Easter Egg Cake Pops

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Such a cute idea...wish I had the ingredients to make these here in Saudi.  :/  Ah well, I'll be in France for Easter anyway, I'll just buy something cute this time!  :)
(photos from Bakerella)


Easter Eggs Cake Pops from Bakerella

Recipe From Bakerella

Ingredients (for the cake pops)

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)

1 can frosting (16 oz.)

Wax paper

lollipop sticks

Instructions

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (I use the back of a large spoon, but it may be easier to use fingers to mix together. But, be warned, it will get messy. Also, you may not need the entire can of frosting, so start out by using almost the entire can and add more if you need to.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)

To decorate:

Pink Candy Melts
Yellow Candy Melts
White Candy Melts
Pastel Confetti Sprinkles
Sanding Sugars
Light Corn Syrup
Paper Lollipop Sticks
Styrofoam Block
Paramount Crystals
Small Paintbrush
Toothpicks

To decorate:

* Shape the cake balls into an egg shape.

Melt chocolate in the microwave per directions on package. (30 sec intervals, stirring in between.)

Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the cake balls. (Insert a little less than halfway.)

Place them in the freezer for a little while to firm up.

* Dip in candy coating color of your choice holding the lollipop stick and rotating until covered. Once covered remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don't tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off, too. 

* Let sit in the Styrofoam block until dry.
* When dry, use a small paint brush to paint on a thin layer of corn syrup in a line around the egg. Do one line at a time. Right after you paint on the syrup, sprinkle on one of the sanding colors until all of the corn syrup is covered. Use a bowl sprinkle over.
* Repeat with varying designs and colors.
* You could probably also do this with the melted candy color, but this time I was experimenting and tried the corn syrup.
* For the confetti sprinkles, either dab a little bit of the candy color with your toothpick and glue on the sprinkle shapes or use a little bit of the corn syrup to act as the glue. The corn syrup will take a little longer to dry.
* Dry completely.

Apple Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping

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It was time for another ladies coffee get together.  I really wanted to bring something nice and I had found this great coffee cake recipe.  (coffee cake...but no coffee in it...weird right?)  Nah, it's just cause it goes great with coffee!  :)
The recipe is super simple...especially for someone like me who is not fond of baking.  Easy ingredients...not much you can do to mess this up.
The streusel on top was perfect...I love the crunch it added.  You can use almost any kind of apple in this.  I also read reviews of people who used pear and cranberries.  (which both sound good to me!)
Whip this up the next time you want to impress someone (without out a bunch of work involved!)  Feel free to leave off the streusel topping if you want to cut back on the sugar...a nice dusting of cinnamon and sugar will work great too.  Serve this warm for the best taste.

Streusel Recipe:

¾ cup sugar
¾ cup flour
1 tablespoon water
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ cup butter , softened

Directions:
mix all ingredients until crumbly -- . (don't over mix...you'll end up with a ball)

Cake Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 medium baking apple, peeled and sliced

Directions

1 Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish with or pie pan with a 4-cup capacity.

2 In a medium bowl, whisk vigorously together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3 In a separate small bowl, mix 1/4 a cup of the sugar with the cinnamon, set aside.

4 Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Beat in the egg until blended. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk, beating after each addition until just combined.

5 Pour half of the batter in the bottom of the baking dish. Lay the apple slices on the batter so they just cover the batter (you may have to overlap some slices). Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, reserving a teaspoon or two to sprinkle on top. Spread the rest of the batter over the apples. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar on top.

6 Bake the cake for 25 minutes or until it is golden brown and apples start to bubble at the edges.

Recipe from Simply Recipes

Texas Sheet Cake

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Yesterday my mother-in-law was just craving something chocolate.  We brainstormed some ideas and I stumbled on a recipe online about a chocolate sheet cake.  Now, if you've kept up with my blog, you know I don't bake much...at all.  I had never heard of a sheet cake, but of course, my mother in law had.  Then she says, "I think I have a recipe for sheet cake" and she pulls out her big ol' Texas box of recipes.  And sure enough, she had one.  What was really funny was that it was almost identical to the one that I found online.
She told me that she's had this recipe for over 20 years and she just went to work.  They cake is super easy to make and is done in 20 minutes!  And, oh my, the taste...it's enough to make anyone addicted to chocolate.  It was moist and that little hint of cinnamon really did the trick.  You take this to a get together and I can promise you'll be bringing home an empty baking sheet.  Maybe I'll go sneak another piece....

are you wishing you could eat a picture??

Birthday Cake Tradition

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The other day was my birthday.  Funny how, the older we get, the less special birthday's seem.  At least to me.  Perhaps it's the fact that my world revolves around my kids now...or the fact that I don't want to start looking at the numbers getting bigger.  
Figured this year's birthday would be pretty uneventful.  Nothing really planned.  Then my mom decided to come for a visit.  (yippee!)  There's just something special about having your mom around on your birthday.  (could be the fact of the matter that you wouldn't be having a birthday if it wasn't for her...)  :)  So, my uneventful birthday turned into a great little family event.  My hubby is going to come home early to cook for me and my mom is going make our traditional birthday cake.


Our family is fond of traditions.  And birthday's were one of them.  For my brother and I, on our birthday, we would wake up to see the house decorated with balloons and streamers.  But, the best part was the cake.  Mom always made this cake...ya know, tradition and all.  And to this day, if mom is around for my birthday, that's all I want her to make.  It's simple and delicious.  Over the year's, she's changed the recipe to make it a bit healthier too.  But, if you want to go full fat, have at it!  :)      


So, Happy Birthday to me!  And thanks mom!  (now it's time to chow down on this cake!)

This may not be the most gorgeous looking cake...but it's even more special knowing my daughters help to make it for me.  (oh, yeah, and the Skittles were their idea...not normally part of the cake...in hindsight, M&M's would have tasted better.)