Sugar Flowers and Cookie Plops!!!!

Feeling guilty as not been able to do much with the kids with house been in total disarray, so found a fab no bake recipe on Pinterest for cookie pops basically you crush up Oreos

then mix with cream cheese 

Roll them into balls (or blobs in G's case!)

Have a little quality control!

Can you guess who's is who's???

then coat on chocolate, what a simple introduction for G to cake pop manufacture (well you never know when you might need an assistant!) 

We put them on sticks like pops but while we were decorating there was a faint whoosh sound when we looked it was the pops sliding down the sticks so we ended up with blobs!

They don't look amazing but they tasted pretty damn good very rich and hit that chocolate spot right on!! Just look at these happy chocolate faces!

I also tried my hand at making some sugar flowers this week, I've never done anything like this before and as a first attempt I'm very pleased with how they turned out and with a bit of practise they could be something really special

I'll finish off with a little kitchen update well not much gone on this week apart from when we took up the rest of the tile floor there was a dodgy patched up bit from when previous owners built an extension and now I have a big hole in the concrete floor!!!!!!  

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Pretty cupcakes and a kitchen update!

This week I've been back to casa mother in law to bake some cupcakes I was given free reign so chose a pretty pink and purple colour scheme adding in a little yellow highlights!  I love these colours!

The plasterer has finished and already the kitchen is looking fab, lovely smooooth fresh plaster!

But the dust! Who knew where it could get and how much there'd be! Hopefully that's the bulk of it and the rest of the jobs are less messy!?? 

I can't wait to get the units in and decorate (and have my cooker fitted!) then I can finally bake in my own kitchen!

Thomas Party

This weeks blog is a little late as we've spent the weekend celebrating the little mans 3rd birthday.  This is how my kitchen is looking at the moment, there's nothing left!!

G asked for a Thomas party and cake, as I don't have a cooker I luckily had the use of my mother-in-laws kitchen to bake his cake!  I have never professed to be proficient in character cakes but its not a bad effort something isn't quite right about his face but when I asked G who it was he proudly said its Thomas! - all I needed to hear!

I also made cake pops for party favours, Thomas ones for the kids

and blue swirly ones for the grown ups!

I was going to make all Thomas ones but the embellishments were so fiddly I gave up and just did enough for the kids!  Thing is they all gobbled them straight up before leaving, and didn't even look at the trains!!   All that effort eh!!!!!  I had issues with the candy cracking this time and need to investigate what causes that, fortunately everyone too busy eating to even notice!

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Kitchen update

As I write this I'm in complete and utter chaos!

Excited as I've just had my new cooker delivered! But they've taken away the old one (see the big black hole where there once was a cooker!) and electrician not coming till at least next Saturday to do bits then plasterer can come THEN electrician and gas man can come back and finally hardwire the new one in!!!! So it's micro meals for the next week at least! Timing is rubbish it's G's birthday on thursday with a party on Sunday! I'm going to have to buy a cake for him to take to nursery, then use my lovely mother in laws cooker for his Thomas party cake he's been talking about for months!  I've already whipped up a batch of cake pop mix that I've put in freezer ready to roll into balls and dip next weekend!  And I've made a start on some fondant decorations theses were so fiddly but effective when worked!

Not so much when they didn't!!  G came down yesterday morning and asked "what have you done to my trains mummy?"  Oops!

As there's not so much to show/report this week here's some cute pics of the kids enjoying last weeks cake pops!

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Cake Pop Practice and Jumbo Cupcakes

A quiet week this week which has meant I can have a good think about the little man's upcoming 3rd birthday and get some practice in, hubby made a complaint last week that I'm always making cake for everybody else and never for him! - oh how he'll live to regret that comment!  I spotted these wilton candy melts on a shopping trip this week so I thought I'd give the melts a second chance!

I decided for a change I'd use the cakepop mould I bought a few years back on a whim that has been in the cupboard unused ever since!

I'm so glad I gave the candy melts a second chance it was so much easier than last week with the chocolate, however I'm not sold on the baked cake in a pop! They don't stay on sticks as well and you can't beat that yummy sweetness of cake crumbs mixed up with frosting, so although I'm pleased with how the decorating went I'll probably not turn my back on the original pop recipe again unless requested!

I managed to find some gift/carry boxes too which finish the look off perfectly (you'll have to ignore the teeny sticks, I ordered the wrong size but they work for little hands and practice pops!)

I also spied this fab jumbo cupcake pan this week only £3.49 at home bargains!

I'd seen images online of bigger cupcakes but couldn't find how anybody had achieved them, now I can!  They are probably 2 1/2 times bigger than a normal cupcake and are perfect as an individual birthday cake for asteroids cake lover and think they'll be a great accompaniment to a smash cake to take home to eat later! On this occasion as I was only using small quantity and it was getting late I used some ready made Betty Crocker frosting which seemed to soften easily in my hands in the piping bag so kept slipping off the cake (and was really sickly- even for me!) I used up the last of the candy melts to make a 'cupcake liner' (of sorts!) and 'voila!'  

This is very generous sized cake, I was feeling really sick after eating half and needed 2 cups of tea to wash it down!!  G on the other hand ate 1/4 no problems!  I'm planning on making him one for his actual birthday as it's a weekday and it's just a nice size then he can have his 'proper' cake for his party! I think they'll look cute with a single candle in! I think we'll all be sharing one though!!

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