baking, Cake, Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

Banana Pecan Cake

November 13, 2016November 14, 2016by Sara Stafford1 Comment

I always seem to have extra bananas lying around that are just waiting to be added to a recipe.

Instead of my usual use of bananas in banana bread I decided to add them to a cake using cake mix from the box (secret’s out!)

This recipe is so simple and you can even use it to whip up a quick bananna bread. It came out so moist and the pecans added a nice crunch.

What you’ll need:

* 1 white cake mix box (follow recipe on box to make a regular cake)

* 2-3 ripe banannas

* 1/2 cup of butter

* half a teaspoon of baking soda

*2 containers of store bough cream cheese frosting. You can make it yourself, but I find this way easier and I’m all about easy baking!

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your cake pans.
Follow the instructions on the cake mix box. Using an electric mixer, mix in the baking soda and butter.
Mash banannas
Chop pecans
Stir in mashed bananas and chopped pecans
Top with cream cheese frosting and chopped pecans.

This cake was a huge hit. It was so easy to take a simple boxed cake mix and turn it into another delicious banana recipe!

Enjoy!

baking, Desserts, DIY, Recipes, Treats, Uncategorized

Deep-Fried Oreo Recipe

May 26, 2016by Sara Stafford1 Comment

Nothing like creating a fair food favourite right from the comfort of your own home!

Follow the easy steps below to make this creation yourself.

What you will need:

1 cup of pancake mix

2/3 cup of milk

1 egg 2 tsps of vegetable oil

1 box of Oreo cookies

Vegetable oil for frying

Confectioner’s sugar (optional)

Prep:

Freeze your Oreo cookies for 1 hour
Fill a durable pot with 2-3 inches of cooking oil (on medium heat or to about 375°F)
Wisk pancake mix until smooth
Dip one cookie at a time in the batter (important step so your cookies don’t get soggy sitting in the mix) coating it well
Carefully drop your coated cookies in the hot oil flip once until each side is golden brown (it doesn’t take long!)
Remove cookies from hot oil with tongs (be careful) and place on a paper towel
Arrange on a platter and dust with confectioner’s sugar
Best enjoyed warm and maybe with a side of vanilla ice cream!

baking, Desserts, DIY, Donuts, Fashionblogger, Food, Uncategorized, Wilton

Mini Donuts!

February 10, 2016February 10, 2016by Sara Stafford1 Comment

Who doesn’t love donuts? And who doesn’t love anything mini?

These sweet combination will be an absolute treat whether it’s for a party or just because!

I used the Wilton non-stick 12 cavity donut pan. I picked mine up from Michaels Canada and used a 40% off coupon! I’m always keeping my eye open for really good coupons, and typically every week Michaels has a 40% off one regular-priced item or sometimes even 50%. I wait to buy items such as these until a coupon becomes available!

The batter was really easy to make (I just went on Google and got a simple recipe and did the same for the icing.) I opted for a basic vanilla donut with vanilla icing that I died pink to get the desired effect and used large sprinkles. You can really get creative here and use any sort of flavours or colourings your little heart desires!

I was really pleased with how these turned out and how easy the pan was to use!

These were a huge hit and I keep getting requests to make more! I found that these were more popular compared to if I were to have made full-size donuts, these ones flew off the platter in minutes!

Here are some pictures of the adorable little yummies!

babyshower, baking, Blogger, Cakes, DIY

OH BOY! DIY Baby Shower Cake + Cupcakes

September 23, 2015by Sara Stafford2 Comments

OH BOY! Fondant Converse Shoe Cake + Baby Face Cupcakes!

When I was asked to make a cake and cupcakes for a baby shower I immediately jumped at the opportunity!

This was my first time making anything of this sort so it was really fun to be able to play around with a few things and get creative.

I had come across a few different cake and cupcake ideas on Pinterest so I decided to combine a few for my final products!

Here’s a closer look at the baby face cupcakes. I used a round cookie cutter to make perfect shaped circles for the faces and blue fondant for the hat and soother. I used a small amount of fondant for the nose and then edible food markers and my gel food colous on a paint brush to get the desired effect on the faces. I LOVE how these turned out, so cute! 🙂

For this specific design on the cupcake I iced the cupcake with a simple swirl and then made two different sized/coloured circles to go on top. I finished it off by writing on it with the edible markers. These are really great for writing as well as doing any small details!

For the soother I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and added some extra fondant on the bottom and for the white portion. I used the other end of my paintbrush to add the holes (this really brought it to life!)

THE CONVERSE ON THE CAKE…

BY FAR the hardest BUT BEST part of the entire cake…the handmade fondant converse shoes! These MADE the cake. Luckily I found a stencil online for this so it was just a matter of playing around with it for a bit and then adding in my own touches at the end. I made an edible glue out of water and gum paste to hold everything together. For the laces I struggled with using fondant so I opted for some yarn, which ended up turning out great! I used white fondant around the bottom of the shoes and used the edible marker to add the star and stripes. I used a toothpick to add little details to the sides of the shoe. I made these a couple days ahead of making the cake and stored them in a container in the fridge. This was a great idea to have them done and out of the way so when I made my cake all I had to worry about was decorating it and not spending hours on these!

Not bad for my first time molding fondant into shapes eh?!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE…..

Here’s the final product!!! I tinted the fondant that covered the whole cake in a light blue and then made three different colours/sizes of circles to go on the cake. I also used these colours as little rolled balls on the base of the cake, I think this really finished it off!

baking, Cakes

Saint Patrick’s Day Guinness Beer Cake!

March 16, 2015by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

On the weekend I attended a Stag and Doe for my boyfriend’s brother. It was a Saint Patrick’s Day theme so I decided to make this Guinness cake for them. After all…you can’t celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day without a Guiness!

If you look further back in my blog you will see the Budweiser beer-mug cake that I made. Since this was my second time around making it, I have started to perfect the construction of these! I was happy with how this one turned out as well and it was a huge hit at the party! It was such a hit, that everyone was too afraid to cut into it and instead were taking tons of pictures of it! Moments like those make me realize why I love doing this type of stuff so much!

Pictured below is everything you will need to create this cake along with some helpful hints! 🙂

Your favourite cake mix and icing (any kind will work!) I went for white cake and white icing so I could easily dye the icing.
An empty can (I used a tall can of Guinness)
You’ll be making four 6″ round cakes (I made 2 extra just to be safe)
1 or 2 small baking tins (the container of icing is shown inside to depict the size). You can go bigger if you’d like but I found this to be the perfect size. This is Wilton brands smallest tin (I picked this up from Michaels $12.00 but got 40% off with a coupon!)
White fondant, I used some to wrap the balloon holder with so the icing would stick better to it.
- Spatula to spread your icing
- Large tray of your choice
- Candy melts
- Balloon holder (long plastic yellow stick in picture) I got a pack of these for $1.00 from Dollarama
- Flower wire (I picked up a pack of these from Michaels for $4.00 and used three of them inside of the balloon holder)
- I used the top of the balloon holder and put it upside down and put some candy melts on the bottom to stick it to my tray
- Fool colouring “gels” It’s perfectly fine to use your everyday liquid food colouring but I bake a lot and this pack by Wilton I got on sale at Michaels and has a ton of colours! Again I used a 40% off coupon so I got the whole pack for around $12.00. You only need to use a little bit and they will last a really long time. The colours are great and it helps in not throwing off the consistency of your icing, etc.
- Piping bag with Wilton large round tip
- Buttercream icing (I used store-bought Wilton brand but you could make your own)

Steps:

Bake your four 6″ round cakes and LET COOL COMPLETELY!
Use a serrated knife so that your cakes are even when stacking
Lay the first layer on a plate. Add a small amount of frosting at the top just enough to go almost to the edges (don’t add too much or it will spew over the sides!)
Add your second and third layers (don’t forget to frost the top of each layer!)
I didn’t cut the top off my last layer as I knew I was going to be adding a lot of white icing to add the effect of foam so it helps if it’s already rounded!
Next I iced my cake using just regular store-bought chocolate icing so I didn’t have to play around with any gel colourings this time around. For the foam I mixed a little bit of white icing with the brown so that it wasn’t stark white since Guinness foam has a little brown tinge to it. I used the golden coloured gel mixed in with a little bit of white and brown for the gold detailing.
Next I stuck my balloon holder with flower wire right into the cake and then into the beer can. To help reinforce I turned the pop-tab on the top of the can so it was covering the hole in the can and this helped it hold really well!
I then iced the ballon holder with the same colour icing I used for the mug. Again, the messier you can be here the better result you will get! I had to keep repeating this step a couple of times until the icing hardened. I added some of this icing right up into the mouth of the can to make it look like it was coming out of it.
To get the logo as close to the real deal as you can simply print off the logo and trace it onto parchment paper using edible gel writers. You can then transfer this directly onto your cake and fill it in (remember your cake needs to be pretty much dry to do this otherwise you will just take your existing icing off with you when you pull the parchment off.) This was an awesome and extremely helpful trick I learned in my Wilton cake decorating course, and one that I will use for many cakes to come!

I’d love to hear what you thought about this cake! 🙂

xoxo

Sara

baking, Blogger, Desserts, ValentinesDay

3 Sweet Treats- Valentine’s Day Edition!

February 14, 2015February 14, 2015by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

This Valentine’s Day I decided to really get my bake on! I opted for three different treats and I loved how each of them turned out!

Below are the three recipes and pictures of each dessert! I hope you try these cute treats out and enjoy them as much as I did!

Sweet Treat #1: White-chocolate covered Oreo truffle hearts

I love to bake but if I have the chance to make a dessert that requires NO baking (yes, you heard that correctly) I am all ears! These delectable heart shaped truffles are the perfect mix of creamy on the inside and crunchy on the outside! If you don’t eat these all to yourself (which is totally understandable) they make a perfect Valentine’s Day gift wrapped up in cellophane with some ribbon.

To make these treats into a heart-shape all you need is a heart-shaped cookie cutter. This option proved to be a lot faster than rolling them into balls which is typically how truffles would be made. This recipe is without a doubt a piece of cake! It’s as simple as finely grinding the Oreo cookies and placing them into the cream-cheese mix, spread this mixture onto baking paper, place in the freeze (this makes it MUCH easier to use the cookie cutters), then all you have to do is dip the hearts into melted chocolate and decorate how you please! 🙂

I only did a single-dip of chocolate for mine, but if I were to make them again I think I would do a double-dip to make a thicker and smoother finish on the hearts! You can opt-out of the sprinkles but I thought they added a nice extra crunch to the creamy texture inside!

The thought of making truffles might frighten you but you have my word that these Oreo Truffles are super simple to make! The mixture might not look the most appetizing before its dunked in chocolate but the taste makes up for its looks! The only downfall of these treats is that they’ll disappear before you know it!

Ingredients: ( 3 simple ingredients! )

* One (1) box of Oreo cookies-crushed finely into crumbs
* 5 oz of softened cream cheese
* 12-14 oz of white chocolate candy melts or bakers chocolate 
*Sprinkles (optional, but necessary)

Step-By-Step Instructions:

* Line a tray or baking sheet with wax paper
* Crush whole Oreos (filling and all) into really fine crumbs, and combine with the softened cream cheese
* You can do this by hand (a little bit messy), or use a mixture with a paddle attachment. I found it a lot easier to just knead the mixture but hand.
* Once the mixture is evenly combined you can transfer it onto the wax paper. Spread it in an even layer about a 1/2 in thickness (or larger depending on what size you want your hearts to be)
* Place the tray into the freeze for about 45 minutes (or until it's hardened) 
* Using your heart-shaped cookie-cutter cut out the shapes and place them back in the freezer for another 20-30 minutes. ***Truffles must be frozen before dipping them in the chocolate!
* Take a few hearts out a time to dip in chocolate and decorate while the others stay frozen in the freezer until you're ready to get working on them.
* Using a fork dunk your hearts into the melted chocolate and tap off any excess chocolate. Transfer your completed hearts onto the wax paper and put any sprinkles on at this point if you are going to use them.
* The truffles can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer (freezing them will last longer)
* Yields approximately 16-20 small (about 1.5 inch) heart treats

ENJOY! xoxo

Sweet Treat #2: Chocolate-dipped heart-shaped Rice Krispies

Everyone young and old can’t turn down Rice Krispies. And who in their right mind would turn down a heart-shaped chocolate-dipped sprinkle Rice Krispie treat?!

You can use any recipe that you have to make the Rice Krispies. I placed my completed mixture in a large casserole dish and immediately after I began to use a large heart shaped cookie-cutter. It is easier to do it when they are warm, making it easier to cut through the mixture. You can make them as thick as your cookie-cutter allows you too!

Once you’ve completed that step all you have to do is use your favourite coloured chocolate candy melts and dunk them or drizzle them however you’d like! I decided to add sprinkles to mine (remember to do this quickly before the chocolate dries!)

Yields approximately 10 large heart-shaped treats. This will vary depending on how large of a cookie cutter you use!

Having a bit too much fun in the kitchen with one of my favourite childhood treats!

Sweet Treat #3: Conversation Heart Mini Cheesecakes

The iconic Valentine’s Day conversation heart candies were the inspiration for my final treat!

I decided to go with a cheesecake recipe that requires you to bake the mixture but it’s perfectly fine for you to go with a no-bake recipe if you have one!

To coloured my hearts I went for Wilton brand gel food colourings in purple, pink, green and yellow and left a couple plain white. I used regular red liquid food colouring to write the messages on top of the hearts.

I found heart-shaped silicone molds that were exactly the same that Wilton sells but for a fraction of the cost at Dollarama. I bought two of these molds and I had just the right amount of mixture to fill them entirely!

These molds make the perfect sized cheesecakes!

Ingredients:
* 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (finely ground with a pinch of cinnamon)
* 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of butter, melted
* 16 ounces (2 blocks) of cream cheese, softened
* 1 cup of sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 16 ounces of sour cream
* 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
* food colouring ( pink, purple, green, yellow, and red)

Supplies:

* Stand mixer or a mixing bowl and a hand-held mixer
* Rubber spatula
* Heart-shaped silicone molds
* Fine-tip paint brush
* Roasting pan large enough to fit your heart shaped molds

Instructions:

* Preheat oven to 325 degrees
* If you opt for a baked cheesecake you will need to make a water bath for it. Place your roasting pan in the oven filled with enough water to go approximately halfway up the sides of the heart molds. Allow the water to heat up while the oven does and bring some water to a boil in a kettle.
*Combine graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, and melted butter. I used a food processor to grind the crackers then I mixed in the cinnamon and butter by hand until combined
* Spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the crumb mixture into the bottom of eat heart mold. Press the crumbs down to ensure an even crust
* In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium high until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. You will also want to scrape off the extra cheesecake mixture from the mixing blade so that you have clump-free cheesecake!
* Add in the sugar and beat for 1 minute. Add eggs and beat until creamy, approximately 1 to 2 minutes once again scraping the bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix just until combined

*Equally divide the filling in separate bowls to colour them. Add food colouring to create the colours that you like.
* Pour the coloured cheesecake filling into the heart-shaped molds. Since cheesecake doesn't rise when baked you can fill them right to the top!

* Bake your cheesecakes in the water bath for 22-25 minutes (if making baked cheesecake)

* Remove your baked cheesecakes and allow them to cook at room temperature for about an hour.

* Freeze your cheesecakes for at least 2 hours (if not more). Remove from freezer and carefully push out your cheesecakes from the bottom. If they don't pop out easily they aren't done yet and will need to go back in the freezer for longer.

* To add the traditional conversation hear phrases squeeze some red food colouring into a small bowl. Using a fine-tip paint brush you can begin to write your messages on each cheesecake. Typically the says are printed in all capital letters. Don't worry if your words aren't perfectly centered, they typically aren't when they're printed on the candies.
* If you use too much food colouring your letters will bleed
* The food colouring will dry once you place your cheesecakes back into the refrigerator or freezer for a while.

These cheesecakes can be stored for up to several days or in the freezer for about a month!

These were definitely my most favourite and most fun to make/decorate of all my treats!

Here’s a few pictures of my final products all finished and ready to be delivered to my special Valentine! XOXO

baking, Blogger, Cakes

Pouring Beer Mug Cake

January 29, 2015January 29, 2015by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

“The King of Cakes”…”Older Butweiser”

For Birthdays, Super Bowl parties, or beer lovers this beer mug cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser! (The Super Bowl is now only a few days away, this would be perfect to take to a potluck, and would be the talk of the party for sure!)

This is one of the most extravagant cakes I have made to date and once I figured out to construct it, it actually wasn’t too bad assembling and decorating. I’d LOVE to hear what you guys think of this and if you’d try it out yourself.

Pictured below is everything you will need to create this cake along with some helpful hints! 🙂

Your favourite cake mix and icing (any kind will work!) I went for white cake and white icing so I could easily dye the icing.
You’ll be making four 6″ round cakes (I made 2 extra just to be safe)
1 or 2 small baking tins (the container of icing is shown inside to depict the size). You can go bigger if you’d like but I found this to be the perfect size. This is Wilton brands smallest tin (I picked this up from Michaels $12.00 but got 40% off with a coupon!)
White fondant (I bought this thinking I might need it for the handle but I actually went with rice krispies covered in the same colour icing as the mug.) Either will work it’s all personal preference.
- Spatula to spread your icing
- Large tray of your choice
- Candy melts
- Balloon holder (long plastic yellow stick in picture) I got a pack of these for $1.00 from Dollarama
- Flower wire (I picked up a pack of these from Michaels for $4.00 and used three of them inside of the balloon holder)
- I used the top of the balloon holder and put it upside down and put some candy melts on the bottom to stick it to my tray
- Fool colouring “gels” It’s perfectly fine to use your everyday liquid food colouring but I bake a lot and this pack by Wilton I got on sale at Michaels and has a ton of colours! Again I used a 40% off coupon so I got the whole pack for around $12.00. You only need to use a little bit and they will last a really long time. The colours are great and it helps in not throwing off the consistency of your icing, etc.
- Piping bag with Wilton large round tip
- Buttercream icing (I used store-bought Wilton brand but you could make your own)

Steps:

Bake your four 6″ round cakes and LET COOL COMPLETELY!
Use a serrated knife so that your cakes are even when stacking
Lay the first layer on a plate. Add a small amount of frosting at the top just enough to go almost to the edges (don’t add too much or it will spew over the sides!)
Add your second and third layers (don’t forget to frost the top of each layer!)
I didn’t cut the top off my last layer as I knew I was going to be adding a lot of white icing to add the effect of foam so it helps if it’s already rounded!
Next I tinted my frosting. I had two different bowls of icing one for the beer mug and poured beer and I kept the other plain white for the foam. I used the “golden yellow” colour from my package of Wilton gel colours (I wish it would have turned out a little darker, next time I will mix it with other colours!) Just remember when mixing your colours to only add a little bit at a time and to mix all your icing at once so that the colour is consistent (it’s really hard to get the same colour twice when mixing more than one colour)
You can now use this colour to frost your entire cake! I used a Wilton spatula to help make it as smooth as possible but don’t worry to much about it being perfect! I didn’t frost the top of the cake with this colour as I knew I was going to be adding a lot of white foam bubbles with the white icing!
To make the “head” of the beer I used white frosting in a pastry bag with a coupler and a large round Wilton tip. This is where you don’t have to worry about it being perfect and actually the messier you are here the better affect you get! I ended up bringing some of the foam down the mug and onto my platter to add the affect of beer foaming out of its glass.
Next I stuck my balloon holder with flower wire right into the cake and then into the beer can. To help reinforce I turned the pop-tab on the top of the can so it was covering the hole in the can and this helped it hold really well!
I then iced the ballon holder with the same colour icing I used for the mug. Again, the messier you can be here the better result you will get! I had to keep repeating this step a couple of times until the icing hardened. I added some of this icing right up into the mouth of the can to make it look like it was coming out of it.
I moulded the rice krispies into a handle shape and covered this in the icing that I used for the mug. Using large toothpicks or skewers is best for holding them in place in the cake
Lastly I piped on some grey lines using the same round Wilton tip and some red icing to write Happy Birthday on my platter. This is where you can get creative and add a label to your mug and personalize it however you like!

THAT’S IT! It may seem like a lot of steps but once you get going it’s really not too bad! Now that I know exactly how to make it, I know the next time I make it it will go even more smoothly! I PROMISE you that everyone will love this cake and you WILL get lots of questions about the illusion of the floating can (it’s AWESOME!)

baking, ChristmasDesserts, Cupcakes, Desserts, Recipes

Chocolate Cupcakes With Vanilla Candy Cane Icing

December 29, 2014December 29, 2014by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

I used a lot of crushed candy canes in my Christmas desserts this year and this one turned out wonderfully!

All you need is to bake your favourite type of chocolate cupcake. I used a store bought mix but feel free to make yours all homemade! I decided to go for chocolate cupcakes so that the white icing and red candy cane crunch would really pop out at you!

Once your cupcakes are fully cooled down (I usually wait about an hour or so) remove the cupcake liners.

Next cut each cupcake horizontally down the middle

Using a piping page and star-point icing decorating tip place circle around the inside of the bottom half of the cupcake. Try going around the edges so that you can see the extra coming out. This step also makes it easier for your crushed candy cane to stick.

Place the top half of your cupcake back on and top it all off with a icing star and sprinkle a little bit more of your crushed candy cane on top.

VOILA, it’s that simple and they end up looking like you spent a lot of time on them!

I arranged my cupcakes on a large round platter and also placed some mini candy canes for a final touch!

baking, Christmas, Recipes

Candy Cane White Chocolate Mini Cheesecakes

December 29, 2014by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

Nothing says the holidays like chocolate and candy canes!

Here’s exactly what you’ll need to make these tasty little treats!

Ingredients:

18 vanilla wafer cookies (Round)
2 (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 (8oz) neufchâtel cream cheese, softened
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C white chocolate chips, divided
1 1/4 C crushed mini candy canes, divided
18 foil muffin liners

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place foil liners in 2 muffin pans (cheesecake holds better in foil liners and are easier to remove)
Place 1 vanilla wafer in the bottom of each cup.
Beat cream cheese until smooth, add sugar, eggs, and vanilla; just until incorporated.
Don’t over beat!!!
Gently stir in 3/4 C chocolate chips and 3/4 candy cane pieces.
Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until almost set.
Remove from oven; let cool 5 minutes on rack and then remove from pan.
Once cool cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Before serving; place remaining chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, microwave for 15 seconds, stir, 15 more seconds, stir, repeat again if necessary until smooth.
Place 1 tsp crushed candy cane in the center of each cheesecake, use a fork to drizzle white chocolate back and forth over the tops.
Enjoy!
* to crush candy canes, remove wrappers, place in a freezer bag, hit with the back of a metal spoon.
Place on a serving platter and arrange any sort of decorative Christmas items you can find (candy canes look really nice too!)

I will use this recipe for many holidays to come! 🙂

baking, Fashion

Mini Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes & Cake-Pops (Baby Shower Edition)

October 30, 2014November 4, 2014by Sara StaffordLeave a Comment

Baking ,the colour pink, parties, and babies…these are just a few of my favourite things! When all of these happened in one day for a baby shower you can imagine how happy I was!

I’ll start off with how I made the mini ice-cream cone cupcakes followed by the cake-pops and end off with my outfit of choice for the baby shower!

Mini Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes

This was the first time I’ve ever tried these out. They sure had the possibility of being disastrous, but thankfully it didn’t go down that route! For how cute these turned out you would think they would be hard to make but they are surprisingly really simple (major plus!)

Step 1: Gather your materials!

These are all the items you’ll need (it’s that simple!)

1 box of the cake-mix of your choice
1 container of icing of your choice
A box of ice-cream cones– any size or shape you wish to use is fine (I used mini ones that were pointed at the base)
Sprinkles, candies, gum-balls,nuts, etc (I went for bright pink gum balls as a “cherry on top” for mine)
Piping bag/icing decorating tips (I got this box which includes 8 bags and 4 different types from Dollarama)– this way you can get that signature ice-cream swirl!

Depending on how you want to personalize our cones you can opt for any type of boxed cake-mix, icing, sprinkles (I got two containers filled with all different types of sprinkles from Dollarama), candies, and size/shape of the cones. I went for a classic looking ice-cream cone! The only thing I would change when I make these again is to use flat bottomed cones as the pointed ends made cooking the cake-mix somewhat tricky! Other than that, I was happy at how simple they were to make and didn’t take long at all!

Step 2: Arrange Cones In Cupcake/Muffin Pan

If you go with the pointed cones you will have to cover your pan with aluminum foil first and then poke holes in it so the cones can be inserted and stand straight up. This will prevent them from tipping over while the bake. Otherwise, place your flat-bottom comes directly into one of the circles of the pan. As you can see pictured below my cones are now sitting securely in the pan ready to be filled then baked!

Step 3: Fill cones with batter

I got this squeeze bottle from Homesense and it’s been perfect for making cupcakes, and even pancakes with no mess! It’s easy to fill as the top and bottom both come off, which makes for quick and easy cleaning of the bottle! Using this I filled the cones about 3/4 of the way full. Caution: Don’t overfill your cones or the cake will spew out over the top. It’s not the end of the world if that does happen to you. A couple of mine at the start did that but I just trimmed away any excess once the cake was cooledOnce you’ve filled the cone give it a light tap on your counter space (this allows for the batter to make it’s way all the way to the bottom.) If you take a look at the picture above you will see a cone cut open with the cooked cake reaching right down the very tip of the cone, this is exactly what you want! . IMPORTANT: IMMEDIATELY after your cones come out of the oven use a toothpick and poke a small whole to allow steam out (if you miss this step you will end up with soggy cones!)

Step 4: Assemble your stand/display

While you patiently wait for your cones to cool down you can get your stand or display ready. Because I went with the pointed bottomed cones I had to create something that would hold them upright. I used the top of a shoebox and wrapped it in some cute pink wrapping paper. Once that was done I poked small holes in the shoebox big enough that the cones stayed put. If you use flat bottom cones you can display your finished product any way you’d like!

Step 5: Decorate your cones!

This was my favourite part! Like I previously mentioned you can ice/decorate your cones any way you like as well as top it with anything (be creative!) I used one of the decorating tips to get the swirled icing and used multicoloured sprinkles and topped it off with a pink gum ball in keeping with the pink baby shower theme!

These ice-cream cones were a huge hit among those both young and old! I really enjoyed making them and will make them again in the future! 🙂

“Baby”Cake-Pops:

Anyone who has every made cake-pops before or attempted to make them knows they are a ton of work! The end product is really remarkable and it’s worth it to see people’s expressions on special occasions such as these! Sorry I don’t have pictures of every step! Next time I make these I will be sure to do so (I’m a visual learner so I know it helps to see what’s going on.)

Step 1: Gather your materials!

What you will need:

1 box of boxed cake mix (any kind)
1 container of the icing of your choice
1-2 bags of Wilton Candy Melts (can be bought at Michaels) or in bulk from the Bulk Barn
Lollipop sticks (Can also be found at Michaels and Bulk Barn)
Sprinkles, nuts, etc however you want to decorate your pops!
Also included in the photo is Wilton markers (edible)– these were perfect for drawing the faces on the baby cake-pops!

Step 1: Bake cake

Follow the instructions listed on the back of the cake mix. Don’t worry if the cake isn’t perfect when it comes out, you will be crumbling it to smithereens anyways! Just make sure it is cooked all the way through!

Step 2: Let cake cool

Once the cake is taken out of the oven give it time to cool COMPLETELY. You can remove it from the baking pan to let some of the steam out.

Step 3: Crumble cake

It seems like shame to crumble a perfectly good cake after it’s just come out of the oven but it’s exactly what is needed to start to cake-pop process. The easiest way to go about this is to cut your cake into two sections (if you are using a rectangular cake-pan.) Pick these two pieces up and rub them together, you will notice that the cake will begin crumbling into very fine pieces. Do this in a large bowl and once it is completely crumbled run a fork through it to make sure there aren’t any large chunks remaining.

Step 4: Add icing

This is where it is imperative that you let your cake cool completely before continuing. Once that is done, take your container of icing and add about half of it to your large bowl of crumbled cake. Mix these two ingredients in well. You should now be left with a sticky consistency with no loose crumbs. If it is still too dry you can always add more icing, start with less and add more in as you go.

Step 5: Roll into balls

Once your mixture is the right consistency you can now grab about a tablespoon sized helping of the cake and icing mix and begin rolling it into a ball. It will take a little bit for it to stick well. Ensure that it is as round as you can get it and that there are no holes and the cake/icing is stuck together well. Avoid making the balls too large or you will find that they fall off the stick when you go to dip it in the chocolate. You can then lay all of the completed balls out onto wax paper and insert them in the fridge or freezer for 5-10 minutes while you melt your candy melts.

Step 6: Melt candy melts

In a microwave-safe container or on a double-broiler melt your candy melts until they are a nice runny consistency. DO NOT overcook these chocolates or they will become too hard and not usable.

Step 7: Insert lollipop sticks

Once your candy melts are ready you can take your first lollipop stick and dip one end of it into this mixture (about an inch deep.) Tap off any extra and then insert the coated end of the stick into the ball. It is easiest if you insert it with the ball staying flat on the wax paper. Remember not to push the lollipop stick in too far or it will break through the top of the cake-pop and fall off the stick! Complete this step for all remaining balls.

Step 8: Place back in fridge/freezer

To ensure that the stick is going to be securely on the ball you can place them back in the fridge or freezer for a couple of minutes!

Step 9: Dip cake-pops in candy melts

This is the most tedious part of the whole process and can become very frustration. Once you get the hang of it, each and every time you make these you will get better at this step. With the lollipop stick now on the ball you can dunk it into a tall glass. Place it all the way in the liquid as far down as it goes but don’t force it as they are very delicate. Also do not swirl the stick around in the candy melts as this will loosen up the stick and may cause it to separate from the ball. Carefully take the now coated ball out of the melts and gently tap off any excess chocolate. Don’t tap too hard or your ball will fall right off the stick (I’ve had that happen far too many times, or I loose a ball from not dunking it properly)

Step 10: Decorate

You can decorate your cake pops any way you please. Remember to work fast if you are using things such as sprinkles as it will only stick while the melts are still wet! To make “baby” cake-pops like the ones I did, stick a small cupcake wrapper on the back of the cake pop as it is still wet. I used the edible markers to draw on the face and tied some pink ribbon in a bow (they actually ended up looking like arms coincidently.)

Step 11: Set aside to dry

The candy melts do dry fairly quickly but just to be overly cautious I usually place my finished cake-pops on a stand to allow them to continue drying. This will ensure that they have a smooth polished finish!

Step 12: Presentation

Pack them up, wrap them up or stick them in a container! I used a flower arrangement that already had oasis in it. I like to use oasis as the cake pops stick into it perfectly and hold really well. It’s an unpleasant green colour so I just covered mine with pink tissue paper and then poked the lollipop sticks right through it. These make great gifts, why not show off all your hard work and deliver some to your friends and family? You can get really creative with how you decorate them and they are also raved about at any party I bring them to!

The two finished products presented together…

OOTD:

Last but not least…my outfit for the shower! In keeping with the theme, I opted for cheetah print with a hint of pink!

Outfit Details:

Black/Pink 3/4 sleeve cheetah print shift dress with black trim/back zipper (Winners)
Black Blazer with faux-leather sleeves (H & M)
Black Michael Kors Fulton Flats (Macy’s)– I went for comfort since I knew I would be on my feet walking around all day!
Baby pink statement necklace (Boutique in New York City)– Kept it simple because of the loud patterned dress
Black sheer stockings– not necessary but it was freezing so I went with them!
Assorted Tiffany & Co bracelets and Pandora Rings– These are my staple pieces of jewellery that I wear on a day-to-day basis and when I’m going out!

Tag: baking

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Step 1: Gather your materials!

Step 2: Arrange Cones In Cupcake/Muffin Pan

Step 3: Fill cones with batter

Step 4: Assemble your stand/display

Step 5: Decorate your cones!

“Baby”Cake-Pops:

Step 1: Gather your materials!

Step 1: Bake cake

Step 2: Let cake cool

Step 3: Crumble cake

Step 4: Add icing

Step 5: Roll into balls

Step 6: Melt candy melts

Step 7: Insert lollipop sticks

Step 8: Place back in fridge/freezer

Step 9: Dip cake-pops in candy melts

Step 10: Decorate

Step 11: Set aside to dry

Step 12: Presentation

The two finished products presented together…

OOTD:

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