Pug Pops!

A few months ago my friend came to me with a simple request... "could you do pug pops?" she asked with purpose. She wanted to give her husband a birthday present and she thought that pug pops would be just the thing. This friend of mine has three pugs of her own, so I knew I had to get it right! I always love when people come up to me and ask whether or not I could make pops in a certain design and usually, I honestly don't know whether I can or cannot until I've actually tried to make one so my response is often "I can try!". To come up with a workable design I looked at several pictures of (rather adorable) pugs, trying to see which features were the most important such as the colours, the tongue, the eyes, etc, and how to represent them in sugar products. But most crucially I needed to find out how to put something on my cake pops that I usually try to avoid...wrinkles! A true pug characteristic. Watching these little creatures come together with all their different personas was really rewarding, and so was the smile on my friend's face when I brought them to her. I've already heard that the Birthday Boy enjoyed his treat!

 A tasty pack of pugs!

Mother's Day Love

We are knocking on May's door which means Mother's Day will be quickly upon us! If this year you want to give your Mummy a special little something she can enjoying looking at and then also eating, could I suggest a cake pop rose? Imagine the good feeling she'll get looking at her beautiful peach or pale pink coloured rose, knowing that she doesn't have to feel guilty not sharing! Available individually or in a bouquet.

It All Smells Sweet

I think I have a pretty good imagination. I was always able to play make-believe for hours when I was a kid. And all though I usually come up with my own inspiration for my cakes pops I never stop being inspired by others. For example, I wouldn't necessarily think of creating cake pops based on a perfume... would you? This was my commission this week; To make cake pops to accompany a perfume launch at my boyfriend, Patrick's pharmacy. The name of the perfume is "Something Sweet" and is described as having three levels of scents: The strong tones resemble rainbow sorbet and champagne, the middle tones are melon and red fruit, and the subtle scent is raspberry juice and chocolate mousse. Patrick came home with some ideas the girls in the cosmetic department had thought of, and I told him what might and what might not work. In the end three designs emerged which I think really did reflect the different facets of the perfume. Plus they looked really great!

I'll post some photos showing the set up at the pharmacy, but for now here's what Patrick went to work with this morning.... I hope they all got there!!

The strong scent: Rainbow sorbet and champagne. I used the colours of the real sorbet to swirl around the cake pop, but best off all the green chocolate is key lime flavour and the orange is orange-cream flavour, so these pops will be a little citrus-ie too. 

 The mid tones: Melon and red fruit. These were pretty self-explanatory. The half dip represents the colours of honey dew and cantaloupe melons and each pop has a cherry and a strawberry for the red fruit.

 And finally the subtle level of scent: Raspberry juice and chocolate mousse. These actually did smell of raspberry because I used raspberry flavoured dark chocolate to dip them in. The pink polka dots aren't flavoured but are cute!

 I liked how they looked all gathered together, a bit 50's-pastel mixed with 'sweet shop'.

 My little babies all wrapped up and ready to go!

A Mini Post for a Not-so-Mini Cake

Just wanted to show that I don't just make mini sized cakes, and that I also dabble in making lovely big cakes (only for my friends and family though). I must admit I didn't quite have all the ingredients this recipe called for, I don't always keep butter milk in my fridge for instance, so I had to improvise a little. I'm sure Anna Olson, from whose book Back to Baking this recipe came from. Turned out yummy, nonetheless! All topped off with sprinkles to make the Birthday Girl feel happy.

Easter Eats

I have lots of traditions that I love about Easter. Of course there are all the lovely church services and music, the roast lamb my family always had for dinner, we decorated our own eggs (both chocolate and chicken eggs), we even had our own egg hunt at home. It's a combination of all of these traditions that really makes it feel truly like Easter. Now I'm adding Easter pops to my mix!

Last year I only made these types of animal pops, but I wanted to add to the mix so I created free-hand Easter egg pops. Long title, great results. I tried two different styles; first the classic milk chocolate shell with colourful decorations, and second a pastel colour design. Those, mixed in with the animals, made a great Easter presentation.

I've already heard from some of the people who ordered pops this year and they've all said how great they look on their table. Hopefully after their meals, they'll taste good in their tummies too!

Happy Easter to everyone!!

I'm Frolicking!!

I felt these definitely required their very own post! This idea came into my head the other day, and I hoped that I could turn that into reality. I'm hosting my Mother and her best friend on Easter Monday for a lamb dinner, and as I was setting my table I decided I wanted to make special place markers that could double as desserts. That's when these little beauties came to me...

As I was constructing all the layers of chocolate, I kept thinking of a quote from the moving "Milo and Otis". A feel good film with a talking cat and pug dog, who at one point are befriended by a foal. If I remember correctly Milo and Otis are with the foal and are being taught how to "play". The foal realised the cat and dog are being left behind, so to convince the foal they are in fact trying, they spring through the grass announcing "I'm frolicking, I'm frolicking!" This has clearly stuck in my head. I remember my Mum explaining to me that foals and sheep don't run through fields, they gambol.

I tried to get these mini-sheep to gambol around these pops... I have included a little film, hoping you can see them jump.

So proud of these!!

...a little out of focus, but I still wanted to show how they looked on my table.

Workshop at Délices Delary Delights

After much planning, stressing, and fussing, today was the day for the workshop! Today, I looked out at 10 pairs of eyes all eagerly awaiting to learn how to make cake pops for the first time, or at the very least to try new designs. Despite all the challenges and learning curves that come with the first time you do something, I felt very proud of myself at the end of the day. Not only because there were 10 happy people leaving with beautiful bouquets of cake pops, but also because I proved to myself that I could do it! It gave me the chance to appreciate the experience I've gained over the past two years of making these little treats: all the times I've wondered if a design were possible and finding out that it was, all the times a design hasn't worked as I thought it would and I've worked through it, and all the times I've seen happy people with their cake pops. It's hard to roll all that into a 3-hour time block but hopefully I was able to be helpful and inspire these people to make more cake pops at home. So all the planning, stressing and the fussing was well worth it! The proof is most definitely in the eating!

Here are just a few glimpses of all the busy attendees and their busy teacher!

First, we must crumble our cake and mix with icing...

...then we can start forming balls of cake dough to dip... 

The pièce de resistance.... the Sheep!! Everyone got to have a go at making their own sheep, and we had a flock by the end.

  Everyone with their certificates! So proud!

They all looked so fantastic all displayed together!!

Photos courtesy of Délice Delary Delights