My Christmas Present Came!!!

My amazing boyfriend calls me at work a little before Christmas and says, "If you could have something you always wanted right now or that same thing in pink but you might have to wait for it to come special order after Christmas which would you choose?" Of course I said anything I have always wanted is always worth waiting for to get in PINK! Well look what came in the mail!

Thank you Ryan! I love you to the moon and back! Best Christmas present ever!

I am never leaving my kitchen ever again!

PS: We got one more Christmas present:

We don't know if it is a boy or girl yet but 2011 is already off to an

amazing start!

Valentine's Day Blog Freebies!

I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY   
              FREEBIES!

I thought I would share with all my awesome readers some home made blog backgrounds. I will post the code I use to put them up on my blog and you can feel free to copy it or just
right click on the image and save to your computer. I hope you like them! I am far from a master designer but I have been bit by the V-Day love bug and there is no going back now!

I <3 Cupcakes Background:

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5167/5314505587_603e7fdca0_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5314505587/

Just copy and past in the HTML section of the design gadget box on your blog and hopefully if I did it all right it worked! I learned all my minor knowledge so for from Plumroselane . She has amazing designs and tutorials on her site. I wish she would do more cupcake/baking designs cause I totally adore her work but the stuff she has is awesome and you should absolutely check it out :).

Valentine's Floating Hearts

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/5315075664_cf04e27abc_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5315075664/

Sweet Southern Pie

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5241/5314525365_d69bd389ac_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5314525365/

Cupcakes for my Cupcakes

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5086/5315134652_14fafe0b0a_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5315134652/

Ribbon Cakes

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5084/5315142938_b33e75bc69_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5315142938/

 Blue Blue Valentine

<style type="text/css">body {background-image: url("http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/5315052508_f78481e28b_o.png"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }</style>

If you would rather get directly from Flickr where you can save the larger photo go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/herocakepops/5315052508/

Now I just threw these backgrounds together using graphics I already had. It is important when using graphics you make sure you got them the right way. All these graphics were freebies other awesome graphics designers posted and shared or I bought from my two graphic guru sources: Babystar Design or CupcakeCutieesDesigns on Etsy. If you love to decorate anything: your house, scrapbook or blog I would highly suggest checking out their amazing graphics designs. I hope you like the backgrounds and have a day full of love, sweets and pink!

I Heart Cake Pops and Wilton!

Are you one of those people who wait all year for Christmas? Who decorate the house and string up the lights before Halloween is even upon us? Well I am one of those people who wait for Christmas to be over every year so I can start decorating and celebrating Valentine's Day. The Day of Love! It is my favorite Holiday of the year. Don't be a cynic, don't be hater just jump on board the cake pop love train and lets bake a little romance into our lives! Once I received the Wilton Cake Pop Kit for their Pops in a Post Contest I couldn't wait to get started on:

Introducing the Love Pops:

Are you ready to join in me in some sugar and spice and every thing nice cake pop love fest???
Well here is what we will need:

Wilton's new Pops! Sweets on a stick! It is full of awesome cake pop ideas and
other kind of pop treats. If you love cake pops (and oh lordy I do) then
this book is a must!



You can buy this at your local hobby store in the cake/baking section
or you can buy it online here: Rolled Fondant Neon Colors .
You can also make your own Wilton has several good Fondant recipes
on their web site as well.




I used these to cut out little fondant hearts and paint with edible disco dust
to make the mouths of the Love Pops and for general decorations on the rest
of the cake pops. I bought these at my local Las Vegas Michael's but you
can buy online here if you are not close to a hobby store: Heart Fondant Cut-Outs




I made pink/white chocolate butterfly's, buttons, flowers, bows and other
various decorations with my chocolate molds I have collected through
the years. If you take care of your molds (no dish washing my Cupcakes)
then they last pretty much forever. You can use what ever molds you have
or just get creative with your pipping and fondant.




Lolly-pop sticks are a must for Love Pops. I got mine at Michael's but you
can also purchase here: Lolly-Sticks . Here you can be super creative as well
and use red candy-canes, wooden spears or what ever you can come up with.





Candy Melts are a must if you are serious about cake popping. Unless
you have extensive work with chocolate it is really hard to get real
chocolate to melt to the right consistency and stay at that consistency.
Wilton has also made a new candy melt just for dipping cake pops:
Candy Melts

 


Let me preach it to you for a minute my fellow Cupcakes of the world. If you
bake/decorate/mold/dip/cake pop or do anything else crafty in
the kitchen then you need a chocolate pro. Melting chocolate in the
microwave is for the birds. My red chocolate pro has seen plenty of use and abuse
and keeps on chugging along. I got this brand new Chocolate Prop
from Wilton as part of the Blogger Cake Pop contest. I <3 the chocolate pro.
They sale these at WalMart, Michael's and all sort of other stores or you can buy
here: Chocolate Pro .


Time to prepare the decorations and bake us some cake!!!



Roll out the fondant and cut out some hearts.




I painted mine with red disco dust because sparkles are a Cupcake's right.




I just LOVE V-Day!




I wanted to try out some of the new pan/molds I got in my blogger kit
and they turned out great! You can find all sorts of cool cake pop
molds here: Bake some love into it!




I made a simple store bought chocolate cake with no fuss and easy clean up...




Once cake cooled crumble up and add about half a can of frosting to the mix.
Don't add too much frosting or you will have a super hard time getting
the cake balls to stick together on the Lolly-pop.




If you really want nicely shaped cake pops use a small ice cream scoop
to help you form the right amount of cake mix in each cake ball.




I dip the ends of my Lolly-sticks in the melted candy melt and place them in the cake
balls. Then I stick the cake pops in the freezer for about nine minutes and let them
get nice and cool. You don't want them too cold though or the candy melt/chocolate
will crack when it hit the surface of the cake pop.




Pretty little home made chocolates to help with decorations of the cake pops.




I think these new flower cake pops are my new favorite. There are so many
things you can do with these when decorating. The possibilities are endless!





Lets get our dip on!

  The Love Pops:

I loved getting to decorate these cake pops and begin testing out my V-Day ideas with all my new toys I received for Christmas. Especially my new Wilton cake pop book: Pop! Sweets on a Stick! I got my idea for the Love Pops from scanning the colorful pages of my new book. If you love cake pops I highly recommend it. Baking brings joy to my house, a smile to my daughter and a satisfied tummy to my man. What else could a Cupcake wish for? I hope everyone enjoyed the cake pops. Now go forth into the world my Hearts and bake some love into your lives! (I <3 Wilton but Wilton doesn't pay/poke/prod/nudge me or my thoughts/views/words in any way.  They did send me an awesome Pops kit! Thank you Wilton! I needed a new chocolate pro. Mine has been used/abused/smashed and once home to a Barbie Bath.)

PS: Check out this new cake pop stand Wilton makes! Totally needed. Now I can stop spending
all sorts of money I don't have on Styrofoam blocks...

We loved with a love that was more than love.  ~Edgar Allan Poe

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends in Blogger World. I hope the New Year brings you family, love, happiness and peace.

What are your family traditions on Christmas? Can you guess one of mine? That's right! Baking!

Got My Wilton Chocolate Pro and about to go to chocolate heaven!

Sprinkles make all the world better.

Nestle mini chocolates

I could really just eat a spoon full of chocolate right now and be happy.