (the character from the Mo Willems' books) for my daughter, Carissa, to bring to school and share with her class for her birthday.  (To see Carissa's Mo Willems' themed birthday cake check out this post.)

To make these Pigeon cupcakes, I first baked chocolate cupcakes and let them cool completely before icing them with chocolate buttercream.

 

I used a light blue candy melt for the Pigeon's head. Next, I heated some white candy melts per the instructions on the package and put some into a piping bag with a round tip (I think it was a #3).  Then, I piped on the eyes and beaks.  I made some of the beaks closed and some of them opened for some fun variety.  Once the eyes and beaks had dried I used yellow food coloring to paint the beaks.  You could, of course, just use yellow candy melts for the beaks, but I had white and light blue, so I decided to just do it this way.  Then I used black food coloring to paint the pupils on the eyes and outline the head, eyes, and beaks.

 

Besides my first 2 choices of food coloring for the black on the candy melts not wanting to work :/ , these cupcakes were pretty easy and quick.  I think the finished product came out really cute!

 

Carissa really liked these cute little Pigeon cupcakes and so did her class!  :)  Yay!

(I created my animated name at this site.)

The Pigeon Helps Make a Birthday Cake - November 2012

I made this Mo Willems themed cake for my daughter, Carissa, for her 8th birthday.  Mo Willems is one of her favorite authors so she decided to have a Mo Willems themed party.  She picked 8 different characters that she would want as part of the party [she decided 8 would be good since she was turning 8 :) ].

The characters were made out of fondant.  I rolled it fairly thin and let it dry a bit.  (This just made it a little easier to draw on; the marker wouldn't stick or drag so much as it would on fresh soft fondant.)  Then I drew the characters with a black food coloring marker. I used a small paring knife to cut the characters out, and then I painted them with food coloring.  I went over the outline with the food coloring marker on any places that needed it.  I attached lollipop sticks (maybe toothpicks on some) to the backs of the characters using fondant and water.

More pictures and details to come... :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about this cake, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about this cake by clicking the comments link at the end of this post. :)]

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Petal Cake with Blue Swirl Roses

We had a special Rite of Passage type of ceremony for my daughter, Cara, after she turned 13, and this is the cake that I made for her.

I made the roses out of royal icing ahead of time (this was the first time I had used royal icing). I followed the tutorial [pictures and even a video :)] on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle for piping the royal icing roses. Her roses look SO good and beautiful, while mine, well, they need some work. :) I don't think I mixed the royal icing enough at first and it was not wanting to hold the shape and definition of the roses. Then I think I mixed the royal icing too much and so the roses ended up with tiny holes in them and wanted to crumble easily. But they worked for the cake and (if you didn't get too close) they looked good. :)

 

I baked four 8 inch chocolate cakes.  I let them cool completely, then leveled, stacked, and crumb coated them.

 

When the crumb coat was set I iced the top of the cake with buttercream icing.  Then I placed the roses on top of the cake.  

I used the petal technique on the sides of the cake.  I saw this technique on Bird on a Cake (and there is a quick step by step tutorial of how to do it).  :)  I thought it was really pretty and that it would look nice for this cake.  You may not think it from the finished product, but it's a pretty simple technique.

 

I liked how the cake turned out, and Cara liked it too, which was the important part.  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

 

Rose Cake - September 2012

I made this rose cake for my mom for her birthday.  She loves roses, and I thought this type of cake was just beautiful when I saw it.

I usually don't end up using pictures of cakes that I've taken with the flash, but I thought it gave this rose cake a different pretty look, so I decided to include this one above.  :)

 

 

'What!' you say.  'Did she make another cake with blue roses?'

 

No, I did not... but this is what I woke up to the day of the party.

 

I noticed it when I brought the cake out to the car to go to the party.  At first I thought it was just the difference in the lighting (we have flourescent lights in the kitchen), but it seemed so different.  But we got to their house and... nope, still blue.

 

I had used my new airbrush food coloring to mix into the icing this time, so I thought maybe it had something to do with that.  Deep inside the rose petals you could see some purple if the light hit it right.  It was puzzling.

 

I showed my mom some pictures I had taken of the cake previously so she could see what the color was originally.  :)

 

Maybe it was a cake like 'the horse of a different color' in The Wizard of Oz; maybe everyday it would be a new color!  :)

 

I made the inside of the cake have an ombre effect, but with the now blue icing it didn't have quite the same effect.  Still  nice, just not the same matching look.  :)

After we cut the cake you could see that the icing that was exposed to the air had changed colors, but the icing that was underneath and next to the cake, was still the original color.  Weird.  I mean I know that colors sometimes deepen or darken as they dry and stuff, but to change colors so completely was unexpected.  Oh well, my mom still liked the blue roses, and it made a fun conversation piece.  :)  And, well, now you get to see how this cake would look in purple and in blue, all in the same post.  :)

I originally saw a rose cake made with this technique on Domestic Sugar, and she said that she saw it on i am baker.  Amanda, from i am baker, created these rose cakes and makes them so beautifully.  She has lots of great variations, not to mention tons of other great things to check out on her site.  One of the best things is she has a step by step tutorial AND a video tutorial for this technique, which is great to actually see it being done.  This technique is easy but it has beautiful and elegant results!

More details to come... :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)