Love is in the Air cake pops with cute birds and hearts for valentines day

I actually came up with the name for these cake pops first and then had to work out a design to match. ' Love is in the Air' cake pops sounded ever so sweet, and the original idea I had was to make the clouds with just some hearts. Sweet but simple.

So I made them up but then they weren't quite as sweet as I thought they would be. Maybe I should have made the hearts red - I'm not sure, but I wasn't feeling the love in the air, so I pulled out the 'ole backup plan.

Yup birds, you know they always make everything seem kinda cuter, it's like the bird squared cuteness rule or something ;)

Yeah I'm just making stuff up now, but you all get the idea. Bird is the word - if the word you want is cute.

and talking about cute :)  I had a lovely invitation from the Dollhouse Bake Shoppe to join in their Virtual Valentine Party and it seemed like such a fun idea that I am totally in and this is my contribution.

On the 5th of February the Dollhouse Bake Shop will be showcasing a round up of other blog contributions. Here is a link to the original post opening the Dollhouse doors.

 

By the way I have to apologise for the photo's of these pops (and also the Thought Bubble pops in a previous post). It was the 6th week of school holidays and I had 3 kids behind, in front and underneath me begging to eat the pops. I was desperate, I would have done anything for the few minutes silence that shoveling cake pops in their mouth would bring, so after a couple of photo's I let them take them all. Wasn't until later that I realised how bad the light was and as a result how blurry most of the shots were.

Pretty much the 3 photo's above are the only ones you can actually see anything in.

Oh well - that couple of minutes silence was worth it's weight in gold so I'm sure you all will forgive me.

Love is in the Air cake pops
It is best to start the decorations for these pops the day before to make it easier to handle the fondant decorations. The fondant decorations can be replaced with royal icing or premade - shop purchased decorations if you like.

Ingredients

cake pop mixture (any type)
lollipop sticks
white candy melts
fondant colored blue and pink - you will only need a small amount  about 1/2 the size of your fist.
Flower shaped fondant or cookie cutter (4cm (1 3/4inch) 
Heart shaped fondant cutter - approx 1.5cm (5/8 inch) in height
Tear drop shaped fondant cutter - approx 2cm (3/4 inch) in length
heart shaped sprinkles
edible pen

These are the fondant cutter sets I got my cutters from

1st Day make the heart and bird fondant decorations

Knead the pink fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use a heart shape fondant cutter to cut out hearts and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper. You don't have to but I like to pinch the bottoms of mine to go to the side, or you can leave then like normal hearts. Allow them to set overnight.

Knead the blue fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use the tear drop shaped fondant cutter to cut out shapes and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper.

Pinch the tail and pull it up to look like a bird and then quickly press a heart sprinkle into each tear shape (see picture for directions).

If you have worked quickly the sprinkle should stick to the fondant, however if you have taken too long the fondant may have dried out already. In that case you can use a little royal icing, edible glue or melted chocolate to attach the heart.

Use an edible pen to draw on a little black dot for an eye.

Leave to set overnight.

2nd Day make the cake pops

Holding the flower/blossom cutter between your thumb and pointer squish together to shape into a mini cloud.

Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter on top of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray.  Place tray in fridge to chill until firm

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. 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 thick cream.

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 lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray. Repeat for remaining clouds.

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. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Once set you can lay the cloud pops back down on a tray to work on. Using a toothpick take some of the melted candy coating and stick a bird and heart onto the front of each pop. Allow to set and then using an edible pen draw 2 small lines to look like a beak coming out of the blue bird shape (see pic below)

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

 and if your a bit of a fan of bird pops, check out my book Sweets on a Stick, there are instructions for cute bird cake pops and even cuter birdhouse pops.

here is the link to my book Sweets on a Stick it is a US Release however there is a conversion chart in the back to the book for metric.It's available from bookstores in the US and here online at:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Chocolate Chip cookie dough cheesecakes

I like cheesecake.

When I was growing up we lived within a 5 minute walk of a cheesecake shop. They had a baked cheesecake with a kinda jellied blueberry top that was sooooo delicious.

They didn't have a chocolate chip cookie dough baked cheesecake though, not that I remember, and I'm pretty sure I would as it may have given my favorite blueberry a run for it's money.

Anyway I've been playing around a bit with my basic mini cheesecake recipe. In case you have missed my previous posts I have already shared a Rocky Road, a Chocolate Rocky Road and decadent Dulce de leche versions.

and now I'm ready to share these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Baked Cheesecakes.

Yup read the words Oreo, Cookie Dough and Cheesecake.


I'm one of those people that doesn't lick the bowl of cake batter and cookie dough because I know it has raw egg in it.

So for many years I have had a recipe for eggless cookie dough - which is pretty much take your favorite cookie recipe substituting around 1 Tbsp of milk for each egg.  You can add it to icecream, make cookie dough cake pops with it, eat it straight out of the bowl......or add it to cheesecake.

Pretty sweet huh!

The amount of cookie dough I have provided in the recipe will yield enough to top the batch of cheesecakes with cookie dough. Which I feel is kinda enough cookie dough.

But if you really really like cookie dough you might like to add a layer over the Oreo Cookie (like in the above pictures). If your one of the super cookie dough lovers just double up the batch of raw cookie dough, and then increase the number of muffin cases and Oreo Cookies as the Mini Cheesecake yield will increase to around 20 -24.


Y'all can make them however you like. I'm not gonna judge you. How much cookie dough you like is between you and your cheesecake.

Cheesecakes can be served as they are or with a warm chocolate ganache. The chocolate in the picture is actually a fudgy chocolate sauce I made up but sorry to say I lost my recipe notes for it before I typed them up so it's not included with the recipe below.

Don't worry though I am making the ultimate sacrifice and retesting until I get it perfect again and this time I won't lose those notes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mini Baked Cheesecakes
makes 14 large Texas muffin sized cheesecakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
This batch makes enough to top the cheesecakes. If you would like a layer on the bottom of the cheesecake as well double the ingredients in this recipe.

1 cup plain (All purpose) flour
75 grams (3oz) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp (2 US Tbsp) Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Sift the flour and set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer at high speed cream (mix together) the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium low, add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. Then reduce speed to low and mix in the flour until completely combined. Add the chocolate chips and mix in by hand.

For the purpose of the cheesecakes make break small pieces off the dough and roll into balls. (My kids love to help with this step)

Cheesecakes

14 Oreo Cookies (or up to 24 if you are making the version with cookie dough layer on the bottom as well)
625g (21oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1 tin condensed milk
3 large eggs at room temperature
14 large muffin papers (I bought these ones from woolies)
Cookie dough (see recipe above)

Preheat oven to 140C (280 F)

Line the muffin tins with the muffin/cupcake papers. Place one single oreo in the bottom of each paper.

If you have decided to go all out and have the extra layer of cookie dough - press down into the case an amount of cookie dough about equal to the size of the Oreo cookie at this stage. (remember you will have to have doubled your cookie dough yield to do this and you will also need to reduce the amount of cheesecake mixture you add to the cases it will be a scant 1/4 cup)

Beat the cream cheese using a mixer at medium speed until just smooth, add the condensed milk and mix until combined. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.


Spoon the mixture into the large muffin papers dividing mixture evenly between the papers. If you are using large ones like I did you can add a scant 1/3 cup to each and make 14, if you only have smaller cupcake cases do not overfill the cases as the mixture will rise a little during baking, make them just over 3/4 full and you will probably get around 20 cakes.

Bake for 10 mins. Remove from oven and working quickly add the balls of chocolate chip cookie dough to the top of the cheesecakes. You do not need to push them down just throw them on top of the cheesecakes.

Return to the oven and bake a further 15 minutes.

They will be cooked when the cookie mixture starts to set but before it turns golden. Although if you prefer a crunch you can leave it a couple of extra minutes until the dough starts to turn golden.

Allow to cool in the trays for 10-15min and then pop in an airtight container in the fridge until chilled.

and here is the link to my book Sweets on a Stick it is a US Release however there is a conversion chart in the back to the book for metric.It's available from bookstores in the US and here online at:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Thought Bubble Cake Pops

I was making up a batch of cloud shaped cake pops the other day when I had a thought.

A thought about thought bubble cake pops. Hmmm I thought to myself that would be kinda cool.

So I made them up and they worked out great. Just like I thought they would.

Now after reading that repetitive story you can truly see how much thought goes into the treats I make :)

And you must excuse my messy 'thoughts' written onto the pops with edible markers. I might have mentioned this before but I am a really messy writer. I can pipe acceptable lines and swirls and other designs if need be, but if it comes to writing - scrawl city. It's always been the case, if you were ever to check out my school report certificates from when I was really young there was a long line of A's and Very Goods and then - next to hand writing a big Not Satisfactory.

Please don't judge me by my hand writing.

If you are a super neat writer and good at piping the words would be lovely piped with candy writers.

Thought Bubble cake pop instructions

1 batch cake pop mixture (click here for oreo pop recipe,mix up your own with cake and buttercream or see my book sweets on a stick for lots of cake pop mixture recipes)
white candy coating
paper lollipop sticks
black edible pen
small flower/blossom cookie or fondant cutter squashed into cloud shape
styrofoam block to hold the pops upright for setting

Holding the flower/blossom cutter between your thumb and pointer squish together to shape into a mini cloud.

Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter on top of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray. Repeat until about 2/3rds of the mixture is used up.

With the remaining 1/3 mixture make up 2 small balls, one a little larger than the other (see picture for example). Those balls will be the bubbles leading up to the 'thought' cloud. Place the balls on the parchment lined tray.

Place tray in fridge to chill until firm.

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. 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 thick cream.

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 lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray (see picture above). Repeat for remaining clouds.

Follow the same dipping process for the small ball shaped using toothpicks in place of the lollipop sticks.

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. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Follow the same process for the small balls.

Remove the toothpicks from each ball by gently twisting the toothpick and pulling it out. 

Ensure that the candy coating is still melted and holding the larger ball by the sides dip the top into the candy coating and then press it onto the bottom left of the cloud pop. I dipped the side which has the toothpick hole. You can either hold the ball against the cloud shape until secure or place something foodsafe underneath the ball to hold it in place until it is set (I used small sets of metal fondant cutters I had sitting around - you can just use whatever works like scrunched or folded tin foil maybe).

Pop into the fridge until set.

Repeat for the smaller ball, dipping, attaching and waiting for it to set.

Then you can use an edible marker to write words on each pop.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

If you are in a humid area the pops may get condensation when you remove them from the fridge. Condensation will naturally evaporate away, however if you have pops with cream cheese or other ingredients which need to be kept cool, use a small piece of clean paper towel (absorbent paper) to wipe over the area you will be writing on.

 

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For more cake pop mixture recipes see my book Sweets on a Stick. It's a cookbook that includes recipes for all types of Sweets on a Stick, from pies to cakpops, cookies to fruit and candy - all on a stick. The recipes are kid friendly. It's a US release for measurements and ingredients although it does have a conversion table in the back for metric. Available here at Amazon:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)