I’ve never known what the big deal is about cake pops. They seemed pretty unappetizing to me. Cake, with no frosting? That just doesn’t sound good! That was, until I actually made them.

There are 2 kinds of cake pops. There are the kind that you mix and roll, and the kind that you bake in a pan. The cake pop pan was invented in an attempt to make it easier for people to make cake pops. All you have to do is pour in the batter and bake it. Easy, right? Unfortunately, these don’t taste too good. There is a reason that cake has icing. Cake by itself isn’t all that great. Everyone likes the icing! And the white chocolate coating is not enough to make up for the lack of icing.

When the cake pop trend started, I didn’t hop on. It has been trending for a long time, and this is the first I’ve started making them. They looked tedious, like they wouldn’t even taste good, and I just wasn’t up for it. I was so wrong!

Cake pops are delicious. To make them, you actually mix the icing into the baked cake. You don’t use much icing, so it’s not overly sweet or dense. When you mix it together, it creates this delicious moist dough. It’s exactly like cookie dough. Okay, it doesn’t taste like cookie dough, but consistency is just like cookie dough. The taste is amazing. It goes from being a baked cake, to being like a cake batter fudge. I don’t even know how to explain it. Like cake batter in a more solid form. Soft, sweet, creamy.

I started making cake pops at work. It was my first time, and it took a little trial and error to get it all figured out. So far I’ve made them a number of times, and a number of ways, and I’ve worked some of the kinks out. So now I’m here to share it all with you.

Prepare all of your ingredients. Make sure you have a large sheet pan lined with wax paper to store the cake pops on before dipping, and a large piece of foam to stick the cake pop sticks into once they’re dipped. Set out your cake, chocolate or coating, the proper bowls you’ll need, and sprinkles or decorations.

Making the cake pops:

You can make cake pops out of lots of things. You can use any flavor of cake. Chocolate, white, strawberry, lemon, funfetti. (For funfetti, use white cake, and add rainbow jimmies in the last part of mixing. If you use fiunfetti cake mix, it will turn into a brown blob when you mix it. Don’t use nonpareils, because the color bleeds and mixes with the dough). You can also used cooked brownies to make cake pops! Just make sure they’re a good moist brownie (not too much crust).

Start with your baked cake. You don’t need much. Whenever I bake a cake and need to cut any excess off, I put it in a ziplock and throw it in the freezer. I also do this with cakes that get botched (like if I forget to add an ingredient, and it’s not cake worthy, but will taste perfect find mushed up.) You can do the same with extra cupcakes, too. The reason it’s convenient to do it this way is because you don’t need much cake to make cake pops. If you bake an entire cake recipe, you’ll end up with a TON of cake pops (especially if you’re making them itty bitty!). It also makes it easier to make just a few cake pops if you’ve got a craving!

Throw your baked cake into a stand mixer and turn it on low. Mix it until it turns into crumbs.

Add about a tablespoon of icing. I used this buttercream recipe, but you can also use canned if you aren’t up for making it (though it’s incredibly easy and only takes a minute!). Once you’ve added your icing, mix the cake and icing until it forms a dough. If it doesn’t form a dough within about 2 minutes of mixing, add another tablespoon or two of icing. Your dough should look like this when it’s the right consistency.

Roll your dough into balls. It’s really up to you how large to make them. Plan it out according to your cake pop sticks! If you’re making them itty bitty, use tooth picks, and make the cake pops about 1-1.5 teaspoons. If you’re using cake pop sticks, make them about a 3-4 tablespoons.

Dipping:

Once you’ve got them all rolled out, prep your coating. You can use coating chocolate (the most preferred because it’s easy to work with and doesn’t bloom as easily), real chocolate, or white chocolate. My favorite to use is white chocolate because the taste of it goes the best with the cake. The real chocolate tastes pretty good with chocolate cake pops or brownie cake pops, but blooms much easier than white chocolate. (Blooming of chocolate is when it’s improperly heated, and the cocoa butter separates from the rest of the chocolate. You get a gross white film on the chocolate and it loses it’s good texture. It can be revived by re-melting it the proper way).

If you’re using white chocolate, you can thin it down by adding vegetable oil to it. White chocolate is NOT the same as dark chocolate, and adding cream to it makes it seize (guess how many times I did that before I learned a lesson!). To thin out your white chocolate, add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil at a time until it’s thinner. I found that a couple teaspoons worked well, and didn’t mess with the ability to harden. If you don’t thin out your white chocolate, it will create a thicker coating and be a little bit more difficult to work with. It will all depend on your brand of chocolate though.

Dip your toothpick or cake pop stick into the chocolate and stick it into the cake ball. You only want to stick it in about 3/4 of the way. If you stick it in all the way, it will split the cake pop right down the center, and it will be more likely to break in half or fall down the stick. If you don’t stick it in far enough, it will fall right off the stick during dipping. You want the chocolate to ooze out the bottom when you stick it in. The reason for this is to create a little shelf for the cake pop to sit on. Once you dip it, it will form a nice little coat around the cake and keep it in place.

For larger cake pops, you can dip them as soon as the chocolate is dry. To dip, make sure you have plenty of chocolate, dip the cake pop about halfway in, and use a spoon to coat the rest of it. Pull it out and tap it on the side until the excess has dripped off. Be gentle, so you don’t break the cake pop. Stick the dipped cake pop upright into a large piece of foam to dry.

If your cake pops have problems staying on the stick during dipping, put it in the freezer to firm up and try dipping again.

For mini cake pops, I found that the only way to make it work is to freeze them. If you’re making the mini cake pops for children, make sure you break off the sharp tip of the tooth pick so that they don’t hurt themselves while eating it. Dip the tooth pick in chocolate, and stick it 3/4 of the way into the mini cake pop. Once you’ve done this with all of them, put them in the freezer for about 30-60 minutes. This will make them firm enough for dipping. Having frozen cake pops also quickens the drying time. If you’re doing a large amount of cake pops at a time, you may need to stick them back in the freezer, because they will defrost while sitting out. Follow the dipping process referred to above.

If you’re using sprinkles, make sure to sprinkle them before the chocolate dries on the cake pops. With frozen cake pops, the drying time is much shorter, so do it immediately.

Decorate as you please. You can do so many cute things with cake pops! Bakerella is my favorite place for cake pop ideas, she has done so many cute things!

This time, I made a cute little picture out of my cake pops. My little girl is turning 4! I made these as a practice for her birthday.

If you have any questions at all, please leave them in the comments. I will answer what questions I can, and update my post accordingly.

When I originally found this recipe, I thought it sounded interesting to try, but figured it wasn’t a big deal if it was edible. I kind of thought my 2 year old and 4 year old were a little old for eating paint. Weeeellllll, the very first thing Charlie did with the finger paints was taste test. I guess I was wrong!

The recipe came from this blog.

What You’ll Need:
1/2 cup Cornstarch
2 cups cool water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar

Mix all of your ingredients and heat them on medium heat on the stove. Stir often (and constantly once it starts to get hot) until the mixture thickens. Once it’s thickened, remove from heat. You can put it in an ice water bath (I just filled my sink with a few inches of cold water and placed the pot in there to cool). Once it’s cooled, divide into separate dishes (baby food jars work great for this!) and add food color. Mix thoroughly.

I made a 1.5 batch of this, and it was enough for 8 of the 4 ounce jars filled about 3/4 of the way full.

Summer is almost here, and the hot weather is upon us. What better way to end your day than a frozen cocktail?

What You’ll Need:
1 cup Frozen fruit (or fresh fruit and ice)
1 cup Wine (I preferred to use the White Zinfandel I had on hand)
Sugar or simple syrup to taste (optional)

Just add the ingredients to your blender, and blend for 1-2 minutes. Pour into a cup, prop your feet up, and enjoy.

For this recipe, I used frozen strawberries and raspberries. It gave the drink the most amazing red color. Not only was is delicious, it was gorgeous to look at as well! For frozen drinks, I always use frozen fruit rather than ice, because it retains it’s flavor much better and doesn’t get watered down as it melts. It also gives the drink a better texture (sometimes you get a chunky ice texture if the drink isn’t blended properly).

Last year I made a post about keeping brown sugar soft. I had found a tip online about putting marshmallows in with your brown sugar to keep it soft, so I tried it, and it WORKED! So far I’ve not had a problem with my brown sugar drying out. But what happens when your brown sugar is already dried out? Not just a little dry, but hard as a rock? Maybe you bought too much and didn’t use it quickly enough, or else you left it open in the cupboard. Brown sugar is very finicky and it doesn’t take much to dry out. Once it’s hard, it’s impossible to properly measure, it ruins recipes, and most people just throw it out. So I’m going to tell you how to fix it!

I recently came across a package of brown sugar at work that was hard as a rock. I literally had to chisel at it just to get it out. After some googling, I finally found a solution that works.

Take a couple sheets of paper towel. Wet with water, and wring it out. Lay the moist paper on top of the brown sugar and seal the container shut. Leave it for 12 hours. Come back and check it. I’ve done this a few times now and it has worked every time! There was one time that I came back to find that the paper towel was completely dry. All you need to do it rewet it and seal it again, and let it sit for another 12-24 hours.

Once you’ve sufficiently softened the brown sugar, you can either break it up with a spoon or fork, or stick it in your stand mixer.

And don’t be alarmed by what the sugar looks like when you first open it! When you use the wet paper towel method, the sugar closest to the towel gets very moist and the molasses will leach out of it, leaving it looking slightly soggy and white. Just mix it up well and it will look much better! Now that your brown sugar is soft again, throw a couple regular sized marshmallows in the container to keep it soft.

Winter seemed to drag on and on this year. Normally we have a few odd warm days in late winter, but this year it didn’t happen. In fact, we had some really weird weather here in Michigan. We had a warm 70 degree day in May. And the next day it snowed. A few days later, another 70 degree day, and then snow the next day. I am SO happy that we’re on to 70 degree days every day! Here are some of my favorite parts of spring and summertime.

Watching the storms roll in. I LOVE a good thunderstorm!

Cutting into the first watermelon!

Some iced coffee.

Bon fires and roasted marshmallows.

Popsicles (You will be seeing many popsicle recipes from me this summer!)

Picnics outside.

It turns out we’ve got a few gorgeous shade trees to picnic under!

I’m so excited for summer this year! We have a gorgeous yard, and for the first time, central air! I will no longer fear the 100 degree days. I will have a refuge from the heat! We can play outside in the water and then come in to cool down. It will be heavenly!

Spring is finally here, along with warm weather. What better way to kick it off than some cold brewed coffee!

For this you’ll need:

Coffee grounds
Room temperature water
Large bowl or tub with lid
A fine mesh strainer (though I’ve found a regular colander will work, but takes more time to drain)
Cheesecloth or paper towel

The ratio that I grabbed from the Pioneer Woman’s website is 1 pound of coffee per 8 quarts of water. If you cut it down, that’s 2 oz. of coffee per 1 qt (about 1/4 cup measured, to 4 cups water), or if you just want to try a small amount, you can cut it down even more, about a tablespoon of coffee to 1 cup of water.

Cold brewing takes a bit longer than traditional brewing, but in the long run, it saves time. You need to prepare it ahead of time (it takes a good 8-12 hours to sit), but if you make a large batch, it’s always ready (which means no more waiting on the coffee pot!) I usually start a batch in the afternoon, and strain in the following morning.

Start with a good strong coffee. I like to pack a lot of punch, so I use this espresso blend. So far it has served me well. It has a nice taste to it, lots of caffeine, and because it’s cold brewed, no bitter taste.

Measure out your coffee grounds in a nice large tub or bowl. Make sure it can easily be covered, you don’t want flies getting into your coffee! Add your water, and mix.

This will make your kitchen smell HEAVENLY. You know that coffee aisle smell? That. Not the somewhat skunky smell of coffee when it brews, but the delicious smell of fresh ground coffee. And if you use a flavored blend (like the Starbucks Caramel coffee, another highly recommended one!), it smells even better.

Now cover it tightly and let it sit. It really only needs to sit for about 8 hours or so, but I’ve let mine sit as long as 24 hours, and it only makes it absorb the flavor better.

This is what it should look like once it’s been sitting a while.

Once it’s time to strain, you’ll need to find your strainer and another large bowl or tub.

Line your strainer with paper towel or cheese cloth. If you’re using paper towel, I suggest double layering it.

Pour your coffee through your strainer and let it drain into the bowl. The paper towels should catch most of the coffee grounds.

I always strain mine twice, because there’s always those pesky grounds that fall through. This is what it looked like after a second strain of my batch.

See? No one wants that in their coffee.

Once it’s been strained, store it in an airtight container in the fridge. I just use a large tub with a lid on it. You can normally find them in the tupperware aisle at the store. The one that the Pioneer Woman has is gorgeous. It’s huge, and has a spout on it for easy pouring.

Now, you can prepare your cold brewed coffee any way you like. You can add some ice, caramel, and cream and blend it in a blender to make a frappe, or just drink it on ice with cream.

My favorite way is cream and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. The almond milk gives it just a tad bit of sweetness (and the unsweetened vanilla almond milk is very low carb). The cream adds just a little bit of creaminess to it. If I’m really in the mood for something sweeter (like later in the day), I’ll add some sugar free vanilla or caramel creamer. YUM!

Look at all those gorgeous creaminess.

There are SO many ways to enjoy your cold brewed coffee. Give it to a coffee lover as a gift, blend it up with some ice and cream, drink it straight, or use it in a recipe. It is ALWAYS good.

Download

I realize I’ve been sitting here with all these files on my computer, and I haven’t bothered sharing them! I’ll be a little bit better about that in the future. Here you go, two different kinds of cupcake wrappers! They’re sized to fit standard cupcakes. If you need them for larger or smaller cupcakes, you can resize.

Download Scalloped Cupcake Liner

Download Scalloped Lacey Liner

Go to Google or you favorite search engine, and search for whatever it is you’re looking for. I decided to use a cupcake for my example.

Click on “images” to do an image search.

Find the image you want to trace, right click, and save.

Open your image in Silhouette Studio.

Zoom in so it fills your screen. Depending on what size the image is when you open it, you may need to resize.

Click on the tracing tool in the upper right hand portion of the screen.

Click the button to activate the tool.

Draw a box around the item you want to trace.

You can mess with the threshold and see how it affects your image, and decide what numbers to keep it at.

Now you have two options. You can either trace around the outside of the object, or do a full trace, which will catch the detail on the inner portion of the object.

Here is an outer trace.

And here is a full trace.

And that’s how you trace an image! Next I’ll show you how to edit a traced image to clean it up, make modifications, and much more! I hope this was helpful.

If you have an tips or requests, please leave them in the comments!