We Heart Cookie Pops

It's official I ♥ cookie pops.

What's not to love about these super sweet pops.

Once again I took some basic sugar cookie recipe and cut out the shape I wanted. I didn't have a heart cutter large enough so I made a template out of some cardboard just drawing a freehand heart the size I wanted.

Insert the stick before cooking (these are specialty sticks I purchased at a kitchen supply store), bake and wait until cool.


These ones were covered in Marshmallow Fondant, which I rolled out with a rolling pin and then cut using the same Heart Template as the cookies. I stuck my fondant to the cookies using a tiny bit of water.

I mixed up my royal icing a little wet to pipe the way I intended. So with these it's just an outline and then I popped on some of that Donna Hay cake bling (the little coloured balls).

OK now the bit I'm not the best with - the writing. I used an edible writing pen to write my cute phrases with. These are available from cake decorating specialty stores.

I have a set of Wilton letters which you press in to make an impression. Next time I would use them and then ink over the impressions which I think would look way more authentic (and neater)


Then I made simple ribbon roses out of the marshmallow fondant and some matching leaves and adhered them with royal icing. Finally I finished off with a ribbon.

I really need one that says I'M SWEET don't you think?



Once again all the lovely photos with the kids are from the lovely Terri Vandermeer Photography and the gorgeous outfit at the top of the page is from http://www.latoriana.com.au/

Monogram cakes

Cute little monogram cakes for a couple of cute girls.


These cakes were inspired by the Cameo cakes I made. As gorgeous as they were, they were not suitable for everyday eating. Just a bit too much fondant.

.....and I do need to eat cake everyday, so this is something I can easily manage.



These cakes are ovals cut from a large slab of Whimsical Bakehouse chocolate cake.

Cover the cakes with a thin layer of Italian Butter cream as a crumb coat and refrigerate until firm. Cover with a second layer ensuring that it is as smooth as possible. An offset spatula is good to use.

Cut out a fondant oval and place on the cake.

Decorate with royal icing. Now if I am decorating something small like this I don't want to mix up a big batch of icing. So I use the powdered premix and just mix up a small quantity, you just mix it with water - so easy! You can pick it up from cake decorating supply shops and sometimes my local spotlight has it in stock.

Pop into a piping bag and decorate with small dots around the fondant oval and write the name onto the oval (eeek how awful is that writing - must practice more)

Finally I used a little Donna Hay cake bling (white dots) around the edge and finished with a black satin ribbon.


There you have it cute monogram cakes just the right size to share.

Cookies and Cream cheesecakes from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

I promised to share my triumphs and disasters here and although not quite a disaster this one has been a bit of a lesson in paying better attention to the recipe.

Ok first mistake, not writing a shopping list resulting in me buying cream instead of sour cream. Come on, the recipe is for cookies and cream it's an easy mistake to make. I decided to risk using the cream rather than return to the shop and the result was good, although I think that the original sour cream recipe would be less sweet and have a firmer texture.

Mistake number 2. Fill the cakes almost to the top the recipe states. I make a lot of cupcakes. Cupcakes need room to rise so you only fill them about 1/2 to 3/4 full. I got a bit confused.

Cheesecake cupcake reality - they do not rise - so listen to the recipe and fill them nearly to the top.

So what was the verdict with these cheesecake cupcakes...........

Yum - and yum again. Would make them again for sure making sure next time I followed the recipe a little better.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cake book

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
makes 30

Ingredients
42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies such as Oreos or Delta Cream. 30 whole and 12 coarsely chopped.
910 g (2 pounds) cream cheese room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs room temperature lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to C (275 F). Line standard muffin tins with cupcake papers. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each liner.

2. With an electric mixer on medium high beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition. Beat in sour cream and salt. Fold in chopped cookies by hand gently.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups filling each almost to the top. Bake until filling is set, approx 22 mins. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate in tins at least 4 hours (or overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.