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.)