Top 5 posts of 2012

Well the best way to wrap up the first month of a New Year is to recap the highlights of 2012. So here they are the top 5 posts of 2012. 

Birthday Cake Pops

I made these cake pops for a friend's birthday. I love cake pops because: 

1. They are small &  super cute 

2. It's just like a cake but smaller so you can enjoy 1 or 2... 

3. Not as time consuming to make as a cake :)

Happy Birthday!

Sugar Cookies Recipe

I'm so glad that this recipe made it the Top 5 posts because this is the best sugar cookie recipe ever!! It never fails, it's easy to make and  it's so yummy! I've made this recipe so many times I actually remember the recipe to heart. If there is only one recipe you'd choose to try, make it this one. There is no better time than now to try them, I'm sure someone you love would like some Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies!!

Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie Recipe is the Best!!

A cute little explorer named Ainsley!

I made these sugar cookies, using the sugar cookie recipe above, for my friend's sweet little girl's 2nd birthday party. I made my own cookie template for Dora's face.  I got the idea to make a plastic cookie templates. Now I hand cut cookies using templates for those cookies that you just need to make but can't find the right cookie cutter. She has an awesome tutorial for making SweetSugarBelle Lego Heads, if you click on the link it will take you there. Actually I made the Lego heads and the cookie template worked so well that it has become my new go to. I've used this technique so often and I love it! It saves me money and space. I have so much cookie cutter clutter and still find myself not having one that I'm looking for so I just make one.

 Dora the Explorer

Roses are red....How to make rolled fondant roses!!

With Valentine's day right around the corner, these mini roses would be a pretty addition to any cookie and cupcake. Made them from scratch or just spruce up some store bought ones either way your loved ones will be so impressed. What a great way to show someone how much they mean to you. 

I use these mini roses all the time. It's a great way to use up any leftover fondant, place them in mini ziploc baggies to keep fresh, they last a very long time but rarely do :) 

And the top post of 2012 is....

You're never to old to play with Legos

I mention earlier that I had made these using SweetSugar Belle Lego Head's template, it was the first time I tried this technique. I've been hooked since. I love the fact that I can make my own free cookie templates anytime. 

I made these Lego Head for a sweet boy named Matteo. He was turning 6 years old and had a Lego theme party. All the kiddos got these cookies as party favors. This year Matteo had a Sponge Bob Square Pants theme Birthday party. 

  I made Sponge Bob heads and Patrick cookies for party favors. I used the cookie template to make Patrick. I always look forward to making Matteo's cookie favours, it keeps me young & hip, even though I usually have to Google the subject to find out what it is. Okay I'm not young and hip but I get to live vicariously through the cookies, cupcakes, cake pops and cakes I make for all the kids. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

~ Sponge Bob Square Pants & Patrick~

Sponge Bob

Patrick

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to visit my blog. Hopefully you found a recipe or two that you made and enjoyed. I've been busy in kitchen, this year, and I hope you stop by to check out my new creations. 

Thanks for stopping by,

With Love,

Katya

Birthday Cake Pops

It's my friend's birthday today. Happy Birthday Leona!! Well I didn't have time to make a cake but I did have time to make something even better. Birthday Cake Pops! 


I love cake pops because in my opinion they make the perfect bite size treat and they're definitely time friendly too... And beside it's all the same ingredients that goes into a cake except you're not stuck with a huge cake eyeing you every time you open the fridge saying...eat me!! 


Cake pops are small, and freeze well so have one or two, then pop the rest into the freezer for a time when your craving something sweet!

I posted a blog about making cake pops earlier click here if you want to try making them.

 I used two small round cutters, one slightly larger then the other to make the stacked birthday cake pop. Place approxiately half of the crumbled cake/frosting mixture on a large piece of waxed paper, press together lightly with your hands to make one mass, cover with another piece of waxed paper. Flatten the crumbled cake/ frosting mixture with a rolling pin applying light pressure ( you just want to flatten cake mixture more so than roll out) about 1/2 inch thickness. Then place in fridge to chill for 10 minutes.   Remove from fridge and cut out even amount of both size rounds. Do the same for the other half of the cake mixture. Chill again while preparing melted chocolate.

Prepare chocolate to dip cake pops. (see recipe) With a small spatula spread a little amount of melted chocolate on smaller cake round and attach to bigger cake round. Attach the lollipop stick into bottom layer with melted chocolate. Finish doing this with all the cake rounds and chill again to allow stick to harden and attach well. Dip the whole mini birthday cake stack cake pop in melted chocolate. Gently tap of any excess amount. I use a floral sponge to stick the cake pop sticks in to keep them upright to harden.

Birthday Cake Cakepops and Cupcake Cakepops!

To make the cupcake cake pops, follow the same steps for making the stacked cake rounds but you only cut out the smaller cake rounds for the cupcake bottoms. For the cupcake tops roll a 1 inch cake pop ball, then cut it in half. Let the cupcake topper and bottoms chill! Then attachment all the cupcake bottoms to the lollipop sticks using melted chocolate. Chill, then dip the entire bottom in melted chocolate, tap off any excess chocolate. Attach the cupcake topper immediately then chill. Melt your choice of coloured chocolate melts for cupcake tops. Dip the cupcake tops very careful not to submerge the whole cupcake pop. You want to just cover the top rounded part with coloured melted chocolate. Add sprinkles of your choice right away.

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Source: lillyunique.tumblr.com via Katya on Pinterest

Love Katya

Christmas bake sale goodies

I'm having a bake sale tomorrow in the mall. I just finished packing up all the goodies, tagging and pricing them. I thought I'd share some photos of my bake sale goodies. So this year I'm offering a Christmas cookie box, it has 25 cookies, which include gingersnaps, decorated sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, gingerbread men or gingerbread snowflakes and of course chocolate chip.

Christmas cookie box! A variety of flavours including my delicious sugar cookies! 

I'm also selling cake pops. I'm offering two different types, cake pops on a stick, which include Frosty the Snowman from my previous post and Rudolph the red- nosed reindeer. They're are both so adorable, I hope they're a hit.

I made up some cake pop baskets too!!

And then I tried something new. Shaped cake pops! I saw a chocolate mold in the shape of a gumdrop and so I pressed some cake pop mixture into each mold, let them set, dipped them in chocolate and viola.....

I decorated them with extra melted chocolate, sprinkles and peppermint candy. Chocolate peppermint cake pops...oh my!!!  I guess you have to like peppermint to appreciate them but still worth a try and it's easy enough to just change the topping to your personal favorite.

I will definitely be making these again, they fit so nicely into a little box and make the perfect gift for any chocolate lover. 

 Of course I will be offering the sweet dough pastries from my latest entry too! To tell you the truth I wouldn't be disappointed if these didn't sell out though. I can just imagine myself sitting by the Christmas tree with an apricot pirozok in one hand and a steaming cup of chai in the other. Throw in family and I'd say it's the perfect way to celebrate Christmas eve. I do have one more special item that I will be selling at the bake sale and it's these....

Snowflakes!!!

Don't they look delicious?  

These are a light, flaky, pastry dough that's deep fried and sprinkle with icing sugar while warm. They melt in your mouth and it's impossible to stop at one. Trust me I've tried. So the only problem was that I needed to come up with a creative name for them. These are an old recipe from my mom and she has a Russian name for them, which I have no idea how to translate so I had to come up with something and quickly. Then my dad  said, "Snowflakes, you should call them snowflakes." What a perfect name for them they look like a snowflake; are light, flaky and melt in your mouth just like a snowflake. 

And so that's all my Christmas goodies that I'm selling. I think I have a good variety of sweets and now to get some much needed sleep so I can actually stay awake during the bake sale. 

Here's a few more pictures of my bake sale goodies,

 I found these adorable container at the dollar store and filled them with small Christmas cookies!! I always find the cutest container at the dollar store, I'm so glad I spotted these.   

Well I've finished my work here and it's time to sell. Hopefully all my hard work pays off! I will let you all know how it turned out, but for now let me take the time to say, Merry Christmas to all and May your New Year be filled with love, laughter, and good health. 

With SweetBakedLove 

Frosty the Snowman.....

Okay so cake pops are all the rage now so I decide to jump on the band wagon. I saw these adorable Snowman cake pops on Bakerella website and I just had to try making them. I had to improvise on some of the ingredients but none the less that turned out great!! I'm a bit obsessed when it comes to snowmen just wait and see.....


Making the cake pops is really quite simple. You'll need:

~ Cake Pop Recipe ~

1 box cake mix

1 can frosting

Make the cake mix according to the package. Bake in a 9x13 cake pan.

Invert the baked cake on a wire rack and let it cool.

Once it's cool, break off pieces of cake into smaller pieces and crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl.

Crumbly the whole cake up. Take your time and make sure you don't leave any large pieces of cake. Add half the container of icing. (You will not need the whole can, if you add too much icing the cake pops will be to moist and hard to work with) Mix frosting into the crumbled cake. You can use a fork to thoroughly combine the mixture, I use my hands. Make sure you wash and dry your hands beforehand!  

The mixture should be just moist enough to come together into a ball and still keep it's shape.

Place the cake rolls onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for about an hour or in the freezer for 10-15 mins. The cake balls should be firm, *do not freeze them they will crack the chocolate coating if they are frozen or crumble and break in the chocolate.* I learned this the hard way and it was a disaster!

Once the cake pops are thoroughly chilled they are ready to be dipped in chocolate coating.  I use the double boiler method. I place a deep glass bowl, that fits snugly without falling in, into the pot with water. Keep the heat on low if the water is boiling to hard than you run the risk of water bubbling out the sides. Water will cause the chocolate to seize up!!

Dip the cake pops in smaller batches, keep the rest refrigerated. First attach the stick to the cake pop by dipping the end of the stick then gently insert into cake pops about halfway. I use floral foam, you can buy them at dollar store, to hold the cake pops upright. I attach all the cake balls to the sticks and put the floral foam and pops back into fridge for 1-2 minutes to make sure the chocolate is set and pops are firmly attached. 

Once the chocolate is set you're ready to dip the cake pops!! 

These are the ingredients I used: 

Chocolate candy melts

Mini reese's peeses cups

White confetti sprinkle

Maynard fuzzy peaches

Noodles

Mini Gobstoppers (red)

Flower sprinkles

Wilton Edible Markers

Okay so the problem with the first batch was the black edible marker wouldn't work.  First I used them to make the pupil on the white sprinkles for his eyes and it ran out of ink. So I had to wait between applications and when I went to draw on the mouth, after the chocolate had set, then it stopped working altogether. All was not lost because for the second batch I used black royal icing, I had just finished icing some sugar cookies....of course they were snowmen too....  

and had some left over so I tried it and it worked out great!! Easy, simple and just as sweet I thought!! You be the judge!!

Batch #1

Hard to tell from the photo but the mouth's were smudges and I only managed to make 8 before my edible pen died!!! 

Batch #2

Hmmmm......Okay so maybe they're both cute but the second attempt went smoothly and was so easy to do!!

Either way I had fun making them and that's all that counts!! When it comes to being creative the sky's the limit!! Use your imagination, dig in your candy stash and see what you come up. One thing for sure is give it a try. Cake pops are fun and easy to make. And eating them is just one bite away!! 

Oh and about the snowmen obsession, here's some pictures of the snowmen sugar cookies I was decorating.

They're so cute I'm having a hard time parting with them but as the song goes....but he waved goodbye, sayin' "Don't you cry , I'II be back again some day." I'm sure I will be re-visiting snowmen many more times <3

With SweetBakedLove <3