Christmas cake pops

Every year I like to make something for friends and neighbors for Christmas.  This is not really something I have seen here in New Zealand but it is a tradition I love from growing up so its something I want to carry on.  This year I have had a ton of leftover cake from the off-cuts of the 75 Christmas cakes I have had to make so I decided to give cake pops a go again.  I enlisted the help of my daughter and it turned out to be much easier this time.  I read a hint recently that to get the stick to stay on you freeze the cake onto the stick before dipping it in the chocolate.  This works a treat and I had no trouble. 

To make cake pops I took about a cup to two cups of leftover cake and mixed it with a tablespoon of icing.  I then put it in a food processor and mixed it until the mixture comes together and you can form balls.  This is a pretty flexible recipe so just make it as moist as you like.  I don't like my cake too moist so I prefer to use as little icing as possible.  I rolled the cake mixture into little balls and put lollipop sticks into them (you can get these at spotlight in New Zealand).  I then put them in the freezer and let them set for a couple of hours. 

Once the cake pops had set in the freezer I melted chocolate specifically designed for making chocolates (Nestle Melts work great!).   I dipped the cake pops into the chocolate and let the chocolate drip for a couple seconds to get a smooth finish on them.

Quickly before the chocolate had hardened I added pretzels I had split in two to either side of the chocolate ball and a little red nose made out of fondant (you can purchase red candy balls and use this instead).  

For the eyes and mouth I made some royal icing (you can buy ready made icing from spotlight or the supermarket for this very thing) and piped the eyes and mouth on.  You can also purchase an edible pen to draw the face on (in Tauranga you can get this from Culinary Council).  

This is a really fun project to do with your littlies who will love the reindeer!  If you want to give this a go and live in Tauranga I have a ton of leftover cake thats wanting to be used so send me an email.  For those a little braver you can try out this Christmas tree cake pop as well.  I used powdered colouring and added it to white chocolate Nestle melts to get the green colour and I used star sprinkles for the decorations.

Handbag Cake

Several months ago I auctioned my services off at a Cool Bananas auction (http://www.coolbananas.org.nz/).  This is the cake that I made for the woman who won the auction.  This cake was made for her 60th birthday party and was an orange chocolate mudcake covered in chocolate ganache and fondant.  

Cupcakes and Christmas!

I have been baking up a storm this week!  I had the pleasure in making 60 of these cupcakes for a group of lovely ladies who meet each week to study the word of God.  On top of that I have agreed to making 75 cakes for Christmas over the next two weeks.  Am I nuts???  I will let you know next week! 

Lately

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything for this blog.  I turned 30 several weeks ago and I don't think I have touched the ground since!  For my 30th my husband took me to Melbourne and we spent five incredible days just the two of us.  What a treat! The best thing was that we hardly even talked about kids or work.  Amazing.  I did miss my kids terribly though and it is so nice to have something to look forward to coming home to now after being on holiday.  

Upon arriving home my sister and her two children arrived from Western Australia and have spent the last three weeks with us.  The house has been mad with four children under four but it has been a special time spent with my sister.  She was very helpful for planning my 30th party with the theme of 1920s, jazz age lawn party. It was a great night.  Because I had to make my own cake I made a vintage microphone.  I am passionate about jazz and love to sing it so a vintage microphone was perfect.   

A few days after my party, my dear little girl turned 3!  Where does time go?  For her birthday she was very spoiled and got 2 birthday cakes.  For her kindy class I made a large interactive crocodile cake.  I cut out a ton of tiny green circles and the kids helped me to cover the crocodiles back and tail to make his scales.  They loved it and I loved spending time in my daughters class getting to know her teachers and the kids she talks about.  I couldn't just make the crocodile cake though and for her birthday dinner with family and a few friends I made a rainbow cake with sunshine as it sums up my happy outgoing little girl. 

Last night I had a party for a dear friend who has just turned 40.  For her cake her husband asked for her smiling face and curly hair to be on top of the cake.  Her favourite colour is turquoise so this is what I came up with!  The cake was a great opportunity to practice the latest cake trend of ruffles which are so pretty. 

All Blacks Win!!!!!

What a great day to be a New Zealander.  The sun is shining and we are all basking in the glory of a win that has been 24 years coming. I dare anyone who loves sports and has never seen rugby to watch it and not become an instant fan.  The game was intense, keeping you on the edge of your seat to the very end.  Many might say that it was too close of a game and that we only just won, but lets remember the games leading up to this victory.  The All Blacks deserved to win.  They were the better team not only last night but in the entire tournament.  They played their heart out last week against Australia, a pre-final game, only to have to rally back up and play the game of their lives last night.  They were tired, battered and bruised and yet they knew the whole country was counting on them, willing them to win, so they kept going, giving every last breath they had to make the victory.  We are proud of you All Blacks.  Its been a tough last year for New Zealand with so much heart-ache and maybe that makes this win feel all the more sweeter.  We have something to smile about for awhile.

The Macaron

I hate fads.  In fact I'm a bit of a fad snob.  What I hate most about them though is no matter how hard you try, they get you every time.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen something become fashionable and think to myself, "I would never wear that" and then it slowly creeps into my wardrobe until all of a sudden I find it appealing.  I am beginning to learn that food is very much the same way.  Like in fashion, food has a very distinct 'style' and things come in and out of fashion. So when I saw french macarons suddenly become the rage I turned my nose up at them.  There was no way I was going to make them.  These fiddly time consuming treats seemed far too posh for me - I mean really, could something possibly taste good without butter??

Well, I have to tell you that all of a sudden I was starting to find all the lovely different colored macarons very appealing and I've decided they must be a feature at my 30th this year.  Crazy, I know.  I don't even like meringues so I most likely would not like macarons but I was inspired.

There has been a lot of fear surrounding macarons.  This delicate little cookie can go wrong very easily so many people shy away from trying them.  Maybe this is what suddenly made them appealing.  I needed a challenge so I went off in search of instructions and found an incredibly handy pdf that I strongly suggest you download if you wish to attempt macarons.  It has wonderful step by step instructions with great pictures to follow.  In fact I found these cookies pretty easy!  I think the key is getting the egg whites firm and if you have made meringues before this is nothing new.  The next trick is then determining the cooking times that suit your oven.  I think this is where all the drama lies as I believe you probably need 3 attempts to get the cooking times just right.  Once you know your oven though it should be a breeze!  My first tray was slightly over cooked and then my second tray was under cooked.  I did a second batch as chocolate and turned the tray after twelve minutes to give more even baking to both sides and found that this was much better.  I think that by the time I have my party these babies will be perfect.

As far as the taste go I have to say that even though I don't like meringues I don't mind these.  I can't say they are my favorite but then again I think a lot has to do with the flavor for me.  I really did enjoy the chocolate ones and I think that maybe I would enjoy lemon ones even more.  As we have far too much sugar in this house I gave the chocolate macarons to my daughters kindy teachers as I am hugely indebted to them for the incredible time and involvement they put into my daughter.  These ladies possess so much patience to work day in and day out with pre-schoolers and their passion for their job really helps me look at my daughter in a different light.

You can find the instructions to mastering the macaron here.

Basic Oatmeal cookies

I fear the stomach flu.  Majorly.  If I hear that a child has had the stomach bug recently I would probably grab my child and run if it were not rude.  The idea of nausea and vomiting and the fact that it seems to visit everyone in the family no matter how vigilant you might be in running around disinfecting everything terrifies me.  The last two weeks were just that.  It all started with my 9 month old vomiting all over dad at the park.  I shouldn't have laughed but I did only to be covered in vomit twice that night.  Oh joy.  Two days later it was the husband and myself to get sick and by the end of the week my 2 year old was ill but hers lasted for a week!  Finally we are free of the nasty bug and I finally feel like I am catching up on the cleaning and the washing not to mention sleep.

Its been awhile since I have done any baking so my daughter and I took out the aprons and made these wonderful basic oatmeal biscuits.  I love these!  They are incredibly addictive so watch out, but not only that, they are a great base for any oatmeal biscuit.  You could add craisins and white chocolate, raisins and walnuts, chocolate chips or toffee bits.  Yumm!  Definitely worth the try.  You can find this recipe here.