mmm…CAKE!!

nurses

Holiday Vendor Fair’s

Hey everyone I wanted to say THANK YOU for coming out to see us Wednesday, November 12th at the National Institutes of Health. We enjoyed seeing friends from last year as well as making some new ones. It’s always great to see our repeat customers.

Sunday was our first time participating in the Holiday Vendor Fair put on by the Real Housewives of Loudoun County Virginia. I’m thrilled to be a part of that great group of people. This was there second event and it was GREAT! We look forward to doing the Spring fair in 2015.

Cake Pop flavors we had on had at the shows were our signature chocolate fudge, red velvet, apple cake dipped in salted caramel and pumpkin spice with cream cheese. We also brought out our turkeys done in chocolate fudge featuring cute tags so that our customers can use them as name cards or as a take away for the big Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are a few photos of our booth from both events. I am so in love with my “tu-tu” skirt I had made for the shows. I always get alot of compliments on how beautiful our table looks. Presentation and TASTE above all is key!

This week I will be making some martini olive pops, wedding party pops and more turkeys. Turkeys will be here from now until the big day so go ahead and get your order in now.

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Happy Monday Fun day

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Have you checked your’s?

Do you know someone in your life that has been affected by breast cancer? Someone who has been diagnosed and is currently fighting this disease? Someone who is in remission or someone who lost the battle? Well October is a time to remember, pray and honor all those affected by breast cancer. I personally had a scare several years ago that ended in a clear biopsy but it makes me think daily of those who did not have that result. So please get your mammogram today. Life is precious save the tatas!!

It is never to late to have a cheerful bouquet sent to that special someone to simply say “I’m thinking of you” Order a dozen today and don’t worry we do these all year long because October is not the only month to bring attention to breast cancer awareness.

 

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Apple Spice warm from the oven

Apple spice cake is just one of our amazing cake flavors for October. This is fresh out of the oven can you smell it? How about a apple spice cake pop dipped in a salted caramel chocolate could you die? Order some shaped like pumpkins, ghosts and mummy’s for you and/or your kids Halloween parties.

ApplecakeLook at all those apples in there!

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Happy Day Cake

The temps are dropping again so what’s a girl to do? Bake a Happy Day Cake! What is a happy day cake you ask, well its chock full of wonderful blueberries. I had a large bag of these lil gems tucked away in the freezer from the end of summer and today they turned into happy day cake. I got this recipe years ago, like 20+, from a friend and when my grandmother would visit she would always request this; or when I went to visit her!  So today i”m going to share the recipe with you folks and if you bake one up be sure to comment and/or email us some pictures of yours.

Happy Day Cake Recipe

4.5 cups flour    **       3 cups of sugar   **    2 teaspoons salt  **  5 teaspoons baking powder  **  1 cup of oil such as vegetable  **  2 cups of milk  **  2 teaspoons of vanilla ( I only use pure vanilla extract)  **  2 cups of blueberries or more if you want a lot. I freeze my blueberries first and then I gently fold them into the batter so my whole cake does not turn blue.  ** 4 eggs

Pre-heat your oven to 350

I use a kitchen aid mixer and I put all the dry ingredients into the bowl first, using the flat paddle attachment I turn it on low and mix up all the dry items to evenly distribute them. Then with the mixer still on low I add the wet ingredients one by one until thoroughly mixed.

I use a spray such as Bakers Joy for my pans but you can certainly use butter and flour if you like. I also like to line my pan with parchment paper .Grease a 9 x 13″ pan and pour your batter into the pan. I like to tap the pan on the counter a few times to get the cake settled and it also helps with air bubbles. Place in your pre-heated oven and cook until your toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. This should take at least 90 minutes but please start checking yours after it has been in the oven for one hour. My cake took close to 2 hours. WOW you say? yup, its a long time but slow and steady wins the race and the payoff is AWESOME. Cooking times also vary depending on the pan used ex: shiny metals or dark metal pans. Dark metal pans tend to cook faster and more often than not require a bit lower cooking temp so I try and avoid those.

Side note: you could also use Lemon extract and make this as a delicious lemon-y blueberry cake now THAT is also DELICIOUS!!

Let your cake cool (hopefully you can keep everyone out of it long enough to cool it!) and serve

This is what the batter will look like after you have folded in your frozen blueberries

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Below is what your yummy cake will look like inside when its done. My blueberries were quite large and wanted to sink to the bottom as you can see.

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Please enjoy and have a TASTY Thursday everyone!!

 

 

Are you thinking about Spring like me?

Tasty Tuesday everyone! Are you like me today dreaming of spring? We had some very spring-like weather last week and on Monday it went from being 60 to 30 Brrrrrrrr

For me the thought of Spring and Easter makes me think of LEMON. Lemon-y desserts have a light and refreshing taste to them. I always look forward to making these Lemon cake pops or balls. LB1

These luscious lemon goodies were made into cake balls, and they were quickly gone!

What flavors remind you of Springtime? If I could post a tutorial what would you want to learn? I want to hear from you guys out there what cake projects have you done lately feel free to email me some pictures.

Have a TASTY day everyone!

Preparing for snow…..

Is it snowing where you are yet? What provisions do you take when your area is calling for a large amount of snow? Here in the DC area we just are not equipped to handle a lot of snow/ice so I had to chuckle a bit when yesterday Virginia declared a State of emergency already………..the snow is expected somewhere around 8-10pm TONIGHT! Now having lived in Maine for a long time we no how to handle snow and unless they are calling for at least a foot (probably more) nothing is declared a state of emergency LOL school are closed that’s about it! Luckily enough the grocery store was not too busy when I went this morning but as I was leaving around 10:30 it was getting to be.

 

Here is a photo of the dessert table at the Circus Birthday Party. Let Tasty Cake Pop plan your child’s next party.  We did everything for this event right down to the custom made Circus dress shown here: 20140205_151604_resized

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Here is the cutest Ferris wheel cupcake holder we found

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This lucky 6 year old also had a PETTING ZOO! WOW that was fun! Keep checking back for more photos.

Tasty Wednesday everyone and stay safe especially those in the South that are not used to this!

Fondant Fun

Can you believe it is Thursday already? The week is going by quickly and there is still so much to get done for this Circus party. Today I baked up all round cakes in 10″ x 3″ (almost double the thickness of a regular pan) cake, 2 8″ cakes, a 6″ cake and last but not least I have one of those “ball” pans so I cooked up half of that to create the dome on the top of the “Big Top Tent” which will be the topper to our cake. You can’t even imagine HOW many sticks of butter, cups of sugar, sacks of flour goes into making THIS MANY CAKES WOWZA! Oh and don’t forget about all those egg whites to create white cake with sprinkles which is what this little peanut wanted for her cake of as she says VALLILA  too cute!

Once all those cakes were finished I started on my fondant lion. I had begun using my plain white Marshamallow fondant or MMF and had to color it. Working in small batches I made a few colors.  This is the first time I had done a lion so here he is I think he came out cute.

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I also created a seal balancing a ball on his nose, last night however I am going to share when he is ALL done. I need to make his pedestal still.

Tonight I will be busy leveling my cakes (using a in-expensive level from your local hardware store works great!) then getting them all wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled overnight so that tomorrow I can begin the crumb coating and start getting this Circus cake done.

What are you working on? Have you ever played with fondant before? Have some fun pictures you would like to share email them to me.

Have a TASTY night all

Frozen?

So how many of you woke up in a clip from frozen today? It certainly can be pretty to look at but PLEASE drive safely and don’t go out if you do not have to!

Some of you may know that on Sunday my finger left hand ring finger was crunched in my trunk (don’t ask!) and with no time to baby it before the big event Sunday its still quite painful. At least now its not black/purple anymore but still quite swollen.

This morning I have been busy making Marshmallow fondant that will be used to create fun accent pieces and animals for the 3 tier CIRCUS cake for Sunday. Have you ever tried making MMF before? Its really  easy……..and STICKY!

Here is the recipe so go ahead give it a try!

In a microwave safe bowl, lightly greased add a 16oz bag of mini marshmallows, 2 Tablespoons of water and 1 tsp of clear vanilla extract. Microwave for 60 seconds, stir, and repeat at 30 second intervals until the marshmallows are melted. Once melted thoroughly remove and add to it 1/4 cup of vegetable shortening stirring until melted. Add a 2lb bag of confectionary sugar a bit at a time. I usually dump half of the bag at first mixing good and then adding more as you go along. I never use the entire bag of conf. sugar. Your MMF consistency should be just thicker than play dough.  Once you have the desired consistency lightly grease the outside of your MMF ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then place in an air tight container. Let this settle for a few hours or overnight. After settled you can color your MMF using either a gel like Wilton or Americolor which offer a very intense color so start out lightly and add more as needed. This MMF can sit on the counter for a few weeks. If you need to soften you can do so by microwaving it in 5 second intervals until pliable. ENJOY and have fun with it!

Here is a Peppa Pig I made last year for a Peppa Pig “Muddy Puddles” party20130120_164258Here is a photo of the cake which was a dairy, egg free cake so I’m surprised that it did not crumble under the pressure of the tiers! Covering sugar cones with buttercream NOT EASY!

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What exactly IS a cake pop you ask?

This is a question that is often asked by those that have SEEN cake pops but have yet to have a TASTY CAKE POP (like that plug? ) This way of making cake pops came to me after hours upon hours of research online one winter.  So this is the ORIGINAL way to make cake pops.

1. Bake a Tasty cake

2. Crumble your cake

3. Mix in frosting/flavorings

4. Roll or shape

5. Insert sticks

6. Dip in chocolate

7. EAT AND ENJOY!

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Now some of you may have seen those cake pop makers that you put the cake batter into and it cooks your cake into round balls, this is NOT the original way to make these yummy morsels. Now you CAN make them like that if you like but be forewarned this will result in a dry cake pop and not the yummy truffle like morsel pictured above. Those cake pops look like this: roundbakedcakeballs

If you decide to give it a try have fun with it, don’t stress even the ones that dont look beautiful on your first try will still taste wonderful.

Have a TASTY day everyone

Honoring our healthcare providers

With the Holidays coming it is a time to remember those who do the things that perhaps we take for granted like our newspaper carrier, the coffee shop employees that make that perfect latte daily and our healthcare providers. Since we will be at the Holiday Bazaar at NIH Friday what a great time to grab a few of these cute little “scrubs” We are also working on a Nurses appreciation pop so stay tuned!! Its chillly here so what a great day to play with cake!

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Lisa Champney 

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