Tuesday Muse-Day

Ok who remembers LEGO’s?  Growing up with a younger brother, we spent many an afternoon making all sorts of creations with these little colorful interlocking plastic bricks.  And remember the little LEGO Men?  They were pretty basic when we were kids; two dots for eyes and a generic smile. 

But over the years, LEGO Men have developed into pretty expressive little characters.  And Kate Sullivan, founder of Cake Power, has captured them perfectly, turning every LEGO Lovers dream into reality with Lego Head Cake Pops!!! 

As if that’s not cool enough, Kate shows you how she did it in a photo tutorial!  Honestly, I’m glad she posted a how-to otherwise I wouldn’t believe these were cake pops… they are so spot-on! 🙂  Her talent doesn’t stop there… Kate is quite the cake genius, and created a large 3D LEGO Man sculpted cake as well.  Yes, that is CAKE!

While we’re on the topic of LEGO’s, you absolutely have to check out Nathan Sawaya, of The Art of the Brick.  He creates some of the most awe-inspiring LEGO creation’s I’ve ever seen… animals, food, a motorcycle, even an iPhone! Here he is posing with his life-size sculpture of Conan O’Brian, which stands at 77″ tall!

xoxo,
  Kim

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Kids & Cake Pops

Today I was babysitting some of my favorite kiddos, Daria and Talia, ages 6 and 3 respectively.  Last year, I made cake pops with them, and ever since, every time I come watch them, the first question is… “Did you bring cake pops???”  So last night I made a pink French vanilla cake that we could make pops with today.

I’m always impressed by how smart these girls are.  After quite a few baking sessions with me, they are so aware of food safety practices.  Today Daria said, “I have to scratch my nose, but don’t worry I’ll wash my hands after I itch it.”  And she did.  I was so proud. High-five Daria!

This about the 4th time I’ve made pops with them, so now they like to tell me what to do; it’s the cutest thing.  “First, we have to crumble the cake!”  Let me tell you… the ‘crumbing’ step takes mere minutes when you have two enthusiastic kids helping you.




After I mix the frosting into the cake crumbs, the girls came up with a role for each of us.  Daria is the Squisher – she takes a spoonful of the crumb/frosting mix, and squishes it into “blobs”.  I’m the Roller, in charge of rolling the blobs into nice, smooth round cake balls.  Talia is the Putter – I hand her the cake balls and she “puts” them into even rows on the cookie sheet. 

Today we made cupcake pops… ta da!  They are so excited to take some to their teachers tomorrow.  Oh, and by the way, what do you think of KC Bakes’ first stained cake pop stand?

Today wasn’t “all work and no play” mind you 🙂  After the buzz they got from making cake pops, there was a healthy amount of energy they needed to get out of their systems, so we took a stroll to the local park.  They had a blast playing on the jungle gym, running around and enjoying some time on the swings (which was way more work for me than them, lol).

How was your weeknd?

xoxo,
  Kim

Healthy Cake Pops

In today’s society, there’s so much pressure to be thin.  With models like Gisele Bundchen on magazine covers, its kind of hard to avoid.  I mean look at her!   Oh by the way, this picture was taken two months AFTER she gave birth… AFTER! Whatta’ witch. Er, I mean great job Gisele 🙂  Sigh, I wonder what it feels like to not have to “suck it in” for just one day… hmm… anyways, lol!


Being a baker, its tricky to avoid sweets because, hello, we have to taste what we make, right?  The advice I like to follow is a little something my dad always says – “All’s good in moderation”. 

However, there’s still the health conscious consumer out there that wants to enjoy cake pops, but not the calories.  Cue Hungry Girl and Health magazine to the rescue!



Hungry Girl’s Fudgy Marshmallow Cake Pops – 112 calories each




Health Magazine’s Angel Food Cake Pops – 145 calories each


So if you want a healthy alternative to desserts, maybe try one of these recipes next time.  And don’t worry about Gisele, that is pure genetics (at least that’s what I tell myself, haha).  Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo,
  Kim

Tuesday Muse-Day

Good morning!  It’s slightly overcast here in South Jersey, and they are calling for scattered storms throughout the day, boo.  So for today’s muse, I wanted to share something bright, fun & cheery… and I found it!

Check out this absolutely adorable Baby Einstein Caterpillar cake pop arrangement by Lil’ Cutie Pops!  Instead of trying to do everything on one pop, they ever-so-creatively made the caterpillar out of 5 cake pops.  I just love its friendly expression, those tiny little caterpillar feet – so cute!

While browsing around, I spotted another crafty baker that made one character out of an arrangement of pops as well, Lollie Cakes.  Rebekah’s adaptation of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar is spot on!  And what a creative presentation too – it’s long winding body makes it look like the caterpillar is moving through the grass!

 

Both of these outstanding creations are proof of what you can come up with when you think outside the box pop!  Great job by both of these talented cake poppers!

xoxo,
  Kim

Tie-Dye Cake Pops

So after all my color quandaries (see previous post), I managed to put some pretty fun color combinations together for my tie-dye cake pops!  These pops are for a coworker’s daughter, Hailey.  One of my little cousins who is around the same age is also into peace signs, so I guess all things ‘hippie’ are becoming popular again.

So without further ado… here they are… ta da!

I was thinking about doint a tutorial, but there was really no specific method I used.  I put two colors of melted candy into a small dish, and dipped the pops in at different angles and twirled them around.  FYI: you will need a LOT of bowls.  I needed 6 to melt the candies, then 6 more for the different color combinations.

Little Miss Hailey just came to pick them up, literally as I was typing this – and by the look on her face, I think they are a hit! 🙂

xoxo,
  Kim

Sports-Minded Baker

I’m not sure about you guys, but I have a tendency to associate colors with certain things… mainly, sports.  So it should’ve came as no shock to me today when I couldn’t figure out what color combinations to use for my “tie-dye” marble cake pops. 

I planned on using pink, yellow, green, blue and purple, and I wanted to determine what colors I was pairing together before I started melting the chocolates, to try to be efficient.  But then my color-association problem came up.

Yellow and purple?  No… those are the Vikings’ colors (or the Lakers, but I’m not a basketball fan).

Green and yellow?  Negative, that’s the Pack.

Hmm… I got it! Orange and green?  #!*$… Miami Hurricanes.

After awhile, I just waived the white flag and matched up the colors randomly. I’m probably the only nut who thinks of this stuff anyways, haha.  It’s all good, I have no shame in admitting I can be a little crazy about this sort of thing 🙂

By the way, the cake pops turned out really cool.  I’ll post pics later this week!

xoxo,
  Kim

Tuesday Muse-Day

Hey, hi & hello blog friends 🙂  I’m trying to get better at blogging on a more regular basis, but sometimes unexpected things prevent me from getting to the computer, or life just gets in the way.  But rest assured, I will always be here for Tuesday Muse-Day!

Today’s inspiration comes from Amanda A., aka Cake Pop Junkie, whose post I spotted in the Cake Pops Resource and Info group on Facebook.

Check out these incredibly beautiful “gender reveal” pops that she created as a unique way for pregnant mothers to reveal the gender of their baby to family and friends:

I just keep staring at them, they are so adorable… the little bees, the dashed line to make it seem like the bees are flying around, I mean come on – that is cute!  And what a cool way to reveal what gender baby you are having!  The expressions on everyone’s faces must be so fun to watch as they bite into their pops to see what color cake is inside.

Make sure you check out Amanda’s other creations as well.  My dad would flip over these fishing bobber pops and that bag of ‘bait’ – too funny! 

Great work Amanda – I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

xoxo
  Kim

I Think I Have Laliophobia

Hi everyone!  I’m sorry I’ve been M.I.A. this week – I’m still here, I promise!

I had to give a customer service presentation today at my day job for 210 of our student workers, so I was busy all week preparing for that.

I was so nervous!  My heart was racing so fast I could feel my pulse in my throat when I talked.  I’m not sure what gets me so worked up… I wasn’t worried about the material I was presenting, I’m comfortable with the students and I really liked the PowerPoint I put together.  But when someone hands me a microphone, ooh boy, that strikes fear in me like no other.  I think its the potential to embarrass myself in front of other people that gives me such anxiety.

When I was in college, I worked for this same department actually, and I attended these all-day Saturday trainings as a student worker.  I remember dreading them, because they always seemed to drag on with speaker after speaker droning on about this and that. Now that I am on the administrative side, it gave me a whole new perspective on the process.  I didn’t want these students to think the same of me, so – I came armed with cake pops… I am not below bribes people, haha.

Let – me – tell – you… the bribe worked!  After I tossed the first cake pop into the audience, I had their attention and soon multiple hands were waving in the air, wanting me to call on them.  The best part was, after the whole training was over, one of the male students that caught a cake pop came up to me…

Student: “Um, you made those cake pop things right?
Me: “Yea, I make them as a hobby.  Did you like it?”
Student: “OH MY GOODNESS, that was the awesomest thing ever.  How did you make them?”
Me: “Like step by step how do I make it?”
Student: “Yea, I’ve been trying to figure out how you got cake into this shape, it’s sooo good…”

So I explained how to make cake pops to this 19-year old lifeguard, and he was so intrigued. 🙂

xoxo,
  Kim

ps:  Laliophobia is the “morbid fear of speaking or stuttering”. I can certanily identify with that.

Tuesday Muse-Day

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, so today’s muse is the color teal.  Teal is the official color of Ovarian Cancer Awareness, and I’ve come across the neatest way to display it…

On your toes!!!  Carey is the mastermind behind Teal Toes, an organization dedicated to raising awareness in this unique way.  Why Teal Toes?  “Teal, the ovarian cancer color, is striking enough to make people ask about it,” she says – and how true!

Here are some cute Teal Toes that I came across.  Click on each caption to learn more about why they chose to paint their toes teal.

Robin’s Chicks

Are You There Cancer? It’s Me, Jennie

Positive Results Blog

I cannot wait for my next pedicure so I can join the movement!  If you paint your toes Teal this month, please email me a picture to kcbakes@hotmail.com with your story on how you were moved to try teal!

Update (9/10/11): My teal toes!

xoxo,
  Kim

Birthday, Barbecue & Boards

Some Labor Day weekends I’ve had have been relaxing, lazy and casual… not so much this year!  My weekend can be summed up in three words… birthday, barbecue & boards.  I mean come on, who doesn’t love a good alliteration? 🙂 

Birthday
On Saturday, hubby and I headed to my best friend’s house for her hubby’s birthday party.  I’ll be honest, at first it was slightly awkward because there were so many groups of people there – his coworkers, Army buddies, family, friends and then friends of friends. We know most of their coworkers and family, but still, the party hadn’t quite gelled yet and everyone seemed to be sticking to their own groups.  But then the food came out and everyone seemed to start to mingle and the party really got underway. One of the “friends of a friend” brought this Whipped Cream vodka – I was pleasantly surprised, it was really good. We mixed it with orange juice so it was like a nice lil’ adult creamsicle!  (Pinnacle also has a Cake flavor, hmmm, may have to try that next time.)  Of course I madencake pops for the party dessert, and everyone loved them, which is always fun to see.

Barbecue
On Sunday, hubby and I headed west to Lancaster to visit my parents for a little family Labor Day barbecue.  Unfortunately, my brother and his fiance were out of town, so there was just a few of us, but it was still fun nonetheless.  Mom made her famous pulled pork, and they also had grilled vegetables as well as fresh and grilled peaches.  They went to a farmers market on Saturday and found these little baby eggplants – so cute, I had never even heard of them before!  (Confession: I didn’t care for them personally, but everyone else seemed to like them.)

Boards
Today, Dad and I were down in the KC Bakes workshop and having fun with some chalkboard paint I picked up.  Check out our newest stand!
 

Create your own detailing…



… then it wipes clean with a damp rag!

I think these may become a big hit!   How was your holiday weekend?

xoxo,
  Kim