Cake pops and stuff

Here's a quick review of class at TCC last week!  We made these cute little guys:

 Here are some cake pop basics:  

Best website: bakerella.com.  Not only is her site really informative, she has the best eye candy!  

Basic recipe:

1 cake mix, baked to instructions

1 can frosting

2 bags candy melts

lollipop sticks

Crumble cake with hands into large bowl.  Don't worry about crust pieces that don't crumble as easily.  They will soften when the frosting is added.  Add about 1/2 can of frosting.  Mix well.  If the mixture doesn't roll into a ball easily, add a little more frosting.  Use a mini scoop to scoop your cake mixture.  Roll in ball with your hands.  Chill the cake balls for about an hour, until firm.  When ready to dip the cake pops, melt the candy melts in a plastic bowl.  Usually, this works best if you microwave at 50 percent power for 1 minute at a time, and then stir.  Repeat until the melts are a nice consistency for dipping.  If needed, add a little shortening to make it thinner, or coat more easily.  Dip a lollipop stick into the candy mixture, just about 1/2".  Then insert the stick into a cake ball. Allow to harden for a few seconds.  Dip the cake ball, straight down and up out of the mixture.  Gently tap the wrist that is holding the cake pop with your other hand to remove excess coating.  Then, either put the cake pop on wax paper, upright, or insert into styrofoam block to cool.  Decorate as desired. 

Helpful hints:

Don't use cake mix with pudding in the mix.

Don't add too much frosting to begin with, you can always add more if you need, but if the mixture is too mushy, your cake pops will be hard to work with.

Coat twice if you want your pops to look nice and round and smooth.

Use toothpicks to apply extra coating, to "glue" on your candy, and to clean up edges.

After dipping for a little while, your melts will have some moisture in them, and also might be getting a little hard.  Zap them in the microwave with a little shortening to get the consistency right.

And last, presentation is everything!  Put them in a cute container!

Here are a couple more ideas from class:

Happy Mail!

 Start with a soda bottle, clean, dry and cut in half with a serrated knife and scissors.

 Gather some cute, lightweight items for the inside.

 Fill up both halves.  Put the bottle back together with packing tape.

 Then decorate.

Add a cute piece of card stock for a mailing label.  Address and put stamps on it.  You can check the USPS first class parcel rates HERE.  Throw it into the blue mailbox!  Enjoy your day, knowing you just made someone happy!

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What's for Dinner?

So since this is supposed to by my version of a journal, I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of some of my daily stuff.  Like cooking.  Which we all have to do several times a day.  I love a good roast chicken.  So here is a naked chicken!  I am probably breaking some kind of chicken nudity laws, so let's dress it up a little!

Rub it all over with olive oil, kosher salt, and ground black pepper, and 400 F and about 1 and 1/2 hours later...

Voila!  Yummy roast chicken!  Now what to serve with it?  Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I found this great recipe to try on there the other day--parmesan roasted potatoes.  

Gather your ingredients,  yukon gold potatoes, paprika, olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.

Cube the yukon potatoes and then toss with the 

olive oil, paprika, salt, pepper, and cheese.  

This is what you end up with...yummmmmmm.

Of course, every good meal needs some greens--this is one of my favorite and easiest salads

Gather up some mixed greens, with spinach preferably, feta, dried cranberries and pecan pieces.

Yummy greens,  now add the toppings:  pecans, cranberries and feta.  Which for some reason I didn't take a picture of.  Just pretend there are some crumbly bits of white cheese on there.

And now the secret weapon:

This dressing is FABULOUS!  Girard's champagne vinaigrette-- and the best part is, you can get it right here in Enid, OK in our little ol' Walmart!  It really enhances the tart of the cranberries and the sweetness of the pecans....Go get some!   And enjoy!  And have some tomorrow for lunch!  Now, what is for dinner tomorrow?

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