A Birthday Cake and Cake Pops for Crystal

En Español
Last Thursday my oldest daughter turned 22! I cannot believe how fast time has gone by. Crystal is a wonderful daughter, and I thank God each day for that. I am very proud of her. May God continue to bless her, guide her and help her in her in med school so that she can graduate on time and become the best she can be in that field.

At home we always say we are skipping the birthday cake or that we want something light, but I always end up baking something. There is always room for cake, especially a delicious chocolate cake! Diets can start some other day, right? This time I made a cake and strawberry cake pops decorated with purple details.

Since Crystal loves sprinkles and glitter in baked goods, I decorated some of the cake pops with lilac and also rainbow color disco dust. Apply the disco dust to the chocolate while it is still a bit wet with a soft brush smeared with a tiny bit of dust and gently  flick it to drop the glitter over the cake pops.

For the inside of the cake pops I mixed the strawberry cake with light blue buttercream to make it light purple to match the fondant flowers.

The chocolate cake, is covered with Italian meringue and filled with strawberry jam. This cake recipe is delectable and it is one of the recipes included in my eBook Holiday Cakes.

How-to's of decorating the cake:
I frosted the cake as usual making it as even as possible. Use a flat spatula to press gently the sides of the cake from the bottom up and as straight as possible. Keep doing this until the technique is applied throughout all the sides of the cake.

Even out any protruding edge of meringue on the top edge by using a flat spatula or scrapper and leveling it towards the center. Use a pastry bag with tip  #855 or #1M to make the small swirls on the top edge. Apply fondant flowers and voila!

In the previous posts, this one and this one I mentioned that Crystal favors chocolate chip cookies; therefore, something with chocolate chips had to be present and that is why her sisters gave her chocolate chip cookies and chocolates. They also made her handmade cards! I loved that fact that they took time for details in a busy school day, especially for the handmade cards in these days where everything is made electronically lacking the personal effort in creating something nice from scratch.

Before making the swirls, I sprinkled some cocoa powder on top. I loved how it looked in addition to the flavor it added. These were a few of my baking projects this week, I hope you like and share it as usual. 




Have a blessed week!

Young people can live a clean life by obeying your word. I worship you with all my heart. Don’t let me walk away from your commands. - Psalm 119:9-10 

Cake Pops, Ballerina Cupcakes, and Cute Cake for Topaz 16th Birthday!

Oh my, the years, months and days are just going by too fast! Sometimes too fast to literally stop and smell the roses, in my case, hibiscus flowers! Wednesday my youngest daughter turned sixteen! My little girl is not a baby anymore, well it has been a while since she is not been a baby, but it is so hard for me to get that in my head. To me she is still my blue eye baby. Since her favorite color is blue, I made the cake pops and cupcakes in this shade too!

The past weekend and the beginning of the week was not so great due to my grandmother's departure to heaven, but as costumed for years, I always bake something for my daughters on their birthdays, and I couldn't miss that for my youngest sixteenth birthday. Topaz is a bright girl, she is very obedient and strives always to do her best in all that she does. She loves photography and at times is the one photographing for my christian blog. My husband and I have been greatly blessed with her.

I love her quirky nature photos, and I believe she is good at that because she has always been a fan of all things nature. I remember her going out into the farm and searching all over for garden fairies, she collects rocks, nests, shells and skeleton leaves... you're probably asking, what leaves??? Yes, skeleton leaves exist and she taught me that when she was four! She still has a few of her first collections saved in a journal somewhere. I remember those wonderful days when she asked why? what? and where? Unlike my other daughters, Topaz would not settle for simple answers, she wanted the real deal and all the facts about everything a young child could ask about. I also miss her fairy hunting and fairy house building where I was her accomplice on many occasions. This is why I decided to make the cupcakes a mixture of ballerina and fairy dress.

The bodice is fondant left to harden over night on a curved tube, I used a rolling pin. The skirt is vanilla buttercream, and I used tip number 104 to make the scallop shapes. When making the skirt or tutu make sure the narrow part of the tip is facing you.

I asked Topaz what kind of cake she wanted and left her looking at sweet sixteen cakes on pinterest, two minutes later she was looking under cute cakes and found this cake. She said, I like that one! I was surprised, no black, no fuchsia feathers, nor sparkles or zebra print as many others teenagers her age like. She loved the idea of a cute, whimsical and fun cake with an ice-cream cone upside down on top. I had planned to make her a bigger cake like this, but a week before she changed her mind and said she preferred the pineapple upside down cake she loves so much. I did bake her that cake, and settled for a tiny version of the cute cake to surprise her. The mini ice-cream is a cake pop, everything else was fondant outside, and inside vainilla buttercream crumbcoat and chocolate cake cut out with round cookie cutters.

The cake pops were done in the same fashion as these, but instead of dry them side up in a foam, I laid them to dry on a tray lined with wax paper cake pop side down. When dried you should be able to lift and place in serving plate. If your cake pops get stuck to the tray don't panic, just pop them in the freezer for 3-5 minutes and then you should be able to pick them up easily. I used white non-pareils and fondant flowers for the decor on this cake pops.

This is all for my weekend notes about my little one's treats. I loved the ideas and outcome so much I wanted to share it with you. Have a blessed week :)

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. - 1 Timothy 4:12 New

Pre-tied Ribbon Bows for Cake Pops and Cookies

Summer is not over yet and we are already involved in back to school errands. I really miss the good old days when class started in September. These past two weeks I have been enjoying time with my daughters as much as I can in their last days of vacation. This year has been and will continue to be of many changes in our home. For starters, my second daughter is starting college this year. I am so happy because that makes two out of three in college, so far so good, since my youngest still has to more years of high school to complete.

In between busy schedules, summer fun and the transition in season, there is always time for work :) If you are like me and love making your baked goodies looks pretty, I have share a video on how I make the little tiny ribbon bows for cake pops and cookies with wire ties included. I buy the Mini Treat Bags that come with wire ties and do the bows myself.

Online we can find a variety of pre-tied ribbon bows to add a nice finish to our packaged cookies and cake pops, but there may be times when we need to make our own ribbon bows to go accordingly to the celebration or type of decoration we used on our baked goodies. To add a personalized touch the way we like to our products, we need to make the bows ourselves, this task requires patience and dedication. In addition to being freshly baked and good tasting, these details make our homemade work special and worth the cost. For web photos ribbons are added to unwrapped cake pops, but the bows are usually tied after cookies and cake pops have been inserted into clear bags. The video I share below is how I make the ribbon bows with wire ties included, I hope it inspires you to make beautiful colorful bows.

How do you tie your cake pops or cookies? Any helpful tips are welcome.

 

Happy and blessed day!

"The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;" ~ Psalm 34:19

Cake Pops for Mom!!

I made some cake pops using the strawberry cake recipe I shared in the previous post and they tasted like a heavenly experience, I highly recommend it. I also made a classic at home, chocolate cake pops... scrumptious and yummy too! I used pink and white chocolate colors, kept it simple but elegant to make these, special cake pops, for moms. I hope to inspire you to make some today or anytime soon.

I dedicated these cake pops to my mom and my three precious daughters. Thanks to them, I feel I am the happiest daughter / mom in the world. May the Lord continue to less them. I would also like to congratulate all my readers moms who celebrate Mother's Day today.

Make, Enjoy, Pin and Share :)

To make the pops no exact recipe, you can use any cake recipe and frosting of your preference.

What you need: