Cake Pops

After reading about cake pops, having them available at a Mother's Day Tea (big sis was so sad she couldn't eat them because they had nuts in them!), and then having my mom make some for a family birthday party...I knew I wanted to give it a try. My mom owns a cake pop mold, so hers are strictly cake centers with icing on the outside. Big sis loved them, but alas my husband didn't get to try any since she made hers with chocolate cake. For Father's Day, I decided to make some using Daddy's favorite type of cake...strawberry!

I opted to follow directions from Bakerella - not sure if she made them originally, but she WAS featured on Martha Stewart and quite possibly is responsible for them becoming so popular. If you've never been to her site, she has SOOO many cute versions! Oh if I had extra time on my hands...!!!!

Here's how my girls and I made ours (and the final product review):
Supplies/ingredients:
lollipop sticks (I bought 6 inch ones, but found that the smaller sticks I had on hand worked just as well)
floral foam (or something to hold the pops upright without touching as their icing dries)
waxed paper
cake mix and necessary ingredients to bake it (we chose strawberry)
1 can cream cheese icing
vanilla almond bark or vanilla meltable candies or even chocolate chips?
Decorating sprinkles

Directions:
(Side note: My girls only helped with the last step - they added the sprinkles (well, little sis sprinkled the floor more than her cake pops!). The rest I did during rest time...but they easily could have helped.
1. Bake the cake according to directions (I made mine in a 13x9 pan). Let cool completely.
2. Crumble cake into bowl. Add icing and mix. I personally wanted the least amount of icing mixed with the cake mix, so I just added a little bit of icing at a time until I thought the consistency would hold up and the cake balls would stick together. (Probably used the equivalent of one cake and 2/3 or 3/4 can of icing.) (I also only used about 2/3 of my cake as I didn't want TONS of cake pops.)
3. Shape the cake into balls and place onto wax paper-covered cookie sheet.
4. Melt a little of the vanilla bark. Dip lollipop sticks into the melted bark and place in the cake balls.5. Stick these in the freezer to solidify/harden.
6. Melt more of your outer coating. Take cooled/frozen pops and dip them carefully in the melted bark. (They will fall apart, especially if you turn them a lot.) Tap off as much excess and place in the floral foam to dry. If you want sprinkles or decorations, add them while the "icing" is still wet.

Our family reviews:
Big sis LOVES the cake pops I coated with melted milk chocolate chips.
Daddy had the almond bark covered ones and said they are rich but really good. (I think he would tell everyone to have a glass of milk ready because you'll need it right after eating one!!)
I tried a few bites of an almond bark one - tasted "melt in your mouth" good, but not sure if I liked the after taste...contemplating just trying the Wilton candy melts next time.

Father's Day Trophy

One of my favorite crafty mommy bloggers posted a cute Father's Day Trophy craft on Kaboose. We decided to make it this year using almost entirely supplies we already had on hand (just had to buy gold paint). Here's how we made ours...

(Note, she chose to cover her cups in masking tape and then paint...we opted out of that step....)

Supplies:
gold paint
styrafoam cups (I had larger ones on hand from a ghost project...smaller ones would look cuter)
glue (I ended up just using hot glue as I already had it out for another project)
pipe cleaners (I did not have gold, so substituted black)
something for the trophy base (I used a recycled Boston Market container that I had on hand, she used a box)
something for writing the message (paint pen, puffy paint, etc.)

Much of this project I did myself, but it would be easy to involve just about any age child.

First, I had my girls each paint as much as they wanted/could of a styrafoam cup (used gold acrylic paint). I went back after it had dried to add another coat. I think it took 2-3 coats for me to be happy with the color. (Note: I DID sloppily paint the inside of the cup designated to be the upper part of the trophy.)Second, I hot glued the bottoms of the two cups together and then hot glued the top of one cup to the bottom of my Boston Market bowl. (Loved using this bowl since it was already black!)

Third, I added the trophy "label" to the trophy base. (All I had that still worked was yellow glitter puffy paint!)
Finally, I inserted the pipe cleaner into my cups. (I did knot the upper one on the inner side of the cup so it wouldn't fall out easily.)

We filled ours with mini versions of a favorite candy!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day Gift Tradition

Last year, I searched many sites for some new ideas for Father's Day gifts. On one site (can't remember which one...Family Fun??) a mom shared that she had her child paint on a canvas each year for Father's Day and that the paintings now hang in her husband's office. I decided to start that tradition last year with my girls (1 and 3 at the time). I buy the smaller canvases, paint each a different base color, then let them choose their color(s) and have at it! Pictured below are their canvases from last year and this year.

Above are their paintings from last year hanging on the play area wall (orange is big sis and yellow is little sis)

Little sis hard at work on her red canvasBig sis hard at workFinished products from this year (big sis painted "Daddy" on the left; little sis on the right)