I Hate Mondays Cake Pops!

Last week was a horrible week at work it was so busy we all felt physically drained by the end. So a few of us thought we'd cheer everyone else up by making cakes for Monday, have a little bake off. 
I had planned to make some cake pops and a batch of snickerdoodles, but as soon as I put a picture of my cake pops up online I soon realised that I didn't have enough...so I put the snickerdoodles back on my 'to bake list' and made another batch of cake pops instead.

Monday's are always manic at work and while cake was a great idea, I think everyone went slightly mental on the sugar so it may have to be toned down next time! In the end we had my cake pops, shortbread, a pink ombre cake which was brilliant and also a shop bought cake which didn't make it 5 minutes after tasting for us to realise we were being tricked! There's still loads left....so another hyperactive day tomorrow perhaps?

 

Now for my cake pops I went for a variety, there are loads of different designs I have been wanting to try so this was a great excuse. All of the cake pops are dipped in white chocolate, in my first batch I made the standard hundreds and thousands dipped ones, then I got more adventurous with the pink leopard ones that I've been wanting to try forever and finished off with little pink owls with pink wings and yellow feet which are just too cute.

For the leopard ones I used a brush to dab on some pink petal dust and gave them a rough outline with black food colouring paste, the trick is to not outline them completely so they look more realistic. I really do love these and am tempted to invest in some other colours for more looks.
As for the owls, I coloured the chocolate pink and when they were cool I piped some pink royal icing on for ears, and writing icing to make the eyes and beak. In hindsight I wish I'd make the ears out of the cake and then dipped them in chocolate.

For the second batch I made hearts, cherry blossom and Hello Kitty cake pops. The hearts I actually used a heart cutter to make them and after dipping them in chocolate, absolutely covered them in blue sprinkles and hundreds and thousands. The cherry blossoms ones caught my eye a while ago and I'm really happy I finally got around to trying them out. They looked really oriental and exotic I love the fine piping detail. Now I have to say the Hello Kitty ones might actually be my favourite, I just hope my niece never finds out I made them and she didn't get one! This time I did make the ears from the cake before dipping them. The decoration was quite simply but effective too with black eyes and whiskers, a little yellow nose and a cute red bow, done! I'm sure my niece will be seeing some of these for her birthday they were so fun to make :).

I think I'm becoming mildly obsessed with cake pops now...anyone know any good books?

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Leopard Print Giant Cupcake

Another giant cupcakes I hear you say?! I know...the obsession is getting crazy now! But it seems like a bit of a tradition that whenever one of my friends has a birthday...they get a cupcake. I try to make it a surprise too by not telling them or giving any hint as I love the element of surprise!

This one was for one of my best friends Natalie. She's basically Rihanna....it makes me sick but I love her lol. So her cake had to be pretty fierce, no delicate flowers for her. And I can't quite explain it but something just said to me....leopard print. I've seen loads of cakes using this with pink and I thought that was a super cute idea...so I stole it!

The cake itself is chocolate with vanilla buttercream. I got to use my Norwegian cocoa powder again which I love as it really makes the cake a dark chocolate colour which I find so hard to do with other brands.

The bottom I have to admit took me forever, and I'd twinged my back earlier so it wasn't a pleasant process shall we say - but all worth it :). I made the bottom a very light brown colour using Sugarflair Dark Bown colouring paste, then with some left over fondant I split it into two and added a lot more dark brown to get the chocolate colour, and the other half I made black with Sugarflair Liquorice.

I wasn't sure about how the pattern was looking to begin with but I'm really happy with how it turned out. For the top I used my new favourite Wilton 1M nozzle, I'll stop going on about how amazing it is soon I promise...actually I can't promise that...

I didn't want to make the top too busy as the bottom was like a print so I kept it simple by making a pink fondant heart coloured with a teeny tiny dab of Sugarflair Claret colouring paste. Using some of the left over brown and black I rolled them together to get this twisted candy cane look and shaped it into a smaller heart, and also a bigger one for a boarder and stuck them on with a tiny dab of water. Be careful when using water as if it's visible on a fondant surface and it dries...it'll never look smooth! A trick my dad taught me and it's so true.

I dusted the top with gold cake glitter, I've used this so much I need to stock up soon and get some more colours I think I absolutely love them. I finished it off with a little pink bow at the front, only doing a small one at the front and not all the way around as to not ruin the print look.

I'm so happy she loved the cake and it was great to do something a bit sexy! I'm sure they'll be another cupcake up soon...and I still have my Wilton cupcake tin to try out too so keep posted for that one!

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