Sunday, September 9, 2012

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 :)

   



Sunday, September 2, 2012

Army of Ghosts super easy cake pops


What is the scariest thing about Halloween. The evil spirits that supposedly come out....finding the perfect costume.....making sure the candy treats don't run out to minimise the risk of any 'tricks'.

EDIT UPDATE 26/10/2015
I now have a free youtube video tutorial showing how to make the ghosts here:

Yup I know, for most of you the thought of dipping cake pops overshadows it all.
 


But don't you worry, I've solved the problem.

Ghost cake pops with NO STICKS.

So technically that means they are no longer cake pops, but who cares, 'cause I know for a lot of you the dipping is totally the worst part of the whole cake pop experience.

This army of not very scary ghosts are perfect for the pop challenged of you as they consist of an easy little dip and then pouring.


And this technique would be just as perfect for a group of goulish monsters by changing up the candy coating color and adding lots of eyes.....or maybe some gloopy green alien invaders by using green melts and adding one big eye.

Anyhoo the possibilities are endless and the best news is the pooled candy coating at the bottom is part of the decoration.


You can use any type of cake pop recipe you like, the ones in the picture are made with Oreo Truffle, just 'cause we like that in our household :)

Or I have a stack of recipes that can be used in my book:  Sweets on a Stick is available from most online book stores including:





Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)
Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!



Army of Ghost Oreo Truffles (makes around 20 depending on the size)

1 batch of Oreo Truffle mixture (click here for recipe)
white chocolate melts (Nestle White Melts or Wilton Candy Melts) - I used White Wilton Melts
Edible eyes - buy premade or Click Here for DIY instructions

Shape the Oreo truffle mixture into mounds like a mountain. I made mine around 1 1/2 tablespoons (2 US Tbsp). Place on a tray lined with parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate/ candy melts in the microwave at medium low heat at short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds. Depending on the type of chocolate you have used you may like to thin it down a touch with some copha or paramount crystals melted at the same time. However the chocolate/ candy coating should not be as fluid as it needs to be for pop dipping.



Remove the tray of Oreo Truffle mounds from the fridge. Pick one up and holding the top between your finger tips dip just the bottom into the melted chocolate/ candy coating. Place on parchment paper lined tray and then use a spoon to carefully cover the top of the truffle mound completely with chocolate, only spooning just enough to cover all around. The excess will pool around the bottom which is ok and is part of the look.

Allow the chocolate/ candy coating to set a little and then add 2 eyes for each ghost. (Note that chocolate will take longer to set than candy coating)

Repeat for remaining rounds making sure to leave enough room between each ghost for the chocolate/ candy melts to pool.

Once set you can gently lift off the parchment paper and they are ready to serve.


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:

Sunday, August 26, 2012

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 
Pom Poms - Ah-Tissue