Traditions in the making?

I have been REALLY into baking lately. Maybe my crafty, home-maker side has finally come back after a nearly 2 year sabbatical (it began with the moment I found out I was pregnant. I figure I was doing my own kind of “baking”) OR it is my way of vicariously enjoying delicious baked goods without actually consuming them. Either way… I enjoy it! Hopefully those who are the benefactors do also. I secretly have hoped, as a planned out treats for holidays, that they would become a tradition. Something that everyone asked for EVERY year!

With this being said, I thought that for Easter this year I would take upon myself the role of creating Bunnies, Easter Eggs, and Chicks Cake POPS! I had no clue what I was getting myself into, but I knew that the outcome WOULD NOT DISSAPOINT. Well… I dare say they did. My hours and hours of hard work, tedious details, precise measurements, and a few cuss words (in my head of course!) somehow did not present the masterful masterpiece I had anticipated.

I had planned to make 3 different flavors of cake. Mint chocolate for the bunnies, Yellow for the chickies, and lemon for the eggies. BUT, after seeing that 1 batter of cake= 40 cake pops.. I decided to only do 2 different flavors. So, lemon and yellow it was (I had already mixed up the batter for those.) I also thought that it would be GREAT if the pops were just a little bit bigger than suggested… so I made them bigger, let them set, then attempted to dip the over-sized pops in melting chocolate. I quickly learned that there is a reason the pops are only supposed to be quarter size balls. SO.. I deconstructed, re-rolled, and re-froze them.

As I waited for them to set up I got all of my decorating goodies ready to go! This is the step I was the most excited for! Well… after dipping for HOURS.. I was not quite as excited as I had once been to decorate. I found that with each chickie beak and bunny ear that I “glued” into place my spirits were lifting. I was completely ready and happy to begin the decorating of the eggs! I began applying the extra melted chocolate to the eggs and rolled them different colors of sugar. Nothing stuck. So, I tried again. NOTHING. I started to loose hope and panic that these were not going to be ready for Easter morning. I ran down the the nearest grocery store and bought some Karo Syrup, got one of my tiny, unused lip brushes and began painting the eggs with Karo syrup then dipping them in the colored sugars. Worked like a charm. Only problem is I was up until 2:30 doing this.

Now, you can imagine that after all of this that I was pretty excited to see how my little pops were accepted! The verdict was… NOT WELL. I found one of my half eaten chicks in the garbage. So, I think it is safe to say that next year I will NOT be making these, and this has NOT become an Easter tradition. I am sure I will come up with another crazy idea to try out next year though!

So…  with further ado.. THE cake Pops.

 

*Setting up in freezer

*Drying after the melting chocolate bath (Notice how the clock says 4:41…. This step was scheduled to be COMPLETED at 12:00.. Ughh)

*Finished product. I do have to say that I LOVE how the bunnies and chickies are playing hide-n-seek!

*Here is a better view of the detail work

*And this is what made it all worth it!