SpongeBob Cake Pops

Sometime in September I made Totoro cake pops for my friend Desmond's wedding, and one of his friend s liked it very much :) So she asked Desmond for my contact and wanted to know if I could make a batch of SpongeBob version for a birthday party in November. Unfortunately I had to turn her down because I was really busy that month, and I didn't want to turn something fun into a chore. Ann came back to me later with a new date for her daughter's party in December, and this time round I had to excuse to reject her again. Plus I had never made a SpongeBob cake pops before and it would be fun to give it a try!

Coincidentally SS is back for her holidays, so I have a little kitchen helper. She helped me draw these eyes on the white chocolate, allowing me to concentrate on other tasks. She was also responsible for drawing the collars, helping me speed up the candy-hardening process (you'll have to see it for yourself to understand this part, hee hee) and also helping me wrap the cake pops after QC check :D My sweet sister also helped with the washing up! Isn't she a darling?

Spongebob's eyes on a baking sheet...are you hypnotised yet?

As SpongeBob was rectagularish, I tried a new technique at shaping them hopefully to cut down my production time. Instead of shaping them individually, I had the cake crumbs pressed onto a cake pan after mixing it with the frosting. And then dividing them equally on the cake pan after leaving it in the fridge overnight. It worked! By doing this too I was able to cut them into equal sizes (well, almost...somehow I can't cut a straight line...LOL) before coating them with candy.

Chocolate cake, first crumbled, then mix with frosting, and compressed flat onto a baking pan

Oh yeah, I also added tic tac as the nose before coating, though I think it would have looked better with pretzels as the nose. Maybe next time, if I ever get to make them again! :)

SpongeBob on the back: "Peekaboo!"

Both of us had so much fun making all the different expressions on the SpongeBob. Just looking at them makes us happy. Also we couldn't help stare at those already in the fridge that we forgot to mind the fridge handle that was above us; my sister bang her head against those handles once (ouch!) and yet I never learnt from her mistake and a while later bumped my head on those very same handles too (double ouch!)  ...LOL!

I believe it's time for me to make some Christmas cake pops soon...hehe.... I really liked those reindeer ones that I made last year :)

What do you think?

Totoro Cake Pops

After making so many cake pops just because, a friend commissioned me to make some as wedding favors for his guests. In the beginning I was a bit reluctant to accept because I had another event to attend to on the day of his wedding, and I was simply worried I couldn't complete this in time. He was looking to have either Totoro cupcakes or cake, and it was my big mouth that recommended him the cake pops, LOL. So how could I refuse? He was sweet about it though, he told me I could make more of the easy ones if I was short of time.

And so after he asked, which was only 2 weeks before his wedding, I decided to could start making some samples to see if I could really accept his order, and I got these few versions done.

When I was finally comfortable with the design and I confirmed that I have access to all the ingredients required to make the pops, I agreed. Initially I thought I had to make only about 100-120 pieces, but little did I realise that he had about 150+ guests, and I ended up making 160 cake pops (my largest batch ever!) so that all his guests would have at least one.

And so in a span of a week, I baked 3 cakes, shaped them enough to make 180+ cake pops, and I had about 20+ rejects (due to cracks, out of shaped), and divided them into 4 different designs. My friend managed to provide me with some sytrofoam boards which I decorated to become the display stand :) They were only displayed a dozen at the time, and the rest was kept in a cooler box to keep it nice and cold. Malaysian weather is simply too hot for the chocolate coating :(

Voilà! My Totoro Cake Pops!

Each cake pop was also completed with a tag designed by the groom. Later I found out that this whole thing was meant as a surprise for his wife! I hope she liked the surprise! ;)

I had SOOOO much fun making them although it was tiring. Thanks to Lyne too for helping out in my first half of the cake pop making. But after this, I think I have to take a break from making cake pops for a while, LOL!

*UPDATED OCT 28, 2010 - Some of you have asked how I made these Totoro cake pops. I won't be making a new batch anytime soon, so I can't explain with photos, but here are some guidelines on making your totoro :)

1. Shape the cake balls as normal, just making one end slightly pointy like oval. Sort of like roundish oval, more round than oval...hope I make sense here, LOL
2. I use almond slivers as the ears. Dip them into melted candy first and position it on the top of the cake ball
3. Dip lollipop stick into candy and insert into cake ball.
4. Dip whole cake pop into grey candy coating. Before the candy is set and hardened, add on 2 white confetti for the eyes.
5. Use a shallow dish to for the white candy coating. Just dip the front portion into the white candy coating and tap lightly with the "tummy" facing up to get even surface.
6. Put some melted milk chocolate in a piece of parchment paper that is rolled into a cone (just like what you do for your icing), cut the tip, and use it to dot the nose on the totoro.
7. Use a food marker to dot the eyes, draw inverted "V"s on the tummy and the whiskers :))

Hope this will help those who are interested in making your own totoro cakepops!

Brownies + Cookies = Brookies?

My youngest sis brought me some Max Brenner Dark Chocolate Chunks from Australia. I couldn't think of anything else I could do with it other than chocolate chip cookies, until I remembered about this article from Bakerella.

And so I invited my sis over for a baking session. Told her she didn't need to worry about a thing about getting the ingredients. I should have everything we need in the house. Just when we were about to get started I realised I didn't have any eggs! Bummer. And so I rushed out to get some eggs from a nearby grocery store. And when I got home to continue I realised I didn't have enough brown sugar :S I simply didn't want to go out again and so I substituted the shortage with plain white sugar.

Since I had a nice helper, mixing all the ingredients was really quick and in no time at all it was ready to go into the pre-heated oven. The whole house smelled like heaven while it was baking...*drools*

Anyway, according to Bakerella these are called Congo Bars. I don't mind what they are called actually. I love the crisp top layer and the chewy base. And having it packed with chocolate, nuts, and M&Ms are simply heavenly. I'm also looking forward to making another batch soon :)

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try :)

Congo Bars

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened (or approx 150gms)
1 lb. light brown sugar (I had 2/3 of brown sugar and the rest white)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips (I used 7 ounce of MB choc chunks, and filled the rest with orange flavoured M&Ms)
1 cup chopped pecans (I used hazelnuts)

By hand: (apparently it has a better texture if mixed by hand)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Thanks Bakerella!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year Cake Pops

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

It's beginning to look like a blog dedicated to cake pops...

Hickory Dickory Dock

The mouse became a pop!

Look What I Found!

I went to Giant supermarket today to do some grocery shopping... and couldn't resist myself when I saw these!

M&Ms Christmas Mix and Orange Flavoured M&Ms

Arrggghhh! How could you not get them?? I can already imagine those yummy christmassy cake pops in my mind! *grin*

Gifts from Australia

2 of my sis arrived from Brissie yesterday... and look what they brought me!!!

Can you guess what this is?

And this?

and thisss??

and..and..and thisssss???

All those candy making stuff that I have problem sourcing locally!
(food markers, candy colouring, candy melts & lollipop sticks!)

THANKS A MILLION SIS!!!

SDI Exam Day

Good luck to all!

Old Macdonald Has a Farm... E.I.E.I.O

Well Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a pig
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a cow
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a dog
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a horse
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

Thanks to Bakerella and Cake Pops Galore for the inspiration!

I *Heart* Cupcake Pops

Once you start you can't stop - I meant the process of course ;)

Thanks Bakerella!

Bakin' with Aunty Lyne

Lyne came over to my place today to make cake pops! Thank's to Bakerella for her inspirations, we were quite successful in our pursuit this afternoon :)

Before Lyne arrived, I managed to put the chocolate cake batter in the oven. Decided that it was best that I use a ready cake mix I bought from the supermarket to save the hassle. After all, it's the decorating part that was more fun *grin* While waiting for the cake to bake and cool down, Lyne searched the internet for ideas of cake pops that we could make, while I prepared lunch. And it wasn't long before our cake was ready:

Fresh from the oven, smells good!

Dry cake crumbles

After crumbling the cake (it was really dry by the way - wonder why it was called super moist cake on the box), it was time to add in the butter cream cheese frosting (I'll put the recipe at the end of this post). I put in a little at a time, careful not to overdo it, and stop the moment it was possible to shape and mould the cakes into the shapes that we want.

Adding butter cream cheese frosting, a little at a time

We started by churning out golf ball sizes, and then various other shapes, such as pumpkin, bells, cubes and egg shapes, trying to keep them as even sized as possible.

Ready to go into the fridge

We only managed to get about 27 mini cakes out of the crumbled cake, we probably could get even more if we make them a little smaller. But the lollipop sticks I bought from ICCA was quite long (6") so it may look a little imbalance if the cakes were small. The size that we made were just perfect for the sticks.

White chocolate coated ghost cake pops

We just couldn't wait to dip those balls into the chocolate coating! As soon as we finished lunch we took out several bowls and melted some white chocolate in the microwave. I also tried to use Candy Melts by Wilton, but it was just too thick to coat the cakes evenly. I had to add some vegetable shortening to thin it a little, but then I realised that it took a longer time to harden if shortening was added. Still found that white baking chocolate was best in this case. I also used some gel food colouring (you'll need oil based food colouring to colour your chocolates).

Our first attempt at cake pops - successful!

Seriously we were both laughing so much and squealing with excitement each time the cake pop turn out just right! At first we tried to use some food markers to draw faces on them, but it was hopeless. In the end we just used some dark chocolate as a replacement. Works out great!

Cake pops for Lyne to bring home

I think we spent close to 5 hours (including waiting & lunch time) to complete about 14 cake pops. Yes, I know its pretty slow, but this was an experimental session, and so we made a lot of mistakes and that took up some of our time. But we learnt a lot of valuable techniques, definitely. The next time it won't take so long!

What do you do with a mummy so cute? Eat it of course!

Lyne didn't want to take too many home, and it was impossible for me to eat 10 of them! Plus I didn't know how long these babies would last. So I gave them all to my neighbour's kids who were just two doors away and happened to be playing outside at that moment :)

The last 2 cake pops - for my breakfast tomorrow!

I still have some cakes in the fridge, waiting for me to decorate them. I'll try to mix some orange colour tomorrow and see if I could make pumpkins out of them. Here's the recipe to the butter cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients

200 gms icing sugar

100 gms butter

200 gms cream cheese

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

BEAT the softened cream cheese and butter together and slowly add in the icing sugar and mix until light and fluffy. I only used about 1/2 of this portion in my cake crumbs, you may need more or less depending on your cake size. The original recipe in Martha Stewart's website calls for more sugar, but I didn't have that much left in my pantry (thank goodness), and still it came out just nice and not too sweet. Adjust the recipe to your liking.

As for the coating, I simply used white chocolate with some oil based food colouring. Becareful not to accidentally mix water into your chocolate (especially if you are using a baine marie). Other materials I used include mini M&Ms, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips and coloured sprinkles. You are free to use whatever you need, you are only limited by your imagination!

Happy Birthday Ophie

A birthday cake for a new mommy

It's my sis-in-law's birthday today, so I decided to bake her a cake. But she is still in her confinement, and supposedly eggs are not allowed in her diet until much later. So I searched the internet for an eggless chocolate cake. The result was nice and moist and not to mention super easy to make!

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 cups white sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups water
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vanilla extract


PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, soda and salt. Add sugar and mix together. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

* I only used half the recipe and a 9x9 inch pan. Also I added some chocolate chips on top of the cake ...yummy!

White Chocolate-Lingonberry Cheesecake Bar

Everyone was back home for CNY, which also means it was a perfect time to bake a cake. Guinea pigs!!! Heee hee hee... Neither my sisters nor their bfs have tried my cheesecake before, so I decided to experiment with another recipe from Kraftfoods. I made some changes to the recipe to suit what I had in my fridge.

The result? I had lots of approvals, though it was possible that they were simply hungry after several rounds of rummy games.

Anyway, here's my own version improvised from the original recipe:

Ingredients

1 packet of Oreo cookies, finely crushed
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 squares White Chocolate, divided
500gms (16oz) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp sour cream
2 eggs
1/4 cup lingonberry jam (from IKEA)


HEAT oven to 350ºF. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch square pan. Melt 2 chocolate squares in a microwave on High for 20-30 seconds.

BEAT cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 25 to 28 min. or until center is almost set. Cool 5 min.; spread with lingonberry jam (or any other preferred preserves. Melt remaining chocolate square; drizzle over cheesecake. Cool cheesecake completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

*Tip: It helps to line the pan with aluminium foil first for easy cake removal. Apart from acting as a handle, it makes cleaning easier too!

My First Fondant Cake... a Success!

Yesterday I went to ICCA at Seksyen 14 to source for some ingredients and tools to decorate my youngest sis' birthday cake. I wanted to make an extra special one for her, knowing her favourite soft toy was the Polarbear from NICI.

While I was there, Nancy attended to me, and asked if she could of any help. I told her I was looking at the possibility of making little figurines to decorate a cake and she asked if I've worked with fondant before.

"Erm, the closest I ever got to working with fondant is plastercine/playdoh", I replied honestly. "Is it the same?"

She just smiled and explained that it is not quite the same, and is a little bit more difficult to handle. She suggested perhaps it would be better to just get a 3D shaped bear pan to bake the cake and just ice with white frosting to turn it into a polar bear. I pondered a while and decided to go with using fondant. I was not quite willing to give up so soon. So she showed me all the necessary stuff I need to work with that sugar paste and I got a few other extra things to experiment with. Mind you these stuffs are not cheap :P

And so I found this nice little recipe for Moist and Tender Chocolate Cake from VeryBestBaking.com and yummy chocolate ganache from Martha Stewart improvised a little from there.

Recipe

Ingredients for Moist Chocolate Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
180gms unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup milk


Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache

200ml whipping cream (approx. 1 cup)
250gm semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup chopped walnut (or any other nuts you prefer)


Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9-inch-round baking pans (I used only one and then divided the cake into 2 after it is baked). COMBINE flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with milk. Spread into prepared pan(s).BAKE for 25 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan(s) for 15 minutes; invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

To make the ganache filling, bring cream to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour over chocolate in a heatproof mixer bowl; stir until smooth. Let cool completely. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until mixture reaches a medium stiff consistency, 2 to 5 minutes, checking frequently. If it does not reach this consistency, chill in freezer up to 5 minutes, then continue beating.

To assemble cake: Trim rounded tops of cakes flat. Stir together half portion of the ganache with the nuts; spread over one cake layer. Top with second layer, and spread remaining portion (without nuts) over top and sides. Smooth with an offset spatula.

Chocolate ganache frosted cake

Note: This is already yummy enough on its own, or you can continue to decorate it with fondant like what I did with mine :)

My first attempt to decorate a cake with fondant... yes, it's all edible!

Decorating Mini Cupcakes

Had fun this morning decorating some cupcakes for Cathy's & Catherine's little ones this morning. Just applying what I learnt from the previous SAL bakesale!

Not perfect but the kids love it ;)

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

Thanks to Aunty Lyne* who triggered my baking frenzy, this time I tried to bake a cheesecake. It appears that it was not as difficult as I thought. In fact, I found it simpler than baking muffins or cupcakes. Here's one recipe from cdkitchen.com which worked for me even for the first time!

My very first cheesecake!

Recipe

Ingredients for the biscuit base:

1 1/4 cup digestive biscuit crumbs or approx. 10 pieces (I used McVitie's)
1/4 cup sugar
125 gms butter (softened)

Ingredients for the cake:

500gms cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 can blueberry pie filling

Note: Instead of getting a can of blueberry pie filling, I bought glaced berries and topping (which looked like jam) separately and mixed them myself. It was not intentionally done, I just didn't realise there were can ones available. One plus point though, I get to put as much or as little of berries as I want into the topping since I am mixing it myself.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 deg Fahr. Mix crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and the butter; press firmly and evenly in bottom of ungreased 9-inch spring form pan (or with loose bottom). Chill for at least 30 mins.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until combined.

Pour onto biscuit base. Drop about 1/2 cup pie filling by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the cream cheese mixture. Cut through with a knife to swirl the pie filling. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on wire rack. (I saw another recipe book which recommended to leave the cake in the oven with door ajar for 10 mins first to prevent sudden drop in temperature). Chill for 2 hours. Top with remaining blueberry filling.

(Hubby insisted that I put his comment in, "Two thumbs up! Even better than the Oreo cupcakes!")

*Btw, Aunty Lyne is actually younger than me, the only reason why I'm calling her aunty is what I would term as an 'occupational disease' - just like the children we address each other as aunties at school :P

Yummy Oreo Cupcakes

Our school is having a fundraising activity this Friday as part of "Our Neighbourhood" theme. Apart from letting the children experience fun baking at school, it's the act of kindness that we would like to instill in them. All proceeds from the bake sale will be channeled to an orphanage.

And so all the teachers got really excited and tried various cupcakes recipes - some plain ones (so that the children could decorate them), and others with a variety of ingredients e.g. orange poppy seed, pandan, etc.

I managed to download a recipe from VeryBestBaking.com, which looked relatively simple. Instead of using chocolate morsels as recommended, I replaced it with Oreo instead. And the result was simply delicious! A must try!

Mmm...heavenly ;)

Recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
220 gms butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 packet of Oreo (150g) - crushed into small pieces

Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 375 deg F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Meanwhile, beat the softened butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in crushed Oreos. Spoon into muffin cups, filling 3/4 full (you'll get about 20-22 cakes with a 60mm size cups).

Bake 18-20 minutes or until top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

**You may reduce the sugar by 1/4 or 1/2 cup if you prefer them to be less sweet.