Football and Halloween!

This was a busy week for cake pops.  One of my wonderful Physical Therapists asked me to do some footballs for her daughter's football party on Sunday.  Her daughter is an Eagle's fan, so my husband was against this from the start, but in the words of the great Joe Fox (You've Got Mail, anyone?) "It's not personal, it's business."  I hand formed the football shapes, dipped them in chocolate and then piped on the stitching with white chocolate.  Here is how they turned out:

This week was also my oldest's Halloween Party at school, and I wanted do something special for him.  He is a huge fan of cake pops and I saw these on the cover of a magazine and I figured I could do them for him.  They were a huge hit!

The mummies were my favorite!

The pumpkins were cute too, but a lot of work because my markers stopped working and I had to paint on the faces with chocolate and a paint brush!

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy too.  I've got 2 cake pop orders coming up and then our last home game at JMU the following weekend.  I'm thinking I might mix up my JMU cake pops and do some footballs with the purple and gold pops.  Stay tuned...

Sweet Sixteen and a Soccer Picnic

3 years ago when I started baking for other people, I was exclusively a cookie maker.  I would spend hours over a batch of cookies using egg whites, sugar, and food coloring to turn batches of sugar cookies into works of art.  I've gotten better over the years; my piping is cleaner, the icing has a better consistency, and the cookies taste better, and as much as I love making cakes, pops, and cupcakes, my heart is with cookies. This weekend I was honored to have been asked to create cookie pops for a very special lady turning 16.  They didn't give me a lot of direction, just colors and the direction to "be creative," music to my ears...here are the pictures.  I made 4 separate designs, just in case!

Jimmy also had his end of the season soccer picnic on Saturday.  All of the U6 teams were asked to bring a dessert and Jimmy requested vanilla cupcakes.  They were a huge hit- gone before anyone really got the chance to see them and I heard one little girl tell her dad it was "only like, the best cupcake ever!"

Next week, I've got another fall cupcake order and an order of Halloween cake pops for Jimmy's Halloween party at school.  I will be sure to post pictures, I'm going to attempts pumpkins, ghosts, and possibly mummies.  Spooky!

Have I mentioned I love fall flavors?

We got home from Disney World on Saturday.  We had an amazing trip, but it was wonderful to get home and back to my kitchen.  One of my co-workers asked me to do cupcakes for a surprise grandma shower at work.  Originally she had asked for raspberry, but they are out of season and so expensive right now, so I suggested an apple or a pumpkin cupcake.  I had found a couple of pumpkin recipes but I finally settled on this one from one of my favorite blogs, Cupcakes Take the Cake.  The recipe was easy, the cupcakes were amazing and she was not lying about that frosting.  I was searching the cabinets for something to eat it with!

I have mixed feelings about the apple cupcakes.  They were made with apple cider and they were amazing the day I made them, but they didn't keep well overnight.  When I ate one today, they were a bit dry, so next time I might add some applesauce to keep them more moist, but they tasted amazing.  The frosting was very sweet, but a nice compliment to the cupcake and it was really easy to make since I didn't have to make my own caramel sauce.  I'm not sure my pans are ready for that kind of commitment. :)  My only complaint about the frosting was the consistency.  It just wouldn't sit up so the frosting ran a little as it warmed and as the cupcakes were on their way to work with me this morning.  If anyone out there has a good caramel frosting recipe, I would love to try it!

I have to say, this was my first time using the french tip, typically I go for the open star tip, but I think I might start using this one more often.  The piping was so easy and it looked really beautiful.  The cupcakes were enjoyed by everyone and I got lots of compliments.  No orders from anyone yet, but I'm keeping business cards at school, just in case! ;)

My Homage to Fall

Well, we had another JMU game this weekend.  Sadly the Dukes lost this one in overtime, but the tailgate was fabulous!  We were joined by some great friends and their kids, the weather was amazing, and we made some new friends today.  I remembered my business cards this time, but unfortunately not as many folks were at the tailgate so no one really asked for any, but thats all right, I feel some new business coming on!  I'll save that news for another post.

I have had this idea in my head for a couple weeks to do an acorn cake pop and I saw a link on-line to a donut hole acorn that I thought I could adapt, so I tried it- and they turned out really cute!  To compliment them, I also made some candy corn shaped ones, that were really fun.  This time the flavors inside were chocolate/chocolate and spice cake/cream cheese.  The spice cake went first, but I think that was because the kids were eating them and those were the candy corn ones.  My oldest spent the day chanting, "orange, white, yellow, orange, white, yellow!"  Here is the picture.

I tried and new camera technique this week, although my photography friends would not consider this a technique, just good practice, and went outside to get some really good natural light.  I think the picture turned out better, but I need to work on my placement.  That shadow you see is my arm!  We are headed out of town tomorrow so I won't be blogging this week, but look for me next week, I have a huge cupcake order to do on Sunday, so I will be posting some pictures!

Homecoming and some new business (hopefully!)

This past weekend was homecoming at James Madison University.  JMU is such a special place for me.  In the 4 years I spent there, I made friends that I will keep forever, met my husband, and found my way to a job that I truly enjoy.  We love going back and seeing all the changes, having the opportunity to reunite with those friends that we made, and making new friends.  This weekend, I made some JMU inspired cake pops and I never expected the reaction I received from my fellow tailgaters on Godwin Field.  People were so complimentary of the pops and I had lots of people asking for business cards-note to self: always keep business cards in the car!  Hopefully this will lead to some new business and the possibility to expand to areas outside of the Winchester/Berryville area!  Here is the picture of the cake pops I made.  I have to say, this is my 4th set of pops and they get a little easier each time!  I rolled 36 pops and I actually got 36 pops into the display.  I didn't lose a single pop in the chocolate and it took me less than an hour to make these!!!  Those of you who were following my first attempt at pops (the dalmation pops) know that this is a HUGE improvement!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering...JMU won the game on Saturday, stomping the Richmond Spiders 31-7.  Go Dukes!