Best of Bubble and Sweet 2012

Thanks everyone for joining me in a fabulous year of baking. I hope you had as much fun reading along as I did creating and sharing my baking journey throughout the year.

I have alot planned for 2013. Remember, you can follow this blog and receive free email updates by entering your details over in the top right hand corner.

For the final post I have compiled a best of Bubble and Sweet.

Best Cakes 2012:

This year ruffles ruled supreme in the big cake stakes. Colorful rainbows and ombre (gradient shades) decorations were just a taste of what was inside with surprising matching or contrasting hues.

Just in time for Halloween and a bit outside of the Bubble and Sweet box was the Monkey Brain cake with jello brain and raspberry sauce. It was gruesomely delicious.

1.How to eat a Tiara Ruffled Princess Cake (photo by Alyce and Colette)
2.Monkey Brain Cake with Jello Brain
3. Pastel Rainbow Ruffle cake
4. Sweet Birdie Ruffle Birdhouse

Other favorite cakes: 

Other favorite cakes included this streamlined ruffle and hand painted aqua wedding cake inspired by a vintage wedding dress with hand painting, a fun candy inspired Christmas cake with gluten free cranberry cake filling, and a fun Ant Picnic cake.

1. A Vintage dress inspired wedding cake
2. Lollipop and candy Christmas tree cake
3. Ant picnic in the park

Best Party Tables 2012:

Fun and fabulous party tables for 2012 included a dreamily pretty shabby chic pink and gold princess party with ruffles and bows, a rustic pie table with a fabulous paper pom backdrop by Ah-Tissue and a sweet as can be bird theme party table.

1. Shabby Chic Princess Party (Photography by Alyce and Colette)
2. Oh Sweet Mum Pie Table (Photography by Naomi V Photography)
3. Sophie's Sweet Birdie Birthday party

Best Cookies 2012:

Quirky ant cookies, a cute scary set of babushka halloween cookies, the sweetest teal, pink and white reindeer cookies and valentine inspired bird cookies were my favorite cookies for 2012.

1. Ant picnic in the park cookies
2. Babushka Munchy Mummy, Evil Ghost and Screaming Ghoul Cookies
3. Sweetest Thing Reindeer Cookies
4. Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking cookies

Best Cheesecakes 2012:

I love cheesecake and hopefully you can share in my love after some of the recipes on the blog this year. Pretty strawberries and cream cheesecake in a jar, photographed in my front garden, delicious mini nutella cheesecakes combining a few of my favorite things and decadent peanut butter and s'mores cheesecakes were among the recipes I shared. I had almost as much fun naming them as eating them. Almost.

1. Strawberry and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar
2. These are a few of my favorite things Nutella Cheesecakes
3. Totally tastes better than thin - Smores cheesecake
4. If this is wrong I don't want to be right Chocolate Peanut Butter mini Cheesecake

Best Sweets on a Stick 2012 (includes best cake pops 2012)

Sweets on a Stick - it's the name of my book and something I think I do pretty well here at Bubble and Sweet. Macarons in divine hues decorated like lollipops and on top of cake pops were a couple of my favorites. A planter box of cake pops and cookies made using the instructions from my book in pastel hues for a party table was loved by all.

1. Lollipop Macarons
2.Macaron cake pops
3.Cute bird cake pops, flower cookies and cloud in the sky cookies (recipes from Sweets on a Stick)

4.Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow cakepops

Best small cakes 2012 (Includes Best Cupcakes 2012):

Did I go overboard with the mini macarons? - I don't think so. Who could resist the delicious chocolate hazelnut cakes topped with raspberries and mini gold macs or piped butter cream rose topped strawberry cake with delicate pink mini mac? Spiced pear cupcakes were a hit for those looking for something simple. High maintenance decorators preferred high heel shoe cupcakes.

1. Chocolate Hazelnut cakes with French Buttercream (Gluten Free)
2. High heel Shoe cupcakes - high maintenance decorating
3. Pink rose and macaron shabby chic petit fours
4. Spiced pear cupcakes with caramel cream cheese frosting

Best treats 2012 (misc)

Easy to make army of ghost Oreo truffles was the surprise hit of the year being the second most popular post on the whole blog. More mini macs topped other delicious treats including the fun mini pumpkin chiffon pies with pecan pie bites and the milk chocolate mousse pies (which would have to be one of my favorite pictures ever - thank you Naomi V Photography). Peppermint cookie fudge proved to be a fast, easy and delicious treat to share.

1. Army of Ghosts Oreo Truffles
2.Chocolate Cream Mousse Pie (sorry no recipe provided) (Photo by Naomi V Photography)
3. Pumpkin Chiffon Pies  (photo by Naomi V Photography)
4. Peppermint Cookie Fudge

Favorite new product 2012

My favorite new find during 2012 would have to be the edible jelly gems. I mostly used them in cookies but found that with not much work they could dress up anything turning simple marshmallows into a treat fit for a princess.

1. Elegant Ornament Cookies
2. Jewelled Marshmallows
3. How to eat a Tiara   (Photography by Alyce and Colette)
 4. Princess Cookies


Other highlights:

Cake pop and cookie demonstrations at the Bleeding Heart Cafe in Brisbane proved to be even more fun than I thought they would be. The best part was meeting people who read my blog on a regular basis. Another class is being planned for April 2013.

Recipes I created were included in Tickle the Imagination magazine, online and print version, and Peekaboo magazine. Many online newspapers and magazines linked back to my popular posts, and of course many blogger friends linked back to Bubble and Sweet as well.

The absolute best bit

...and the best part of 2012 from a Bubble and Sweet perspective was all the fabulous interaction on the blog, on instagram, on pintrest and on facebook. Truly I still get excited when I receive lovely feedback - it's what keeps me going.

Thank you everyone again for reading the blog and sharing my baking journey.

You helped make my year one of the best yet :)

....................

Unless stated otherwise recipes, photos and posts by Linda Vandermeer author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Cake Pop Classes in Brisbane

Hiya all. I have been asked sooo many times if I ever do any classes on how to make my sweet treats, and YAY finally there is one on the horizon.

As part of the Hands on Brisbane Craft Workshops I will be at the Bleeding Heart Cafe in Ann St Brisbane on the 14th of July 2012 to run a cake pop demonstration and baking Question and Answer session.

I'll be showing how to make cake pops and create some simple fondant decorations so you can make your own plate of pops to wow everyone at your next party or event.

Plus I'll also be demonstrating the monster cake pops from my book Sweets on a Stick.

I should have some copies of my book Sweets on a Stick available to buy......oh and sign if you really want.....but seriously my writing is so messy you could probably take it into a chemist and they'll think it's a prescription :) Um does that joke even work now that they print prescriptions out or am I showing my age?

If you already have a copy of Sweets on a Stick and want my scrawly scratchings on it you can just bring it on it without buying one on the day.




The session will start at 9:30am and it runs until 11:30am and the cost is a sweet $12.

You can pop over and book tickets online HERE, while you are on the site you can check out all the other fun craft sessions being offered.

and in the meantime if you just can't wait for my book here is the amazon and fishpond links.

Oh and by the way if you have purchased a copy of Sweets on a Stick and it came in Black and White, please contact the place of purchase. It seems there has been some type of mix up with a reprint order, they should definitely have color pictures.

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Peppermint Candy Christmas Cake pop

I'm not the hugest fan of hard candy like lollipops and hard peppermints but I adore the look of them. I think that is why I am often making fake candy versions out of other sweets that I do like, y'know cookie and cake pops, cupcakes....macarons. Well pretty much mostly everything other than hard candy.

So I made up this version of peppermint candy that is a choc mint flavoured cake pop, it looks pretty, tastes minty, but best of all for me I can easily bite into it.

I also made some candy cane pops, but I was not the hugest fan of these, they worked ok, but there were a few breakages during the dipping and although I think it was the dodgy packet of melts I had I can't be sure so I'll just share the pictures this time.

In Australia we have a cookie called Mint Slice which is made by Arnotts. It is a hard round biscuit (cookie) topped by a layer of mint icing (frosting) and then completely enrobed in dark chocolate.

If you don't have a local cookie like the Mint Slice you can just use a plain Oreo truffle recipe like this one (CLICK HERE) and add peppermint oil or extract to taste.

Peppermint Candy Christmas Cake pop

In this recipe I use a Fondant cake pop decal to decorate the cake pop. I am going to refer to it as a Ca-popper to save time in the recipe

Capopper (Fondant cake pop decals)
White fondant
green fondant
red sanding sugar
royal icing
candy shaped cookie cutter
small rolling pin

Roll out the white fondant onto a bench dusted lightly with cornflour until quite thin and use the cookie cutter to cut out a candy shape.

Roll out the green fondant and cut out the candy shape. Remove the edges so you just have the round middle and then cut the middle into 10 equal (ish) triangles. Pop 5 of the triangles onto the white fondant candy to look like swirls in a hard peppermint candy - use a little water to adhere if necessary.

Fill in the remaining white spaced with a little royal icing and then sprinkle over red sanding sugar.

Allow ca-popper to set for at least a day.

Place flat onto a parchment covered tray

Mint Slice Truffles
1 packet Mint Slice Biscuit
35g full fat cream cheese

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix until well combined.

Candy shaped pops
Ca-popper - see above made at least one day before
cake pop or cookie truffle mixture
hard candy shaped cookie cutter
red or while candy coating (like wilton melts)
lollipop sticks (around 6")
small microwave safe bowl, large enough to dip a whole pop into completely.

Take around 25g (7/8 oz) of the biscuit/ cookie truffle mixture and push into the candy shaped biscuit cutter just filling the inside round as per the picture. Use a lollipop stick to make a hole in the bottom where you will later be inserting the final lollipop stick, place on a parchment lined tray and pop into the fridge until firm.

Melt candy coating in the microwave at bursts of 90 seconds on medium low heat stirring in between until all lumps are melted and the mixture is smooth and fluid. I add copha (or paramount crystals) before I melt the candy coating as I find it is too thick to dip easily without the addition.

Take the chilled rounds out of the fridge and holding the end of a lollipop stick dip one end into the melted candy coating and then insert the stick into the round cookie truffle (or cake pop) mixture. The sticks should be laying parallel to the tray as per the picture. Repeat for all the pops and then return to the fridge to chill again.

While the pops are chilling, arrange the ca-popper on  a parchment lined tray with the decorated side facing down. You are going to lay the dipped pops on top of the so make sure there is enough room for the sticks

Once the pops are chilled, make sure the candy coating is still melted and fluid, if necessary pop back into the microwave for a short time (at medium low heat).

Holding the end of the lollipop stick submerge the whole pop into the melted candy coating. The lift it out of the candy mixture. You need to keep holding the pop upside down for a while until the excess candy coating mixture drops off otherwise it will run down your hand and the lollipop stick. I gently tap mine against the edge of the bowl to help the excess drip off.

Allow the candy coating to almost set and then carefully lay the pops on top of the ca-popper.

For a stack of other cake pop recipes and ideas check out my newly released book Sweets on a Stick available here at Amazon.



Or the book depository (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

The end

Christmas Tree Cake pop - Yup double sided cake pops

 Double sided Christmas cake pops.

Yes this solves that age old dilema of what to serve your cake pops in, no running around trying to find the right size Styrofoam block, these pops hold themselves up.

All jokes aside these pops do stand up by themselves as long as you manage to set them to dry on a parchment paper lined tray before the candy coating has dried so they set flat. Also you need to make sure that the bottom pop is a bit bigger than the top pop to weigh it down, and finally as you can not hold onto the stick you need to make sure the coating is the type that sets hard like regular Wilton melts and other types of candy coating that I usually suggest for cake pops. I just know sometime people like the taste of regular chocolate better but in this instance y'all will end up with sticky fingers.

These little trees are decorated with candy writers (melted candy coating in a tube), green sanding sugar, pink sugar pearls and pink sugar sprinkles (for the star topper).

I cut regular 6" sticks in half so that makes the sticks 3" (of course, I know you can work it out I just couldn't help myself).

So anyway time is running out to get a copy of Sweets on a Stick in time for Christmas, you all know I like to be helpful so here are a couple of links to a couple of the online shops:

It's available here at Amazon.



Or the book depository (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)



and I noticed that the publishing house has it for a really great price (HERE) as well.

Grisly Ghastly Halloween skulls

 I had so many ideas for Halloween this idea that I just did not get around to making so with 1 day to go I decided to do up a grisly batch of cake pops.

There are already a stack of skull pops around the blogiverse which are generally white with the eyes, nose and teeth drawn on with edible pen. They are pretty cute and cool, but I wanted mine to look a little bit more frightful.

You know that gritty, ghoulish just dug up dirty look so I decided to try out something new and dip the pops and then brush a different color on the top,

Did I succeed in making them look like old decaying skulls. I'm not sure whether they do look like skulls, maybe some kind of Zombie, wolfman, skull hybrid....what do you think?

Oh and this one here kinda looks like the terminator...

I said kinda :)

Whatever you think they look like, they are suitably ghastly for a Halloween display.

Here I am mixing up the bloody body parts....or maybe it's just cookie truffle pops. Either way it looks kinda gruesome.

And a bit of a hint if you can get your hands on actual Black Melts instead of having to colour your own with oil based chocolate colour I say do it. I would say mixing in powdered color to the candy melts my least fav part of the whole process.

Ghastly Skull Cake Pops

Cake pop or Cookie Truffle mix ready to shape - if it's red even better.....
lollipop sticks
Black candy melts (or dark chocolate colored black with special oil based color) mixed with copha or paramount crystals
White candy melts
Marshmallows
Black edible pen
Ready made edible eyes
clean food safe brush

Shape the mixture into little skulls by making ovals and then pressing the bottom in a little smaller and making indents for the eye cavity and mouth.

Place the cake pop mixture skulls onto a parchment lined tray and chill in the fridge until firm.

Melt the black candy melts and the paramount crystals/copha, at medium low heat in the microwave at bursts of 60 - 90 seconds. The mixture should be quite fluid so make sure you add enough copha/paramount crystals (about 1:7 ration 1 being the candy melts - it changes with brands and even colors so see what works). Dip one end of the lollipop stick into the melted black candy melts and insert into the bottom of the skull - where the neck would be and lay back down onto the parchment lined tray. When all the skulls have lollipop sticks inserted return them to the fridge to chill until set.

Once the sticks are secure in the skulls remove them from the fridge. Check that the candy melts are still fluid and if not reheat in the microwave at medium low. Dip the whole skull into the black candy melts and remove, holding the skull upside down to allow excess to drip off and then pop the skull upright into styrofoam block to set. Repeat for remaining skulls.

Melt the white candy melts in the microwave at medium low heat at short bursts. Using a food safe brush brush the white candy over the black dipped skulls starting at the nose area and working your way out. Repeat for all skulls.

Take the edible eyes and using some of the extra melted white candy stick them into the eye sockets.

Using food safe scissors (that is scissors you only use for food purposes) cut up small pieces of marshmallow to fit into the mouth cavity. Using extra white candy melt stick the marshmallow mouth into the skulls mouth cavity and then use the edible black pen to draw on teeth.

If you like you can leave the skulls without the marshmallow mouths or edible eyes and they still look kinda cool.

Have a Happy Halloween Xx

I have a few Halloween recipes in my book Sweets on a Stick which is being released in just over a month in the US. As it is a book for decorating with kids most of the ideas are a little bit more simple than this, but they are great fun, plus I have a made from scratch recipe for red velvet cake pops which are the perfect pop to make your finished treats look extra gruesome. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.

Pearly Cake Pop and Macaron Tower for the Mermaid Party tutorial

When I started to plan Lilli's mermaid party I had a vision of a macaron tower starting in white and graduating to a deep green like I ended up making the actual birthday cake. I had seen some pictures of macaron towers with the macarons placed sideways instead of flat and I loved the look. I was going to pop in some extra little embellishments to bring in the mermaid theme and had them worked out, I ordered my custom cut styrofoam from kool foam for the support structure, I was ready to go.

But then I got stuck with the cake pops, I had a couple of ideas which I was not completely loving. I could have decided to not have cake pops (eeek the horror) but then a couple of days before the party I decided to replace the white macarons with cake ball pearls.

I'm feeling pretty good about this tower, I have never actually seen one like it so it was kinda exciting for me to do.

It's a little bit trickier than the stuff I normally post mostly because it has so many steps involved, and it involves making macarons. You can always buy ready made macarons or if you like you can leave them out and have a totally popalicious cake ball tower.

Also I am not describing here how to actually cover styrofoam and cakeboards with the fondant. There are stacks of great tutorials out there and I feel my tower tutorial will be a bit huge and unwieldy if I add it.

Here is a pic of the full table, see there is the macaron tower next to the ocean wave cake. If you would like to see more of Lilli's Mermaid Party Click Here.

Pearly Cake Pop and Macaron Tower Tutorial

Ingredients
30 cake balls or cookie truffle balls covered in white chocolate dipped using toothpicks instead of lollipop sticks (see below for how to dip)
pearl luster (I used the PME spray)
20 light blue macarons (click here for macaron recipe, divide macaron batter into half and colour one section light blue and one section light green)
20 light green macarons
Ivory/Cream fondant
Light blue fondant
Light green fondant
round styrofoam 9cm (3.5') diameter by 9 cm (3.5") high
round styrofoam 12cm (4.7") diameter by 9 cm (3.5")high
rectangle styrofoam 20cm (7.9") X 25 cm (9.8") X 9cm (3.5") high
lots of toothpicks
Cake board and ribbon

#all the styrofoam was custom cut by KoolFoam, the rectangle is also the size I used to display the cookies pops on the dessert buffet.

Cover the small styrofoam with the ivory fondant and the larger round with the light blue fondant. If your not sure how to do this pop over to you tube.

Cover your cakeboard with the light green fondant and adhere the light blue fondant styrofoam round onto the cake board with some royal icing or a bit of fondant thinned with water. Click here for a tutorial from Cake journal  on how to cover a cake board.

I attached ribbon to the edge of the cake board to finish the edge. The cake stand is really just a candle stick from Ikea that I adhered securely to the bottom of the cake board.

Make the cake balls. I used white tim tam cookie truffles, and made them a little smaller than usual (14 grams or 1/2oz), when it is time to dip them in chocolate follow the normal instructions using a toothpick in place of a lollipop stick. So melt the candy coating/ white chocolate, insert the end of a toothpick into the cookie truffle/ cake  ball, repeat for all the cookie truffle/ cake balls and pop in fridge to chill. Remove from fridge, ensure the candy coating/ white chocolate is still melted and holding the end of the toothpick dip the ball into the melted candy coating/ chocolate. Place in styrofoam upright to set.

When you are ready to assemble the tower, push toothpicks into the fondant covered styrofoam rounds. To give you an idea of where to insert the toothpicks place some of the macarons against the round to resemble what they will look like when finished. It should give you an idea of where to place the toothpicks. It's ok you can move them around if needed.

Place the Green macarons on the bottom layer and then the blue macarons above them to make a second higher layer.

Carefully pull the toothpicks out of each cookie truffle/ cake ball. Using the same technique as you did for the macarons push the cookie truffle/ cake balls onto the smaller ivory covered styrofoam round. Insert the toothpick into the holes that have already been made (where you earlier removed the dipping toothpicks from).

Once all the cookie truffle/ cake balls have been placed on the styrofoam round spray all over with the PME pearl luster spray.


Allow to set for a while and then using a spatula/ egg flip carefully pick up the tower and place on top of the light blue macaron covered tower, using some royal icing or fondant thinned out with water to adhere.

Ummm...I've been trying to work out how to pop a link to my book on the side tab but I just can't work it out so sorry you are going to have to put up with my blatant self promotion in each post just a tad longer.

Milk and Cookies cake pops made from white tim tam truffles

Who doesn't love milk and cookies. Also cake pops, I know we all love them. So really these milk and cookie cake pops were just destined to happen.

I came up with this idea ages ago while I was making some scrap inspired bird cookies.....see this pic here. I loved my little 'Scrappy Bird' but no one else was quite as taken with him.

Poor Scrappy Bird - is this a cookie only the creator (me) could love........

Anyhoo, while I was making Scrappy Birdy I trimmed off some fondant 'twine' and it looked like insy little striped paper straws. So I started wondered what I could do with a stack of teensy little fondant straws and then I thought of course..... milk and cookie cake pops.

These pops are made from my white chocolate tim tam pop recipe, because that's what I had around, but afterwards I realised it was a great idea as now there are cookies inside AND outside of my milk and cookie cake pops.

Dont'ya just love it when stuff like that works out without even really thinking about it.

Milk and Cookie Pop tutorial

So these are pretty simple,  be sure to make the straws a couple of days prior to assembling the pops so they have had a chance to set.

Ingredients
small amount of fondant half colored red, half white
batch of cake or cookie truffle pops (I used Tim Tam cookie pops click here for recipe)
white candy coating/melts (or white chocolate melts) I am going to call it candy coating for the rest of the tutorial.
copha/or paramount crystals/or crisco for melting.
mini store bought cookies (I used mini chips ahoy)
lollipop sticks
styrofoam block for resting the pops in

Take some red and some white fondant and roll them (seperately) into a thin log using your fingertips and the workbench until they are quite thin. Twist the 2 them around each other like a rope and once again using your fingertips roll the combined, twined fondant back and forth gently on the workbench. Make sure to use really really gentle pressure or you might end up with the fondant twine being uneven. ( Although I guess it will not be such a big problem if your cutting it into small mini straw pieces). Once you have made the twine cut it into pieces about 1.5cm (1 1/2 inch) in length and leave on some parchment paper to set for a day or so.

Make the cake or cookie truffle pops and shape into a milk glass shape by making a cyclinder that tapers up slightly. Chilli n the fridge until set.

Melt the white candy coating in the microwave at bursts of 60 to 90 seconds at medium low. Do not overheat the chocolate. If you want your finished pop to have a really smooth finish you need to add some type of shortening to make the candy coating more fluid. I recommend copha if you are in Australia at a ratio of around 55g to every 400g candy coating, or paramount crystals in the US at a ratio of around 2oz to every 14oz candy bag. If you can not get paramount crystals in the US try crisco but it's not quite as good and you may need to work on the ratios.

Once the candy coating is melted dip the end of a lollipop stick into it and insert into the bottom (thinner tapered end) of the milk shaped pop. Place onto parchment lined trays and chill for 10 minutes.

Ensure candy coating is still fluid and if not remelt at medium low heat. Remove pops from fridge and holding the end of the lollipop stick completely submerge into the melted candy coating. Lift out and hold over the bowl gently tapping to remove excess candy coating. Take a bit of time with this step otherwise your finish may not be as smooth as you might like.

Place the pop upright into the styrofoam block and using a toothpick make a hole in the top of the milk glass pop and push the premade fondant straw in. Take one of the mini cookies and hold it onto the front of the pop until it sets a little and is secure.

 So there you have it, my quick how I made milk and cookie pops. Obviously you can make the straws any color you like and change up the cookies (I think mini oreos with blue and white straws would look great).

Also I have been wondering if those jumbo candy cane sprinkles you can get at Christmas time might work as straws if you cut off the rounded end....but seeings as I don't have any and making the fondant straws is kinda easy I'm just gonna keep on wondering.