Christmas Cake Pops

Cake pops! I finally succeeded in making them! Yay!

Christmas Cake Pops

1 cake mix, any flavor

Cream cheese frosting

Red, green, and white candy melts

Assorted Christmas sprinkles

Lollipop sticks 

Prepare and bake cake according to package directions. Let cool.

Cut cake into four pieces.

Crumble cake over a large bowl, add a dollop of cream cheese frosting. It won't seem like much; it should be just enough to stick the cake together.

Stir in frosting. Form balls from cake mixture, place on wax paper covered baking sheet. Place in freezer for 15 minutes, then in refrigerator to continue chilling. 

While balls are chilling, melt candy melts according to package directions. Remove balls from fridge, and begin the popping process. Take a lollipop stick and dip the top in candy coating.

Insert stick 3/4 of the way into cake ball.

Dip cake into coating and coat thoroughly. DO NOT spin cake in coating. 

Gently lift cake out of coating.

Over the bowl, tap off any excess coating to avoid drips.

Sprinkle cake pop over a bowl.

Ta da!

Repeat.

And repeat. 

Festive Christmas party pops!

Yes, they were amazing. Get into the Christmas spirit and make these dazzling pops for friends and family!

Pound Cake

Here is a recipe for a delicious pound cake that is actually quite simple!

Pound Cake

1 cup butter, at room temperature

4 eggs, at room temperature

2 cups flour

1 teas. baking powder

1/4 teas. ground nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1 teas. vanilla

Fresh fruit (strawberriess, blueberries, rasberries, blackberries, or peaches)

Whipped topping

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar. Add vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour, baking soda, and nutmeg.  

Pour batter into a greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool.

Then slice,

...and serve with fresh fruit and whipped topping!

Enjoy!

A birthday cake...

...and cupcakes too! Abby and I's birthdays are both in April; 11 days apart! Since they're so close, I decided to do one big birthday post! I'll start with Abby's cake.

M&M Birthday Cake

1 yellow cake mix

1 recipe Creamy Chocolate Frosting (below)

1 12-oz. bag M&M's

Prepare cake according to directions on package. Cool. Prepare Creamy Chocolate Frosting.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teas. vanilla
About 3 Tabl. milk

Mix butter and cocoa in a large bowl. Stir in powdered sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk until smooth and of spreading consistency.

Now for the M&M's!

Separate out the colors you want, and make a design or message.

Frost the cake.

Then place the M&M's on.

Now you have your M&M birthday cake!

Ok, now for my birthday cupcakes!

Festive Birthday Cupcakes

Heavenly White Cupcakes
1 recipe Creamy White Frosting
Multi-colored party sprinkles
Marachino cherries

Prepare cupcakes according to directions. Cool completely.

Prepare Creamy White Frosting.

Using a large round tip, pipe dots of frosting on cupcake until the whole cupcake is full.

Then, sprinkle with party sprinkles.

And finally, top with a marachino cherry!

Festive and fun!

Not to mention yummy!

Oh yeah. I LOVE close-ups! Well, there's the birthday post! Hope you enjoyed it!

Triple Chocolate Dessert

This is a somewhat complicated, but totally worth it dessert! It is made up of three parts, edible chocolate cups, chocolate cake, and chocolate pudding! Sounds great, right? Well, it certainly is! Here's the recipe!

                                     

The first step is to make the chocolate cups.

Melt a 16 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave.

Stir the chocolate until smooth.

Thickly paint melted chocolate onto 24 baking cups. You may need to melt some more chocolate chips, depending on how thickly you paint it on. Place cups in the freezer to harden.

Meanwhile, prepare Classic Chocolate Cake.

Classic Chocolate Cake

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 2/3 cup suger

3 eggs

2 cups flour

2/3 cup cocoa

1 1/4 teas. baking soda

1 teas. salt

1 1/3 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs. Combine four, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Slowly add in milk. Beat until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. pan.

Bake cake for 35-40 minutes, or until cake tests done.

While cake is baking, prepare any chocolate pudding according to directions on box.

Store pudding in the refrigerator until ready to use.

When the cake is cool, cup it up into small cubes.

When the cups have hardened, slowly peel of the paper.

Now you're ready for the fun stuff.

Take a chocolate cup...

...fill it with cake...

...spread it with pudding...

...and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. I must warn you though, that unless you serve the cups right away, the powdered sugar will dissolve into the pudding, which doesn't look too good. I would suggest sprinkling them just before serving. Store desserts in refrigerator until ready to serve. Makes 24 dessert cups.

Chocolatey goodness.

Mmmmmmmm! I can still taste the first bite. Perfect.