Cake Pops!

Hey loves! 

It's been quite a while since I've had a chance to write a post here, but I'm asked all the time how to make cake pops.  I thought that would be a good tutorial to share.  I'll go through and add more pictures this week.  Enjoy! 

Basically, you bake a cake (box or homemade, they really don't taste different in a cake pop. I prefer to do everything homemade, but I don't judge). After you bake the cake, break it all up in a big bowl, and mix in frosting - start with probably a 3rd of a tub of frosting from the store for one full box of cake.

I use a tablespoon and fill that with the mixture, and roll them into balls.

After that, melt some of the Wilton candy melts in a bowl in the microwave and dip the end of the cake pop sticks in it, then stick it into the cake ball about half way through it.

I put them on a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat, but you could use parchment paper too so it doesn't stick.

Next, stick them in the freezer. This part is so important. If you try to dip them in the chocolate now, they'll just fall apart.

Once they're good and cold and solid, start melting a bowl of candy melts. A tip here- The Wilton Bright White ones are really thick. I got some white ones from Hobby Lobby that aren't bright white and mixed them with the Wilton ones. The Wilton ones look nice but were too thick.

Once you have your chocolate melted, start dipping the cake pops and spin them a little (gently) to get extra chocolate off and put them in a stand or back on your cookie sheet.

You have to move kind of quickly, then get them back in the fridge. If they get too warm while you're doing this, they could crack. There are always a few that crack, I just eat those smile emoticon

And that's it! You have cake pops! To add lines, melt different colored candy melts, put them in a decorator bag or a baggie and cut the corner off, and just drizzle it on them.

For sprinkles or other "stick on" decorations, you have to sprinkle it on immediately after dipping, while the chocolate is still wet.

Happy Baking!

The Miss Pink Pageant

The Miss Pink Pageant is a wonderful event celebrating incredible women who have battled breast cancer.  I was lucky enough to be asked to be a baking sponsor for them this year for their 5th annual pageant!  Find out more about this amazing event here: http://misspinkpageant.com/

I made 400 cake pops for the event.  They were SugarLove Event's vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream colored pink for this event.  Here are some pictures of them in the process and the finished product. Enjoy!

It took 10 batches of cake to make the 400 pops.  Here they are!  

Eek! Naked cake pops! :) This is what they look like rolled and with sticks, but no chocolate yet.

 

Ta Da! The finished product! 

 Reach out to me at sugarlovenh@gmail.com or at Facebook.com/SugarLoveEvents if you would like something made for your next event!

Carnival Party!

I recently baked for a Carnival themed first birthday party.  Here are the smash cake and cupcakes for the event!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star First Birthday!

 Our little lady just turned 1 year old! 

We can't even believe it's already been a year.  Savannah is our first child (her brother will be here in July), and we've just learned SO much over the last 12 months.  She is our whole world, so we needed a party that really celebrated her.  I decided on a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme and wanted to make as much of it as I could.  I made her a smash cake, cupcakes, sparkly star cake toppers, cookie "wands" for her friends, and a tutu for her high chair. 

 I love all of the chalkboard signs for first birthdays.  They are so cute, personal and creative.  I wanted to make one for Savannah but had a few issues...

1. I've never practiced chalk board writing, so it would have looked like she wrote it herself.
2. We had just moved into our new house (less than 2 weeks before the party), so I was a little short on time.
3. I wanted to keep it after the party to remember it all, so I didn't know how I would manage that.

I found a great shop on Etsy (Sweet Cheekers Designs) that creates these for you, they send you the file, and you print it anywhere you want.  I had this made for Savannah and just printed it at Walmart.   It came out great!

 I made a tutu for Savannah's high chair (come on, you can't have a plain high chair for a princess party!).  I also got a plain wooden star from Michael's, painted it gold and got some letters to put her name on it.  The letters were the wrong color, so I painted them with nail polish.  It was so easy, and I already had the nail polish so it was cheaper than buying more paint for a small project.

Here's Savannah with her smash cake in her tutu chair! 

 This is the smash cake I made for Savannah. I just put some swirls over the crumb coat and used the toppers that I made for her cupcakes.  The toppers are just gold sparkly scrapbook paper that I cut with a cricut star thing from Michaels.  I put two stars back to back and stuck them with double sided tape to a toothpick.  They were perfect!

SugarLove's (Award Winning) Chili

Fall is here! That means cooler days, pretty leaves, football, and chili! Our town recently did a "Town Day" with a chili cook off and apple pie bake off.  I have to admit that I was the only entrant for the apple pie contest, so I won 1st place.  I hope that they at least liked the pie...
The chili contest had 3 other entrants that I was up against, but still took first place! I didn't take a picture of the chili for a couple of reasons.  First, chili isn't super pretty.  Second, I forgot. I'll take a picture the next time, but for now, here's a picture of my award from the contest followed by the recipe.
Enjoy!

Seasoning blend (makes several batches of chili):

4 Tbl Chili Powder 

2 Tbl Flour 

2 Tbl Cumin

1 Tbl Garlic Powder 

1 Tbl Onion Powder 

1/2 Tbl Sugar 

2 tsp Paprika 

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 tsp Salt 

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper 

1 tsp Oregano 

1 tsp Parsley 

~ Mix all together and store in an air tight container – Use ¼ cup per batch of chili ~

Chili:

1 lb of sirloin, cut into small cubes and browned

1 – 1 ½ lbs Ground Turkey, browned

½ medium onion

1 large can Tomato Sauce

1 can Diced Tomatoes, drained

As many hot peppers as you like

1 Bell Pepper, diced (color of your choice)

¼ cup seasoning blend

2 cans of your favorite beans (or extra veggies or meat if you don’t like beans)

Mix all ingredients together in a crock pot.  Cook on low 8-10 or high 4-6 hours.   

(Healthy) Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

The season of "everything pumpkin!" is here! I love this time of year.  I live in New England, so the fall is beautiful here and there are so many fall festivities going on.  With the chill in the air, I love baking as well.  I love just about anything with pumpkin.  Pumpkin itself is a healthy ingredient full of vitamins and fiber, but a lot of fall recipes include butter, sugar....all kinds of delicousness that makes me fat by Thanksgiving.
This recipe tastes like a combination of pumpkin pie and blondies.  They aren't super sweet, but the cream cheese frosting makes up for that.  
This recipe uses soy flour.  I like soy flour because it's low in carbs, high in protein, and not as expensive as other specialty flours. You could try using regular flour or wheat flour. I haven't tried that yet.

For the bars:
2 large Eggs
1 cup Pumpkin Puree (canned or fresh)
1/2 cup Honey
1/4 cup Coconut Oil, warmed
1/4 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce 
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup Soy Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Powder
**If you like things on the sweeter side, add 1 packet of Natural Stevia Sweetener to the batter.

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine the eggs, pumpkin puree, honey, coconut oil, apple sauce and vanilla extract in a medium sized mixing bowl and either beat with an electric mixer on low or by hand until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, and mix just until well combined.

**If you like things on the sweeter side, add 1 packet of Stevia sweetener to the batter and mix well.
3. Pour the mixture into an 8x8 baking pan (coated with Cooking Spray) and Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center it set. Remove and allow to cool completely before serving. 

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: 

1 Package (8oz) Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) Light Butter or Reduced Fat Margarine

2 Tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

16 oz Powdered Sugar

 

Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’ve got the energy).  Slowly add powdered sugar on low speed so you don’t make a mess. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add a little more milk.  You can adjust these until you have the desired consistency.

Put it all together: 

 

Once the bars have cooled, frost however you like. Cream cheese frosting is a little more thin than buttercream, so it doesn’t mold well.  I put some frosting in a plastic lunch bag and cut the corner off.  I made line design on top of my bars.

Enjoy!

Healthier (and YUMMY!) Red Velvet Cake

I love cake.  It is definitely my favorite food, always has been.  Cake is one of those things that I can't live without, but I try to eat healthy as much as I can.  This cake is absolutely delicious and SO much less fat than the original.   The cake leaves out Eggs, Oil and Water and only uses 1 cup of Diet Dr. Pepper. Seriously! I'm sure you could use Root Beer or Coke or whatever you want, but the diet makes it so the only calories are the cake mix.  The frosting is delicious too, has all the flavor of regular cream cheese frosting, but a fraction of the fat.  Now you can have your cake and ENJOY it too!

For the cake:

1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix

8 oz (1 Cup) Diet Dr. Pepper

 

Stir cake mix and Dr. Pepper until combined. Don’t over mix.  Spray pan of choice with cooking spray ( lined muffin pans (2/3 full), 1 13x9 Pan, or 2 Round Cake pans). I made this in the 2 cake round pans.

Bake at 350 ~15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Put cakes on cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: 

1 Package (8oz) Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) Light Butter or Reduced Fat Margarine

2 Tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

16 oz Powdered Sugar

 

Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’ve got the energy).  Slowly add powdered sugar on low speed so you don’t make a mess. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add a little more milk.  You can adjust these until you have the desired consistency.

Put it all together: 

 

Once cake has cooled, frost however you like. Cream cheese frosting is a little more thin than buttercream, so it doesn’t mold well.  I put a layer of frosting in between my two round cakes, then added a layer of frosting to the top of the cake. I thought it looked pretty, but you can do the sides if you want to as well.

Enjoy!