Pie Pops!

You all are going to love these! Little tiny pies on a stick. What's not to love?

First, I apologize for the long delay in writing a post here. I've been a bit distracted, and possibly a little overcommitted, lately. Oh, and a two-week bout with the flu/sinus infection/ear infections had me completely out for awhile. I was sick for so long that we actually ran out of sweets in my house! For those of you who really know me, you know that almost NEVER happens! I have several projects to post in the next couple of weeks; hopefully that will make it up to you!

Back to the pie pops...

I wish this was my original idea, but I actually saw it on the web once upon a time. Sadly, I don't remember where I saw them or who had done them, so I can't give proper credit for the basic idea. The technique and recipes are all mine, though.

It was February when I made these, so I decided to shape them into hearts for Valentine's Day. It worked fantastically! (I'm not sure that is a real word. If it's not, it should be!)

So, here is how you do it. Grab your favorite cookie cutter. Make sure it is big enough to hold filling with a space for sealing around the edge. My heart cutter is about 2 inches wide and maybe 2.5 inches long (top to bottom). You could use different cutters for different holidays or events. Endless possibilities!

You will also need sucker sticks for these to make them into the "pops." You can find these at stores like Michael's, JoAnn's, or Hobby Lobby. Just look in the candy-making section with all of the candy melts and molds. If you can't find them or are just too anxious to try this to run out to the store, you can make these without the sticks. Of course, then they won't be "pops" but just little hand pies. But that would be wonderful, too! Something totally worth making!

Now, grab your favorite pie crust recipe. Now, you know I'm all about baking from scratch and, honestly, pie crust is super easy if you have good instructions to follow. Oh, and I happen to have some good instructions for you right here! :) (Just scroll down to the recipe and follow the first part. No need to make the berry filling for these little pie pops, though you could certainly try it.) But if you are really short on time or simply don't feel like messing with the dough, go ahead and buy some from your local grocery store, unroll it and cut away. I won't tell. They will still be amazing!

Prepare and roll out your dough. Cut your shapes with your cutter dipped in flour so that it won't stick. Place the cut-outs on a very lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Re-roll your dough as necessary. Try to get as many pieces cut as you possibly can each time you roll it out. The more you roll, or mess with your dough in general, the tougher the crust will get. So try to handle it as little as possible.

Now you are ready to fill! You will need two of your pieces per pie pop. Take one and very gently press a sucker stick into the dough. You want the top of the stick to be in the middle of your pop. You should have around 1 inch of the stick inside the pop with the rest sticking out of the bottom.

Now spoon on a little of your favorite jam (I used strawberry for some and blueberry for a couple). Mine could hold only about a teaspoon of the jam. You want to make sure the filling will be totally contained on your dough pieces with about a quarter inch of room at the edges to seal it all together.

This one had too much filling. Can you tell? It wanted to squeeze out when I added the top piece of dough. If that happens to you, simple remove some of the filling with a spoon and wipe off the edges as well as you can. Then try again with that top piece of dough. No one will ever know you had a bit of trouble with it.

Now cover the whole thing with a second dough cut-out. Line it up exactly, being careful not to press the filling out to the edges. Press gently around the edges with your finger. Take a fork and press the edges of the dough together to seal it completely. Press all around the edges. Place your little pop on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once your baking sheet is full, place the whole thing in the refrigerator to firm up the butter in the dough before baking. Leave it in there for approximately 15 minutes.

Now would be a good time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

This filling process can be a bit time-consuming, but it's oh so rewarding, too! You can also freeze the dough, so if you don't feel like spending a lot of time filling, or if you just get bored with it (I'm not sure how it's possible to get bored with baked goods and baking!) you can simply wrap the remaining dough tightly in plastic wrap, then wrap in aluminum foil and place in a freezer container or bag. And into the freezer it can go! When you want to use it again, bring it to room temperature before taking it out of the bag, foil, and plastic wrap. Then roll as normal! Easy!

Back to the ones you've made. After they've had a good chill, pull them out and make yourself a little egg wash. That's just one egg whisked with about a tablespoon of water. The egg wash will help to make your pops a perfect golden brown color and also acts as the glue that holds the sugar onto the pops. I also used a little egg wash to help the stick stay in the pop and to seal the edges of the pops while assembling them. You can do that too! Take a pastry brush and brush the tops of each of your pops with a thin coating of the egg wash. Immediately sprinkle on some coarse sugar in whatever color you like. I used red for my strawberry pops and white for my apple pops.

Oh, you noticed that I said "apple"? But I haven't given any instructions for apple! *Gasp*

Okay, this is the best, in my opinion. The apple pie pops. A little more involved than the jam, but very worth it. Finely dice a small apple and mix in some cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Saute the mixture in a little butter until the apples are just tender, but not too soft. You want them to be the apple equivalent of al dente, with a little "bite" in the center, or they will turn to mush inside the pops when you bake them later on.

After the apples are tender, put them in a bowl and mix in some flour and, for sour apples, a little brown sugar. Voila! Your apple filling is complete and ready to use in your pie pops! Because this is filling is more firm than jam, you can use a little more. It won't squish out the sides of the pops as readily as the super soft jam. I used a tablespoon of the apple filling in each of the apple pie pops. Fill and seal the pops just like the ones made with jam.

This may sound like a lot, but really it isn't all that precise. So, have fun with it! Play around with flavors and fillings. Then be sure to let me know what you come up with!

When your pops are all ready, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pops are golden brown. Remove with a spatula to a cooling rack to cool. You can use the stick to pick them up after they are cool. If you try to use the stick too soon, your pop will fall.

You will have to imagine a beautiful picture of all of my little pie pops all together, maybe standing up in a cute little vase, or arranged on a plate. Somehow I missed that picture. I thought I had taken one, but alas, I cannot find one anywhere. It is very likely that the picture in your imagination is better than anything I could have taken anyway!

These are really fun, so I hope you try them! Enjoy!


Simple Pie Dough
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1/4-1/3 cup ice-cold water

Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and cut it together with a pastry blender, a fork, or two knives until it is mixed and the butter has formed pea-sized balls. Add water a little at a time and blend in by stirring with a fork. When the dough is moistened enough to hold together when squeezed, but not so moist that it comes together in a ball around your fork, it is done. Turn it out onto parchment or a floured surface and shape into a ball. Chill briefly before rolling out between two pieces of parchment until it is approximately 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes for your pie pops! Bake your pops at 375 degrees F. for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.


Apple Pie Filling for Pie Pops
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 apple, finely diced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)

Heat a saute pan over medium-low heat. Add butter and melt. Add apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir and saute until apples are just tender (not too soft). Remove from heat to a medium bowl. Stir in the flour and, if using a tart apple like granny smith, the brown sugar. Cool to room temperature before using in your pops.

Heart Cakes

Remember that cake giveaway I did on Facebook about a month ago? Well, the cakes were baked, decorated, and delivered 2 weeks ago, right before Valentine's Day. I thought you might like to take a look. And I also thought I'd better do this post now before February is over, because, let's face it, everyone is really tired of Valentine's Day once March hits!

Maybe you're tired of Valentine's Day already. If so, keep it to yourself and enjoy this post anyway! :)

Just kidding.... maybe...

I did two versions of the decorations, both red on a white background.

The first was a heart with a cut-out in the middle.

The second was two hearts, one smaller and on top of the other. I'm calling it a "double heart."

Which is your favorite? I just love how the red looks against the white background. And with the red cake stand. So pretty!

This is the first time I've attempted to do so many cakes at once. I wanted to test myself and this certainly was a test! Of stamina, organization, and stress. Overall, I'm glad I did it, but I did learn that at this stage in my life, with young children running around, I can't do quite so much at once. So, for now, I will stick to one cake at a time.

Do you want to see some of the process? There is a lot that goes into making even a small cake. These pictures show some of it.

First, of course, baking the cakes. I ended up making my vanilla recipe 4 times and my chocolate recipe 3 times, though I miscalculated and ended up using one I had made the week before and frozen. Shhh....don't tell! This picture shows about half of the cakes. They are already baked, cooled, and wrapped waiting to be all dressed up in ganache.

After the baking and cooling comes the trimming. I trim any domed tops off carefully to make a nice flat and level surface at the top of the cake. Then I tort the layers, or cut the cakes in half horizontally to make two layers out of one cake. Cakes baked in my 3-inch tall pans sometimes get torted into three layers. I keep the scraps in a big bowl for snacking. Hey - don't judge. I deserve a little of the fruits of my labor! And I have to make sure they taste good, right? The scraps from these cakes filled two large bowls, mostly because I baked some layers in 12-inch pans and cut them down. This left a lot of excess at the edges.

I used to do my torting with a little tool, but to simplify things for myself, I'm training myself to tort and trim with just a large knife. I use a really nice bread knife that my mother-in-law was kind enough to give me a few years ago. It is very long and perfect for trimming and torting cakes. I hold the knife with the blade on the cake where I want to cut. Then, keeping the knife very straight and still, I turn the board the cake is sitting on around and around until the knife goes all the way through. I brace the arm holding the knife against my body so it doesn't move. This way, the knife stays even all the way around and the cut is much more level the first time. I check with an actual level, then trim if necessary.

After the trimming comes the filling and covering with ganache. Here are the cakes all in their ganache undergarments. Look all you want. They won't be embarrassed! :)

They are kind of pretty just like this, aren't they?

Here is one all by it's lonesome. It is almost finished, but I still needed to clean up a few divots and bumps in the ganache.

The smoothness of the ganache layer is everything to how smooth the fondant will be! You would think that the fondant would be a little forgiving and mold on the bottom to any slight bumps in the ganache while maintaining a smooth top. Sadly, it doesn't work that way. The fondant will show everything, and I mean everything. Kind of like a sheer shirt - you want to make sure what you are wearing under it is fit to be seen! The fondant will hide the color (unless it gets rolled too thin, which I have done before too! Oops!) but not the bumps and divots. This is one part of the process that takes a TON of practice.

I let these sit overnight to make sure they are nice and firm. I will usually put a ganached cake in the refrigerator to firm up, but I couldn't with these simply because there were too many to fit in my refrigerator. So, they sat a little longer to ensure a nice firm surface for the fondant.

I put the fondant on one cake at a time until all had the white base. Then I did the decorations.

Wait a second, how did that get in there? Hee Hee. This is my beautiful, er, handsome little nephew Caleb. I got to meet him last weekend and couldn't resist sharing a pic or two so that you can admire him too! He is such a nice baby, too, so sweet and peaceful. I don't think he cried at all while we were visiting. Though I've been told that he doesn't cry much ever, I prefer to think that he was just so enamored by my presence, he was too happy to cry! :)

Take a look at his perfect little face.

Okay, back to the cakes...

It was so much fun to just give these little cakes away and (hopefully) bless some families with a nice treat. I hope they all enjoyed the cakes!

Yellow

I did this little cake to learn/practice the quilting technique. Do you like it?

The "quilting technique" consists of the lines on the sides of the cake, in a criss-cross pattern. I put mine a little too close together, I think. But overall, it was fun and I really like the look. I put tiny little flowers at the points where the lines crossed. Kate helped with that part! :)

I also love the rolled roses on the top.

This was the first time I made these, too. They are whimsical and fun. The green of the leaves was the perfect accent on this all-yellow cake. What a great cake this would be for Mother's Day or just for spring. Bright, sunny, and fun!

Heart Cookies

Last week, Kate celebrated her half birthday at school. I love that they allow this in her preschool because my darling's birthday is in June and she will forever miss out on celebrating her birthday in her classroom. So, this year, she got to have this fun day! Yeah!

For her half-birthday, I was able to bring in a special treat for the class. Kate chose cookies and I steered her towards a lace design I've seen on several blogs and websites. I just wanted to try it and what better excuse? I was happy Kate approved!

Here they are:

I tried a new method for the background/base icing and it didn't work super well for me. That is why you see rough edges on the pink in these cookies. But I was really pleased with how the lace patterns turned out. It is surprisingly easy to do. Just start with dots and add little details one at a time until you end up with the whole lace design. I used a Wilton #1 piping tip and royal icing to do the white piping.

I used a new recipe for the cookies themselves and it is fantastic! The recipe isn't mine, though, but is from LilaLoa.blogspot.com. A wonderful site if you want to check it out! She does truly amazing cookies! Click here for the recipe.

Enjoy!

Dora and Diego

Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of creating a cake for a sweet little girl, Gwen. Her grandmother is in my Bible study group and I was thrilled to be able to do this cake for them. Gwen's parents and I also have several mutual friends, so I was excited to finally meet them!

Gwen's party was done with a Dora and Diego theme, so that was also reflected in the cake. Here it is!

This was the first time I've done a topsy-turvy style cake. See how the tiers look "crooked"? That's what they call "topsy-turvy" if you haven't heard that term before.

The Dora, Diego, Baby Jaguar, and Boots figures are chocolate transfers. I made them out of candy melts to avoid the tempering process that you have to do with real chocolate and to get the nice colors.

To create these, I started by finding pictures of each of the characters online. I then printed those pictures that I liked and taped waxed paper on top of them. I melted the candy melts in the proper colors, then put them in piping bags with small round tips (I used #1, #2, and #4 round tips). To keep the candy melts from hardening in the bags and clogging the tips, I set them on top of a heating pad set to medium and covered by a towel. This kept them warm enough to stay melted so I could easily go back and forth between the colors without having to stop, empty the bags, unclog the tips, and re-melt the candy every two minutes. So much easier!

If you do this, first outline the outer edge and main lines of the picture, then fill in with the color. Remember that the bottom is what will show when you remove, so work from the outside in. Anything that you want in the background of the image should go on last. You can also add relief colors and lines to the image after you finish it by removing the waxed paper and then piping it on the front (originally the bottom). Does that all make sense? If not, just ask me to explain the confusing parts and I will try!

The transfers are really just standing free and leaning up against the cake. In the end, I decided that to try to secure them with chocolate or fondant would just make it look messy. I was delivering it to the place of the party, so it worked out well to just set them against the cake. I knew the cake wouldn't be moved.

For the rest of the design, I wanted to generalize on the Dora and Diego theme, so I chose the colors that generally appear in the cartoons to create the idea of grass/jungle and sky without being literal. The flowers were a little girly touch because the case was for a little girl. I think the flowers are my favorite part!

Here is a pic of the cake before the transfers were added.

The final version also included a candle in the shape of a tree with Dora and Boots sitting against it. I didn't want to attach the candle until I delivered the cake and it wouldn't stay on the top otherwise, so I don't have a pic of the cake with the candle. But it was really cute! You'll have to just take my word on that. Don't worry, you can trust me! :)

For those interested in all the yummy details, here you go. The bottom tier was white/vanilla cake with milk chocolate ganache and the top tier was my dark chocolate cake with milk chocolate ganache. I hear that the plates were licked clean! Yeah!

I hope you all enjoyed my topsy-turvy Dora and Diego cake! Have a blessed week! Check back here often to see more cakes I have coming up. I also did cookies and another cake this weekend that I will show you soon!

Darkest Chocolate Cake

I know I have been promising more recipes for awhile now. So, here is one of my favorites. It may seem a tad fussy and complicated, but it actually comes together really easily and it is oh so good! This is my own chocolate cake recipe. It is very dark, very moist, and full of chocolate flavor!

It is this recipe that I used to make the cupcakes that were on my treat table, paired with Chambord buttercream.

I have given you a chocolate cake recipe before. This is my newer and better version. It is also slimmed down a bit. An added bonus! As always, I recommend that you weigh your ingredients to get the most consistent results. If you do not have a kitchen scale or just don't want to weigh, please sift your flour into the measuring cup. Otherwise you will end up with too much flour and the recipe might not work for you.

Now with that word of caution, on to the good stuff! If you try making this cake yourself, let me know if you like it!

Darkest Chocolate Cake

1-3/4 cup (7 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2-1/4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa, Dutched or a mix of Dutched and Natural (I use Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa)
1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar
1 cup (7-3/4 ounces) packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons espresso powder
3/4 cup (6 liquid ounces) hot water (not boiling, hot tap water is fine)
1/2 cup (4 liquid ounces) canola oil
4 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, melted and cooled
3 whole large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/2 cup (4 liquid ounces) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare one 8X3-inch round cake pan or two 8X2-inch round cake pans by greasing the bottom and sides with shortening and lining the bottom with a greased parchment paper round. Set the pan(s) aside.

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt and espresso powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with the paddle attachment for at least 30 seconds. Add the hot water and the canola oil. Mix on low until moistened, then on medium for 1-1/2 minutes. Add the melted and cooled chocolate and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, extracts, and buttermilk. Add in three parts to the flour mixture, mixing after each addition first on low then on medium for 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The batter will be thin.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake for 45 to 55 minutes (35 to 40 minutes for 2-inch high pans) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Remove from oven and cool in pan(s) for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Snoopy

Last week, I had the pleasure of making this Snoopy cake for my daughter's friend, Sarah, who turned 5 on Friday. Happy birthday Sarah! Her mom, Carrie, is a fellow caker, so this was fun! Carrie sent me a picture of a cake that Sarah liked and I made it come to life, with just a few tweaks to clean up the design.

Snoopy is molded from rice krispy treats then covered in fondant. His ears, nose, eyes, and arms are also fondant. His collar and the Woodstocks are made from modelling chocolate. The details on Woodstock were done with an edible black marker.

The cake itself was chocolate with milk chocolate ganache (the bottom tier) and white (vanilla) with milk chocolate ganache (the top tier). Yum!

What a pleasure it is to make this cake for Sarah and her family! I hear they enjoyed it. That is, pardon the pun, the icing on the cake! :)