Rainbow Cake Pops & Truffles

With having made rainbow cupcakes and a rainbow cake, it was only appropriate to make rainbow cake pops :-) 

Even the bags of candy melts are pretty when lined up like a rainbow! 

And of course, who can forget the rainbow ribbon! Michael’s had an awesome deal on these too…they were 3 for $1.00! It doesn’t get better than that! 

These cake pops were definitely a vanilla fans dream They were made with vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, and the candy melts were vanilla as well. 

The colors turned out great! Very vibrant, cheerful, and fun!

Rainbow cake pops just wouldn’t be the same without a matching ribbon, now would they  :-)

Even if they cake pops took a little longer than normal, they were so worth it! So fun and the girls adored them. 

That’s a lot of rainbowy cake pops!!

They remind me of a bunch of balloons ready to be set free and float into the air <3

 

I knew I would have extra candy melt left over after dipping the cake pops, so I decided to try rainbow truffles.  

Despite what one would think, the truffles were actually hard to make. Not hard in the fact that all you have to do is drop them in the candy melt, but to get them to stay perfectly round after removing them. Not as easy as I thought!

I used lemon cake and vanilla frosting for the truffles and even though they were not perfectly round, they tasted delicious!    

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day…most think love, romance, roses, and chocolates. Me…well, I now think exhaustion! With my new love of cake pops, it’s no surprise I would be making them for my girls…all three of them! This means making over 100 cake pops! While it was a lot of work, they were big hits for the girls and that’s all that matters to me <3 

Not only did I make cake pops, but I also made chocolate covered strawberries for a friend to give his fiancé for Valentine’s Day. This was the first time I have ever made them and they turned out yumm-o-licious!  

Unlike your traditional chocolate strawberries, I ended up cutting off the stem and dipped the entire strawberry instead. After the chocolate dried, I drizzled them with cream cheese…can we say amazing? 

All packed up and ready to be enjoyed!

Orange Creamsicle Cake Pops

 

Ok, call me predictable…but who didn’t see this coming ;) After tasting the deliciousness of the Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes, I couldn’t help but try baking a cake and making cake pops out of it! The end results…hold on…had to wipe the drool off my keyboard. Ok, the end results were just as, if not more, yummy than the cupcakes! Oh yes, I said that! The orange/vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, and vanilla coating were an explosion of tasty cupcake all packed in to a bite sized (multiple bites if you eat gracefully…haha!) cake pop! 

I followed the same recipe to the make the cake as I did when I made the Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes; the only difference is that I used half can of frosting versus homemade…only because I ran out of confectioners sugar to make more. Next time I will definitely try homemade frosting! For the candy coating, I decided to use...what other than...orange :) Wow, I really am predictable! 

I used white sprinkles on some of cake pops...

 and decided to “get a little crazy” and try a candy writer…I know, look at me being all wild! It took me a little while to get used to writing with it, but in the end, I think they turned out great!

 I had to pay tribute to three of the most important things in my life…my daughters. They are the reason my face hurts from smiling too much, for wiping away the tears from laughing so hard, and the reason why my heart is filled with love. They are my pride and joy!!  

Kayla, Madilyn, & Raegan

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I found a recipe for orange creamsicle cupcakes a long time ago and have been dying to try them, but just never got around to ordering a key ingredient in the recipe. The recipe calls for a bakery emulsion, which I could not find in any of the stores, so I finally purchased a bottle here: Orange Baking Emulsion and made them. 

While the results were well worth the wait, I regret not making them earlier because they are delicious! I ended up making 24 cupcakes and a cake…to make cake pops with of course :)

I followed the recipe for the orange creamsicle cupcakes from Not So Humble Pie and topped the cupcakes with a homemade buttercream frosting found on Bakerella's website.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

yields 24 standard cup cakes, a 9x13" cake or 2 8" rounds
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon orange gel coloring
1 1/2 teaspoon orange emulsion
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 grams all purpose flour (2-7/8 cups)
200 grams granulated sugar (1-7/8 cups)
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (58 grams) canola oil
1/4 cup (57 grams) (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (115 grams) sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven.

Prep your pans with cupcakes liners (or if baking a cake, use parchment and nonstick spray).

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a second bowl gently mix the egg whites, orange gel coloring, orange emulsion and vanilla. You don't want to over beat the eggs, just make the mixture uniform.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter and oil with the paddle attachment for about a minute on medium speed. The mixture won't be completely smooth, so don't worry about little bits of butter suspended in oil.

Add the sour cream and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the ingredients are moistened and crumbly. Add half of the egg mixture to the flour and beat on low for 20 seconds until moistened and then beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture and beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds.

Divide the batter into your cupcakes (or pans if using), filling each cup halfway.

Bake for 20-25 minutes for standard cupcakes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you're baking the 9x13" or the 8" rounds, allow 5-10 more minutes. Also
this is very moist, delicate cake, so be careful when checking on the cakes.

Easy Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1b. 10X powdered sugar

1-3 teaspoons milk, half and half or cream

Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla until smooth.

Add sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more.

If you want your frosting a little creamier, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture.

The buttercream frosting was a perfect topper for these orange little guys!

 I used a 1M tip to frost the cupcakes...and frost them high to the sky...just how the kids and I like them!

Packer Pops

In honor of Super Bowl XLV, the company where I work had a potluck today so I decided to make Packer Pops! I used chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, dipped in yellow and green candy melts and garnished with, you guessed it, green and yellow sprinkles!

The potluck started at 11am and the Packer Pops were gone within a half an hour! I brought in about 35…I definitely underestimated their popularity. They were a huge hit with everyone and I am happy to say they were thoroughly enjoyed :)

I followed the same instructions I used when I made my chocolate cake pops and sprinkled them with green and yellow sugar and then tried a “swirl” technique with the candy melts. The results were beautiful! It was a perfect blend of the two colors to create almost a helmet look to the pop.

Bouquet of swirled cake pops

Bouquet of sprinkled cake pops

A nice mixture of sprinkled cake pops and swirled cake pops…yum!

Go Packers!!