hoopla palooza

cake pop popsicles (fudgesicles, creamsicles and fruit bars)

2013-05-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

well, it's memorial day weekend.

meaning lots of fun in the sun.

and fun in the sun includes cool treats.

like these:

yippee!

hope you are ready for a bajillion pics cuz i went a little cray cray with the camera when i made these.

let's start, seeing this is a totally long post already and you are a busy busy person with things to do!

ok here goes.

i know, i know, many of you won't have this kit to use the cover. but if you have a circle cookie cutter, you can smoosh it down to an oval to cut the popsicle shape.

umm...so i know they are not all equal in thickness...
just work with me...

and yes, these guys are thin on purpose. the candy coating makes them double their size and i didn't want huge thick popsicle treats. i think it's too much at once. but you can make them any thickness you want really.

anywho, let's move on.

ok the praying part? i did a lot of that but ended up having a couple fall apart on me. as you can see they are thin as compared to cake balls, so the dipping is a challenging process. i didn't wanna loose anymore popsicles and some of them did not want to cooperate so i did this:

here's a step by step to cover up the cake without actually dipping them and having them crumble in front of your eyes. (ignore the inconsistent color of the popsicle pictures for now, as i was deep into making these and took pics here and there like a crazy person.)

the "shake to smooth" process includes shaking the parchment paper covered tray or plate you have these on-the candy will smooth itself out as long as you do it quickly before it starts to dry.

it also helps immensely to have good smooth candy in melts or bark form.

i actually used almond bark and colored it with a few candy melts. using candy melts alone is a pain cuz sometimes they are so thick even after melting and i didn't wanna put a lot of oil to thin it out, like you have to sometimes for dipping.

anyhoo, when the candy coating's almost dry, score the edge with a toothpick or the top of a butter knife.

trim the excess candy from the back of the popsicle with a sharp knife.

as for the clean up, do this:

scoring the popsicles is a very important step when you cover them like this. when they are scored, the extra pieces fall off themselves or take very little effort to remove, thus giving you a nice clean edge.

and look at the fun you made:

now let's keep going...

and going...

and going! whew!

so if you're really into these, there are new cake mixes out there in orange creamsicle and key lime flavors. i didn't get them cuz it means actually baking a cake and i would rather spend the time decorating to my heart's insane content so i get this:

even though they are really chocolate, strawberry and lemon cake pops, you can still pretend they are:

either way you'll be the coolest person on the block with the coolest popsicles.

and you didn't think you could get any cooler!

pinwheel cookies on a stick

2013-05-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

you've heard of subliminal messages right?

like the ones they claim to play on some songs or commercials?

i think they play those in stores all the time.

and i am zombified to buy things i never intended to get in the first place...

i don't think that's very fair.

i wouldn't do that to anyone.

never mind.

i will just jump right into making some

easy peasy semi-homemade cookies.

wanna make these?

let's grab some stuff (not all pictured by the way cuz i'm not as organized as i should be).

trader joe's pie crust is. the. BOMB.

no other words to describe it.

defrost it according to package directions then:

i got 9 squares out of one pie dough.

with scraps to cook and eat just because.

make sure you cut your lines just to meet the jam center.

jam is better than jelly for these cookies cuz it's thicker and more cooperative.

i melted about 1-2 tbsp. of butter and just threw the sugar on the pinwheels without measuring...how's that for exact? :>P

the jam will ooze out a little.

but that's no prob cuz it easily cleans up if you make these on parchment paper.

but don't try to blow on them to make them spin cuz they will just fall off the stick instead.

then you would have to eat them right away. hmmmmm...wait a sec...guess that would work too?!?

anyway,

you can easily make a bunch of these for this weekend's festivities :)

oh and before i forget to tell you,

these cookies will make you say

YUM!

heehee

"enjoy the everyday" sprinkle picture

2013-05-17T00:00:00.001-04:00

life gets crazy.

sometimes a week goes by and i feel like bill murry in the groundhog movie where every day is the same.

sleep. eat. work. cook. family. chores. blog. sleep.

so i kinda gotta stop myself and say "hey stop yer complainin' already lady! and enjoy the everyday!"

so i made this to remind myself and my family to do just the same:

it goes along with my "make life sweet" picture i made outta gumballs.

i used the same shadow box frame for this picture too.

go here if you wanna see what i am talking about.

anyway, here goes.

ok put those bottles aside for a minute.

so now my workdays are like this:

sleep. eat. work. cook. family. chores. blog.