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)

Peggy Porschen Boutique Baking 1 day special deal

OK this post is interrupting your normal reading......

Peggy Porschen's new book due out at the end of May is on super special for $21.97 1 day only preorder offer over at Fishpond with Free Shipping to Australia (different rates apply to other countires)

Boutique Baking: Delectable Cakes, Cookies and Teatime Treats

This new book is apparently filled with lots of lovely baking recipes and has 150 colour photographs. I have added it to my pre order at this fabulous price and I can't wait for it to arrive.

If your not in Australia you might like to pop over to Peggy's website to order directly and see all the other fabulous items she has available.

Bubble and Sweet's normal regular Sunday post will occur at 6pm tonight, but this was too good for me to wait :)

On my wish list - Clara French, Green Gate, Lanterns, Camera Bags and pretty marshmallows

I've been doing a little bit of online browsing lately and here are some things on my wish list.


Clara French Cake Stands.

Are these some of the prettiest cake stands you have seen?

I've had my eye on these Clara French Stands for quite a while, but a word of warning, if you love them as much as me make sure you plan ahead. These stands are hand made and so popular that it's not uncommon to wait quite a few months for your special ceramic masterpiece to arrive.

Pictures from pintrest

Epiphanie Camera Bag

I have a little bit of camera stuff now, a couple of lenses, stacks of accessories I don't know how to use or what they even are for and I've been looking for somewhere to store them.

Pictures from Epiphanie Blog

I love the look of this camera bag. I might not know how to use my camera, but at least I'll look great doing it (or not doing it as the case may be), I'm a bit of a fan of the Clover style, but they all look pretty good.

Check out all the little padded pockets inside, perfect for storing all those little bits and pieces.

Oh and a photography course is pretty high on my wish list as well ;)

Green gate

I am sooo in love with the table wear and linen and pretty much everything else they create and design at Green Gate Denmark. I already have a bit of a collection but this is staying on my wish list.

You can get Green Gate online at a number of UK and European stores. In Brisbane Just Plain Gorgeous at Bulimba stock some items and they have new stock arriving soon.

Pretty Fabric lanterns from TLBC

How sweet are these fabric lanterns from The Little Big Company, I think they would look adorable at the kids next party, or just pretty much anywhere.

Image from The Little Big Company online store

Marshmallow Madness

OK maybe it is a bit of madness to want a whole book on marshmallow.....but it just looks so pretty. I don't have this book yet and so haven't tried any of the recipes but homemade marshmallows are super duper yummy and the cover of this book has me wanting to make them in every color and flavor.



So do tell......is there anything you have on your wish list at the moment?

Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache Blue French Macarons

What flavor do you think of when you pick up a blue sweet?

I bet it's not Peanut Butter, and you might also think that peanut butter is a strange pairing for a french macaron.

But not so surprisingly when you think about it the filling, which has a touch of saltiness, balances out the sweet almond shells quite nicely.

This is the same peanut butter chocolate ganache that I used to top the If This is Wrong I don't want to be right Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecakes I made up a few weeks ago.

Oh and just in case you missed it, I did a tutorial for some plane cookies over at Polkadot Prints Blog, click over and have a look, they are based on the super lovely Flying High printable range.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache filled French Macarons

Macaron Shells makes around 20 filled macarons

190 gram (6 5/8 oz)almond meal (almond flour)
190 gram pure icing sugar (6 5/8 oz powdered sugar)
190 gram granulated sugar (6 5/8 oz)
48 grams water (1 5/8 oz)
140 gram egg whites aged split into 2 lots of 70grams each (5 oz split into 2 lots of 2 1/2oz each)*
dark blue food colour
*ageing egg whites refers to separating the yolks from whites and then leaving the whites to age for a few days. This can be done on the counter if your countries climate permits or in the fridge, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and then pop a few holes in the top. Alternately you can pop the egg whites in the microwave on high for 10 seconds or so - I used the microwave method in this batch pictured.

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in.

2. Place remaining 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

Yup - I really use this super old fashioned thermometer I have had for about 20 years to make my macarons

3. Pop granulated sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C (245 F). Once the mixture reaches 115C (240 F) start mixing the egg whites on high. Make sure you have a pouring shield on your mixer, when the sugar syrup reaches 118C (245 F)remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high.

4. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch, around 50C (120 F).
.

5. Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that disappears back into the mixture after about 30 seconds.

6. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip (or just cut the end of a disposable piping bag) and pipe in lines onto parchment lined baking sheets. To make the macarons as even as possible I apply a constant slow pressure to the piping bag and count a few numbers like up to 3 for each one.

7. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin so that the macaron mixture does not stick to your finger when gently touched.

8. Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C (285 F). Once ready bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the parchment onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

9. Once cooled match disks into like sizes and sandwich together using the ganache.

Peanut Chocolate Ganache

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar) sifted
3 tsp or 15g  unsalted butter (1 US Tbsp or 1/2 oz)
4oz Dark or Semi Sweet Chocolate 
1 oz cream 

 pinch salt
1 Tbsp or 20g (1 1/2 Tbsp US or 3/4 oz) unsalted butter at room temperature

Chop the chocolate into fine pieces. Place in a microwave safe bowl with the cream and heat in the microwave at medium low heat for 1 minute bursts until melted. Make sure you do not overheat the chocolate. 

Cover and allow to set at room temperature until firm.

Place peanut butter, sugar, 3 tsp (1 US Tbsp) unsalted butter and pinch of salt into a bowl and mix until well combined set aside until required.

Beat the chocolate mixture on high for a couple of minutes until it lightens in color. Add the Peanut Butter Filling and mix well at medium speed, add the 1 Tbsp ( 1 1/2 US Tbsp) butter and continue to beat at medium speed until the mixture comes together, do not over mix.

Yogurt Push Pops - and now for something healthy for the kids

 OK - I'm gonna go right out and say it. Push Pops are gimicky.

Yup that's me here calling the kettle black.

I've been playing around with the push pops for a little while now and what I can tell you is that kids like them. Sometimes they don't quite have the fine motor skills to stop pushing in time, but boy oh boy do they like them.

So I'm all for letting that little fact work for me and I've been making up these yogurt, fruit and muesli push pops for the kids to have for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

and there's no guilt, cause it's healthy, fun and these little plastic babies while not great for the environment are washable and reusable.......and dishwasher safe as well.

Now I know your thinking, but can't you just scoop some yogurt into a bowl, and it's true I could, but around here we have a bit of a struggle every school morning to get breakfast eaten. If I say there is yogurt they want cereal, if I offer cereal they want pancakes (which is strictly a weekend thing here)......constant struggle.

Some days when I know that I will be focusing on other stuff this is a perfect breakfast as the kids think they are getting a treat and I can prepare it before hand and have it sitting in the fridge ready to go.

Pretty yellow print Greengate tea towel from - Just Plain Gorgeous Bulimba QLD Australia(07) 3399 2002

Push pops and Push pop stand from Popular Treats (Australia)

Also available here in the US

Yogurt, Seasonal Fruit and Muesli Push Pops -You can make it up any way you like but this is what I did:

Yogurt (I used The Original Greek Yogurt Co Passionfruit and Lemon Curd yogurt)
Muesli (I used cranberry toasted)
Seasonal fruit (peach, blueberries and raspberries)

Spoon in some yogurt until 1/3 way full, sprinkle in a couple tsp muesli, add some finely chopped peach.

Add more yogurt until nearly at the top of pop, sprinkle another tsp of muesli and garnish with some more fruit.

 

Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow cake pops for Saint Patricks Day

I was in the service station waiting to pay for petrol last year and I saw little bags of bubble gum 'nuggets of gold'.

Which I thought were pretty cute, so straight away my sweet obsessed mind started thinking about what I could make with them..........and then I remembered gum + kids = disaster. Shoot that shot down that idea I popped the gum back on the counter.

So I had already thought up these cake pops and I couldn't get the idea out of my mind and I really wanted that gold nugget gum and then luckily the next day I realised that candy nerds would work just as well if not better.

Such a win win situation cause then when I went to pick up the nerds I saw green ones and I realised that they would make great witch cauldron pops (which I posted here last year).


The actual dipping technique for the pops is one I came up with while writing my kids treat decorating book.
I know lots of people, kids especially, have trouble dipping the pops and getting a smooth finish so these ones are great.

Its the upside down method which is really easy and the chocolate pooling makes its own little cauldron shape. How great is that!

If the whole rainbow fondant think is a bit daunting just leave it off and you can still have awesome little pots of gold on a stick.

Pot 'o 'gold Rainbow cake pops

I recommend using the actual candy melt/ coating type of 'chocolate' for this pop (like Wilton) as it really does set much faster than regular chocolate and makes adhering the rainbows much easier.

1 batch cake or cookie pop mixture
Candy Coating (like Wilton candy melts) and copha or paramount crystals
Fondant (in rainbow colors)
sharp knife
cornflour/ cornstarch
small rolling pin
water and brush
lollipop sticks
Yellow nerds
*remember fondant dries very fast. Work quickly and when you are not using it make sure you keep it in air tight containers.

At least one day prior to making pops make the fondant rainbows.Dust a bench lightly with cornflour/ cornstarch roll out some purple fondant and using a sharpe knife (or cutter if you have one) cut out the shape of a rainbow half arc.

Roll out the remaining rainbow colors and cut into thin strips. Attach one strip of each color to the purple arc using a very small amount of water brushed on and then using the rolling pin gently press the colored fondant strips onto the base. Use a sharp knife to trim off any excess colored pieces to make a neat rainbow arc.

Make up a batch of cake pop mixture (that is mush up any cake with some buttercream frosting until moist but still firm). Yellow cake is a great choice for this pop and you may even like to add extra colour.

Line a tray with parchment paper. Roll the mixture between the palms of your hands. I like to weigh my mixture to make sure it is the same size but you can use a small icecream of melon scooper of around 3 tsp. Place each ball onto the parchment paper lined tray and pop into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Melt up a bag of dark chocolate chocolate melts/ candy coating (or black melts if you want). Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals - now is not the time to be delicate you need a stack - look at the picture about a ratio of 1:7 for the wilton brand to give an example (1 being the copha and 7 being the chocolate/candy melts)

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 the cake ball so the stick is upright like the picture. Pop into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so until the sticks are secure.


Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cake ball into the melted chocolate/candy coating lift it to allow a little to fall off so the edges are smooth and round and then push just the top back into the chocolate/candy coating and quickly put the pop with the stick still upright onto parchment paper lined tray.

Continue with the remaining pops and when you are finished carefully peel off the paper to leave the cauldron shaped pops.

Then using the back of a spoon or a knife, spread on a little bit more melted chocolate/candy coating onto the top/flat section of the cake pop and sprinkle yellow nerds onto the still wet chocolate/candy coating and place a rainbow on top (see picture for placement). You will need to hold the rainbow for 10 - 20 seconds until it is secure and can stand up on it's own.

For more great pop ideas check out my book Sweets on a Stick it has more than 150 kid friendly ideas for decorating and serving sweets on a stick and available online here:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

How to get a book published - Bubble and Sweet I did it my way eventually

So I wasn't sure if you all would be interested in the story about how I ended up writing a cookbook.

This isn't going to be a how to get a cookbook published post, because to be honest I can't help you with that. But what I can tell you is a little bit about my story, my love for baking and where it led me.

I started off this blog because I was boring my family and friends senseless with my interest in cute and yummy food. Sure they were all more than happy to eat it all, but talk about it.....eh, not so much.

A little off topic I was a bit of a True Blood fan and about this time had been reading Fanfiction online and was amazed at the authors willingness to share their artistic souls for free on that forum for little more than feedback and reviews (SeaStarr and Missus T were a couple of my favorites). It was refreshing and inspiring, I wanted to do something similar.

I had a look around at a few baking blogs I was interested in, had a name brainstorming session with my 2 sisters-in-law over a coffee and jumped right in.

My first post was a recipe copied from Martha Stewart, I thought that perhaps it might encourage people to look if they found it while searching for recipes, it was not really inspiring and did not take the blogging world by storm, I had little understanding of search engines and the irony that this type of post would be more likely to be lost in the multitude of similar ones. But I was not deterred and  my second post was something original I had thought up all by myself, marshmallow fondant covered lollipop cookies, the execution was not the best but I did have some lovely photo's that my sister in law had taken of my girls eating the cookies. As I sat loading up the pictures I can remember my husband saying, 'Are you at the computer again typing out recipes that no one is ever going to read?'

Once again the post was not an instant hit but something amazing happened I got a comment on my blog and not just any comment. It was from Not Quite Nigella a very well know Australian Food Blogger. Ha - Don't think I didn't rub that in my husbands face straight away. Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella followed up her lovely comment with her own interpretation of my cookies and a link to my page and it was a huge boost to my confidence.


My love of sweets on sticks was born and although there were quite a few more lackluster posts of copied recipes I branched out and started including some of my own original recipes and many decorating ideas that I came up with myself.

I joined some online baking forums and made some lovely blogging friends. Around this time I created a recipe for Tim Tam Cookie pops which were a huge hit, there were recipes around already but I came up with my own which I am going to be completely biased about and say are perfect. Once again I was making my mark with treats on sticks.

Another turning point was my daughter's birthday party. I never knew how popular kids parties were and the online community surrounding it. Lilli's 6th birthday pink fairy high tea party was featured on a number of US party sites and was quite popular it still receives thousands of visits a week. Then I worked on a project with a couple of inspiring women I knew Elizabeth Murphy and Naomi Vassington to create a photo shoot tea party in the woods. Both of these women had inspired me all through early blogging when I received little feedback, just by doing what they loved with such passion and it was an amazingly fun shoot which once again was featured on other blogs.

I was doing what I loved with a bunch of fun people. I was not selling to the public so I didn't have restrictions on what I could make. I was lucky to be involved in some further photo shoots and my treats were featured in magazines.

and it seemed I loved putting my treats on sticks, cause you know it always makes stuff more fun and cute and the treats I was making were mostly inspired by and for my children.

 They inspire every sweet thing I do............

Ok so fast forward a little bit to earlier last year and I was contacted by a Publisher in the US.

For Real that's what happened, they contacted me and asked me to write Sweets on a Stick..

They thought there was a hole in the market for sweets on a stick that were kid friendly to make. We all know there are a stack of books out there where you have to perfectly double dip a gazillion pieces of candy and then pop them onto your treats with tweezers to make a magical and beautiful masterpiece, but they were looking for someone more down to earth and simple....yup you know that's me.

So there you have it - that's a kinda condensed version of my story which is a long way of saying I was just doing what I loved, inspired by my family and a great group of friends. I learnt to be myself and not copy everyone else.

Collage of recipes included in sweets on a stick taken during recipe testing
 pictures not included in actual book

Anyhoo the result of all of this Sweets on a Stick was released in December and is published by Adams Media. It is a US release so it contains US measurements and ingredients and has a conversion chart for metric in the back. It is a collection of fun and easy to make recipes and ideas that are kid friendly and includes decorated cake pops, decorated cookies, baked cookies, pies, candies, cupcakes, muffins, fruit plus more that you can make with your kids. And they're all on a stick, ever single one.

Hello - it's me Linda nice to meet y'all

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick photos by Terri Vandermeer or Linda Vandermeer
Family photo's by Naomi V Photography