The Holiday Menu

Every year I make baked-goods baskets. It started out when I created what I call Pumpkin Balls (that is a post all its own.). I made tons of these cookies and gave them as gifts. This continued for a year or two. I added a few other things like hand molded chocolates and gingerbread cookies but in general the only thing snazzing up my gift baskets were the hand painted treat bags I did. Once. Those bags were such a headache.

Last year I upped the ante. I didn't make my pumpkin balls. I made sugar cookies and gingerbread. Each cookie was hand decorated and I think I nearly killed myself and my husband trying to get everything together. It wasn't well planned out.

This year I'm making quite a bit more. But I wised up. Everything I can do early - I am. I've been pre-making and freezing my cookie doughs. That way I can just defrost, roll and bake. No more of this trying to do it all at once. I have learned from my psychotic break downs.

On holiday menu this year are: Sugar cookies, Linzer Tarts, Cake pops, a no-bake rum ball cookie, and possibly a powdered sugar cookie I found in the Penzey's spice catalog. For those with dogs I'm also making dog biscuits.

The sugar cookies and cake pops will be decorated, but I'm trying to keep this semi-easy for me this time around.

Speaking of decorating, I discovered while I was making those Turkey Cake Pops that while I'm a lefty, I did all of the detail work with my right hand. Granted, I really only eat and write with my left hand. I throw, cut and do a lot more with my right hand. It still fascinates me, though. I'll be doing more observations like this when it comes to decorating the cookies. Maybe it's only on things that are 3-D that I use my right hand to detail. Experiments to come!!

I'll keep you posted on what's cookin' in FatCat's kitchen as we get closer to Cookie Day!

Thanks for stopping by.

FatCat

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's that wonderful day of the year where it's ok to gorge yourself on turkey, stuffing, yams, pie and any number of delicious culinary delights that will show up on your table. It's my favorite day of the year.

The day is filled with eating. First it's brunch at my in-laws' then it's on to dinner with my family. Nothing stems the constant flow of food. It is truly amazing. More so that I don't die from over eating.

I made special Thanksgiving cake pops for both events this year. I took Bakerella's turkey pop design and combined it with her adorable spring chick pops to create this:

The love child of the Turkey Pop and the Spring Chick Pop.

These guys were made using a yellow cake mixed with chocolate frosting. I dipped them in dark chocolate melts. After the chocolate set, I began the detailing.

First I used mini-candy-coated chocolate chips for the beaks. I used the red hearts and red spades for the wattles. Large white and yellow sequins were used for the eyes and I drew the pupils on with an edible ink pen. For the tails I used 3 caramel candy corns. Honestly, the tails were the worst thing to put on. I finally figured out an amazing method for getting them not to slip around. Sadly it was on the last 5 pops that I figured this out.

So far, these have been the most detailed pops I've made. I loved every minute of putting these together. I'm looking forward to making and putting up more fancy pops for you all.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. May you eat to your hearts content with no guilt. May you enjoy time with family and friends. If you're brave enough to go out on Black Friday, I wish you amazing deals and your holiday shopping to be completely finished by 3pm tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

FatCat

Playing Catch-Up

I've been making cake balls/ cake pops for just under a year now. I've taken photos of them along the way but never had a place to showcase them other than Facebook. I decided that this post would be dedicated to showing off what I've done in the past so that I can go forward and show you what I'm doing now.

My first ever attempt was Valentine's Day of 2009. My husband was out for the day (really I told him to go out and not come home until a certain time) and I had wanted to surprise him. I made a strawberry cake and home-made cream cheese frosting. I bought a medium sized candy box and lined the individual slots with mini cupcake wrappers. This is what they ended up looking like:

I used milk chocolate melts and decorated using purple and pink chocolate. In hindsight, the strawberry cake and the milk chocolate were a little too sweet together. Next time I use a super sweet cake I'll be sure to use dark chocolate.

My next experiment with cake balls wasn't until May. Friends of my in-laws are very involved with the American Cancer Society and put together a Relay For Life Team. As a member of this team, I wanted to bring something to snack on or even give to other participants at the event. Again, I was inspired by Bakerella and decided to make cupcake balls dipped and decorated in the ACS colors. When I got to my in-laws' house and showed my mother-in-law, she insisted on a photo shoot. Honestly, I was so thrilled with how they looked I was ecstatic that she wanted to photograph them.

See how nicely they posed? They were a huge hit at the relay.

And again, months passed before I made cake balls again. This time, I decided I'd try doing cake pops. Not an easy thing to do when you have no idea how to make things small enough to stay on a stick yet big enough to decorate.

The Jewish New Year gave me my chance to try out cake pops. Since part of the tradition is to eat apples and honey as representation of a sweet year to come, I made cake apples. I used red and green candy melts, pretzel rods for stems and since I didn't have diamond shaped sprinkles, I used Christmas trees for the leaves. I don't think they turned out half bad.

 

In early October I was involved in a bake sale to support the National Kidney Foundation of Greater New York's Kidney Walk. I made 166 (yes, I counted) red and orange cake pops to sell. They were an instant hit and sold in a flash.

The latest round of pops that I made were for my sister-in-Law (the same one who introduced me to Bakerella) and her husband. They recently got married and their rehearsal dinner was on Halloween. What could be more appropriate than making ghosts, jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins?

No mouth ghosts

Ghosts with a mouth

Pumpkins

 

And jack-o-lanterns

So ends my trip down cake ball/pop memory lane. Upcoming will be my Thanksgiving Turkey pops, winter penguins, and the multitudes of cookies that are in process and I type this post.

Oh, my photos will be a lot better from here on out. These were pretty much all taken (with the exception of the Valentine's Day truffles and the Relay For Life cupcake balls) on my cell phone.

Thanks for stopping by.

FatCat

Just Starting Out

Hi there! This is my first time blogging about something that I'm doing. On this blog I'll be sharing pictures of my baking and cake ball/cake pops. I've always loved to bake and one day, my sister-in-law introduced me to http://www.bakerella.com/ and I got hooked. I loved her designs and decided to try out some of my own. I've also gotten more into cookie baking and experimenting in the kitchen. This blog will follow my successes in the kitchen as well as my epic failures.

Thanks for coming by!
FatCat