Woodland party cake

I can not believe how long it has taken me to share all these pictures of the sweet woodlands party cake. I made it almost a year ago for my niece's 10th birthday. It is approx 6" by 6" high.

At the time I was playing around with some freeze dried fruit powder and I painted the cake with a mix of powdered raspberry mixed with rose spirits, lemon powder and some gel food colours.

I love the textured look that I achieved by rubbing in extra powder after hand brushing the cake.

I decided to apply the colour in quite a rough organic way, see below for example, and then my design was guided a little by the underlying colours, like a natural landscape.

The design centered on the mason jar party light idea I had so I started by drawing on my string with an edible pen (AmeriColor 2 Pack Gourmet Food Writer Set, Black Marker ) then I cut out pink and blue fondant by hand and a little grey for the lids and drew on a little line at the corner and popped the jars on the cake. Later on I used a little royal icing to pipe a little line of white on the side to look like reflected light.

I rolled out some chocolate flavored fondant to make the poles and shaped the birdies. Then I used some cloud cutters to make the white clouds, mine are from Cakes by Bien (see below for details).  To get them looking fluffy I rolled out the white fondant quite thick and then popped some plastic food wrap over the top then pressed the cutter down, see in the picture how it makes the edges look a bit rounded instead of being sharp and defined.

The cloud cutters were quite handy as I also used them for the trees and bushes.

I also hand cut the deer (as someone else was using my little Cakes by Bien Deer Aimee cutter which would have been perfect).

Okay instead of explaining every step I pretty much I hand cut everything without a template except the flowers and cloud cutters. Any of the white detail is piped royal icing (except the clouds and flowers) and the black is edible pen.

Tip. when applying the flowers, cut them out, keeping them in the plunger cutter, apply a little water or edible glue on the spot you want them and then push them out onto the cake using the plunger center to gently adhere them to the cake.

Inside the cake was strawberry cake with vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream.

I prefer Americolor food writer pens. I used Bakels chocolate and white fondant and Satin Ice red fondant and Queens premix royal icing.



 Cloud cutters - used for clouds, trees and bushes - Cakes by Bien

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission. 

Tweet tweet super cute bird cake pops free video tutorial

I've got a new free video tutorial up on how to make these super cute bird cake pops. They are actually pretty easy once you see how. I shape the birds, melt the 'chocolate' showing the correct consistency, insert the sticks, chill, dip and decorate.

Click on this link below to watch the video:


The blue bird cake pops in the picture were originally made for Sweet's 6th birthday party CLICK HERE for more pictures.

If you need a link to a recipe try out one of these easy no bake versions:

Oreo cookie truffle pop recipe by Bubble and Sweet
Tim Tam cookie truffle pop recipe by Bubble and Sweet

If you can't find copha try substituting paramount crystals. I use a ratio of 7 parts candy melt to 1 part copha/crystals eg. 70 grams candy melt to 10 grams copha/crystals or 7oz candy melt to 1 oz paramount crystals.

Candy melts, cake pop sticks, edible eyes, heart sprinkles and edible pens can be found at most craft or cake decorating shops or see the below affiliate links to amazon:




Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission.  
 

Sophie's 6th Birthday Sweet Birdie Birthday Party

Sophie (Sweet) turned 6 and to celebrate we had a sweet bird themed birthday party.

No particular reasoning behind the theme, we just found some pretty printables from I Will Invitations that both Sophie and I loved so we decided to just go with it.

Anyway....Birds, who doesn't love birds, well apart from maybe a generation of Hickcock watching fans.....

But me, I love birds and this was a perfect opportunity to make a birdhouse cake with a ruffled roof, craft inspired flowers and pretty pastel layers inside.

Bird Cake pops, flower cookie pops with button detail and cloud in the sky cookies made a great combination for this pink 'garden' display. All these treats are from recipes and instructions included in my book Sweets on a Stick.
  
Book Depository: Sweets on a Stick

Fishpond: Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Of course we had some pretty bird cookies.

and some macarons because all the moms love them......Ooops because the kids can't get enough of them.

Plus candy bon bons, marshmallows and sour blue cloud lollies.....Sophie adores how they turn her tongue blue.

and then because I was running out of time I replaced some of the cakes I had planned on making with a selection of berries displayed in pretty Greengate china bowls and latte cups. I think that berries or other fruit are always a great last minute solution for parties, the kids love them and they look just as pretty as any baked treat.

For decorations we used an actual real branch stuck to the wall with some sticky tape and hung  Ah-Tissue paper pom poms from it and the ceiling, then added a couple of gorgeous individually decorated bird houses to the wall behind the cake.

The pink display for the pops was from a discount dollar store with some decorative straw and the risers are stryofoam blocks covered in wrapping paper.

Sophie had seen a face painter at a local store recently who is also an entertainer so we engaged her to help manage the kids. Kozmic the Klown is absolutely fabulous at face painting for both boys and girls and she also has a bunny :)

Bird Cake Pop (removed from pop) instructions from Sweets on a Stick

Sweet Bird Party credits

Cake and other treats - Bubble and Sweet
Paper Pom Poms - Ah-Tissue
Printables - I Will Invitations Lovebird Tweet Printables
Face Painting and Entertainment by Kozmic The Klown
Lollies/ Candy - The Professors
Greengate China - Originated Shop
Cake Stand and Pink Elegant Candles Sharnel Dollar Designs

Super big thank you to Terri Vandermeer who did the background decorations pretty much all by herself as I was a little bit under the weather. Terri also took the photographs, makes those super cute hand decorated birdhouses and sewed up THAT gorgous ruffled tablecloth.

Raspberry Macarons

Printables from I Will Invitations

Selection of treats on sticks...recipes and instructions from the book Sweets on a Stick

Awwww Bunny :)

Yup we did a bit of glitterizing on the printables.....just can't help ourselves :)

I shared this party over on Tip me Tuesday at the Tip Junkie :)

   

Cute bird cake pops, flower cookies and a bit of a whinge

EDIT UPDATE
I now have a quick youtube video on how to make a similar version of bird cake pops CLICK BELOW PICTURE LINK:

Here is a quick peek of some of the treats from Sophie's birthday party.

Uh-huh super cute. They are actually a little display of yummy treats that I made using the recipes and instructions from Sweets on a Stick, just modified a little bit (tips at the bottom of the post).

I know what your saying - what's with the peek? Can you just show the whole party for goodness sake?

Well sadly, the day after Sophie's super fun party, she ended up in hospital for a few days, and then when she got out our 3 year old son....The Destroyer, ended up with a row of stitches on his head.

Added onto that, Mr Sweet and I have also been flu-ish, and I have not really had a chance to sort out the photos and type up a post. Sorry all.

And all the illness is probably why I am soooo cranky and about to have a huge whinge, which let's face it is generally not attractive and something I mostly avoid.

So apologies in advance, but here goes....a while back at the request of a publisher I wrote a book called Sweets on a Stick. Yes that's right the same book that I spruik non stop on this blog.

Edit 31 August - OK there still seems to be some confusion. So before you read on Sweets on a Stick is still a color book. There was a very small print on demand in black and white which was an error...this problem has been fixed and all future copies WILL be color. If you do have a black and white copy you should request for it to be replaced.....ok back to the original post.

Everything seemed ok and then a few months into this year I used an Amazon gift card I had for some stuff and I purchased 2 copies of my book. Still all good but then when they turned up they were black and white - yup, for Real. That is totally not how they were meant to be, it clearly states on the back cover of the book that the pictures should be color (plus I already had other copies from the publisher which I had seen and knew that it was wrong).

When I emailed Amazon they offered to refund the money or send me another 2 copies, so I chose the 2 color copies, which solved my black and white problem pretty easily.

Then I contacted the publisher to find out what was going on and they advised that Amazon has a process where they can print on demand themselves, so it seems what happened is Amazon (or maybe a company that works for them) printed the book in black and white and sent it out that way.

You know mistakes happen, heavens know I'm not perfect by a long shot, so I was happy to let it all go.

But I guess they didn't rush out to replace all the black and white copies that were printed and sent out in error.

Image from Sweets on a Stick - yes they are supposed to be color :)

Because now there is a comment from someone who received one of those black and white books from Amazon on the Amazon website stating the book is black and white. And as it turns out people do read that stuff as I get quite a few comments from people asking whether it is really black and white.

Sadly Amazon will not remove that comment, even though it is not a true reflection of the book, but rather their own faulty Print on Demand system. I sent them a polite email and when they said they would not remove the comment. I followed up as I thought as it was their (or a company that works for them) mistake, and as the book is not really black and white surely they would have to remove the comment? But no - they just told me the matter was no longer up for discussion and thanked me for my understanding.

Yup - I am totally not understanding that.

Image from Sweets on a Stick - yup still supposed to be color :)

Anyhoo as there is not really that much I can do I'll just recap for y'all.....Sweets on a Stick does have Color pictures. If you have received a copy that is not color I suggest you contact whomever you bought it from (I'm guessing Amazon) and ask for a replacement. It has 50 color pictures which is around 1 picture for every 3 recipes, and yes I wish every recipe had a picture but a decision was made by the publishing team to print in the US instead of overseas and it had some impact on the number of pictures that could be used.


Sweets on a Stick is aimed at kids and getting kids in the kitchen and some of the recipes are pretty simple as a result. The recipes, although easy to make, taste good and I use lots of them on a regular basis myself. Sweets on a Stick is published in the US and uses ounces etc, but there is a conversion chart at the back to metric.

Anyway Sweets on a Stick available at the Book Depository and Fishpond, you know I guess as well as some other big book stores that we no longer support here at Bubble and Sweet :) Doh I so don't have the time it's going take to go through the blog to swap all the links, but I'm doing it anyway.



Book Depository: Sweets on a Stick

Fishpond: Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Handmade paper pom pom from Ah-Tissue

Bird Cake Pop modifications - To get a cute open beak follow the instructions in Sweets on a Stick and replace the beak with 2 extra heart sprinkles by attaching the curved top of the sprinkle to the bird before the candy coating has set. See picture for example of placement. I colored my own candy coating light blue using Flocoat and Wedgewood blue gel color (ratio 5 drops flocoat to 1 drop gel food color).

Flower Cookie Pop modification - the cookies in the above picture are made using a smaller blossom/ flower cookie cutter.

All photo's by Terri Vandermeer 

Party Labels by I Will Invitations - Lovebird Tweet

Pom Poms - Ah-Tissue

Blue Speckled Robin Egg Cake Truffles (cake pops without the sticks) for Spring or Easter

Ok I'll admit it, I have been making a lot of bird themed stuff lately.

I'm blaming the bird baby shower I made stuff for late last year. 'Cause while I was thinking up stuff to make I came up with lots of other ideas. Like when I made up the speckled 'bird egg' macarons I thought, hmmmm......they sure would make pretty cake pops.

And then once I've thought that it's not like I could stop thinking it. It's like a done deal.

Also I blame the birds, or rather the graphic designers who make birds look so cute. In real life birds aren't really that cute. Well around here anyway, they are pretty swoopy in the spring time. specially when they are nesting, more kinda the Alfred Hitchcock type deal.

But in my mind they are protecting cute little chicks that will grow up to be whimsically pretty with rosy cheeks so I can forgive them all the swooping and still pretend they are adorable.

And this is what their eggs will look like :)

I used blue Wilton Candy melts to make these delicate looking speckled eggs, but you could use any color you like including plain white chocolate, which would give a lovely creamy colored egg.

I mixed Blue and White candy melts together to get a more subtle light blue color for my eggs, and y'all might think, well why didn't you just color your own chocolate.

So I thought I might share my reasoning with you:

• Regular food color can not be used on chocolate - Water is chocolate's nemesis and most regular food color is water based, even those gel colors. You need to buy special oil based food colors or get a special product (like AmeriColor™ Flo-Coat™) which somehow magically allows you to mix in the regular color.

• I prefer to use the candy coating for cake pops for a couple of reasons - it sets way quicker than regular chocolate. Also once set it doesn't leave fingerprints as easily as regular chocolate.

• I actually like the taste of the Candy melts/ coating when paired with the cake truffle. It's not really chocolate and from the name you can tell it's not pretending to be. It has a kind of vanilla flavor which is really sweet and I feel lends the finished treat a bit of a lighter taste.

• Plus that's what I had in my pantry (probably for the reasons listed above).

and in case you missed my earlier post. I noticed Fishpond having a 24 pre-order sale on Peggy Porschen's new book boutique bakery, for $21.97 including free postage in Australia - nice!

Boutique Baking: Delectable Cakes, Cookies and Teatime Treats

Blue Speckled Robin Egg Cake Truffle

1 batch Oreo Cookie Truffle or Cake pop mixture#
Blue candy melts
White candy melts
Chocolate
Copha or Paramount crystals
Toothpicks
Clean brush/ toothbrush

# cake pop mixture is cake crumbled up with buttercream or other frosting mixed in until it is moist enough to hold it's shape.

Line a tray with parchment paper. Take around 3 teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and roll it between your palms to make a smooth ball, then using your fingers and palms turn the ball into an egg/oval shape. I find that shaping the mixture into the ball first makes it easier to get a smooth finish.

Place the egg  shaped truffles on the tray in fridge to chill until firm


Melt the chocolate. To get the color I desired I mixed the Wilton Blue Candy Melts and Wilton White Candy Melts at a ratio of 2 parts white chocolate to each 1 part chocolate (eg 400g Blue to 200g White or 14 oz Blue to 7 oz white). Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals during the melting process until the mixture is very fluid (but not so much that it is watery). The mixture should be like condensed milk.

This is NOT how the finished melted blue/white candy melt mixture should look - this is just showing how I mixed a couple of colors together. It should be a consistent color and much more fluid than this bowl.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of toothpicks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a egg shape so the stick is sitting in the larger rounded bottom side of the egg (see picture) and the stick is parallel to the tray. Repeat for remaining eggs.

Place the tray back into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or until the sticks are secure.

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted, if needed remelt in the microwave at medium low. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole egg truffle into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Once set you can lay the cloud pops back down on a tray to work on.  Holding the toothpick securely twist and pull the toothpick out and repeat for all the eggs.

Make sure you still have some of the melted chocolate. For this step I like the chocolate to be nearly set, but not quite.Make sure your hands are really clean (I know you would be doing that anyway) or pop on gloves and stick your finger into the melted chocolate. Then press the chocolate into the hole left by the toothpick and smooth it around with the tip of you finger.

Next melt up very small amount of the dark chocolate you can add a little copha or paramount crystal if you like.

Place one of the eggs away from the others on a clean workbench (like your kitchen bench). Dip your brush in the chocolate and then holding the brush by one hand, run your fingers through the bristles sot that the chocolate splatters onto the egg.

Yup just like you used to do when you were a kid.

I like to hold the brush down just under the larger rounded bottom side so that the flicks of chocolate are larger down there and graduate up to less at the top of the egg, but that's just my preference.

Repeat for remaining eggs.

Eggs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days.

If you enjoy cake pops, my book Sweets on a Stick has lots of recipes for making cake pops from scratch and more fun ideas is a US Release however there is a conversion chart in the back of the book for metric.It's available from bookstores in the US and here online at:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)