Tricky Treats

Okay, for those of you at MOPS yesterday who wanted to know how to make the cute little pumpkin cakepops, here you go.

First, no I'm not that creative. I didn't make these up, I'm just good at copying. As you can see, the originals look much cleaner than mine. I'm not sure how she gets the candymelts that smooth. If anyone has any tips, please share. I wish I had a picture of mine but, thankfully, you ate them all up! My cakepops were a combination of these amazing treats invented by the ever so talented and widely famous Bakerella...


And these sweet treats inspired the insides of my pumpkin pops...

Thanks and full credit for the pumpkin spice cake idea go to Bridget at bakeat350.blogspot.com. LOVE her site. She is so talented and I found her blog courtesy of my sister-in-law Montee. Okay, so here's what I did.

1. I bought and baked a pumpkin bread from a mix right out of a box (no cans of pumpkin or anything hard like that). I let it cool completely and then crumbled it all up with my hands in a large bowl.
2. I used about 3/4 of a can of ready made cream cheese icing and mixed it completely with the caked. It ended up looking like a bunch of mush. Add the icing a little at a time so you don't get too much. You want it to be sturdy enough to shape it.
3. Shape the mixture into truffle size balls and put on wax paper on a cookie sheet.
4. If you're going to do pops, dip the tip of stick in a little bit of melted orange Wilton candymelts and then still into the cake ball.
5. Put the whole thing in the fridge to let them get a little more solid and sturdy.
6. Dip the balls in melted orange Wilton candymelts and then stick pops in styrofoam to dry. If you're not making pops, just put them on more wax paper. Bakerella used tic tacs for the stems, I used green cereal pieces from a sugared kids cereal. You could also probably use pretzels for stems. Stick on the stems before the candy can harden.
7. When everything is completely dry, use an edible pen from Betty Crocker to draw on faces. Done.

I got the lollipop sticks and orange Wilton candymelts in the craft section of Walmart. I got the pumpkin bread mix, icing, and edible ink pens in the baking section of Walmart. It was really super easy and fun and here are some examples of some of the other spooky treats Bakerella made.

You can use any cake mix and icing so I am going to try some different combos. Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing dipped in white or dark chocolate, chocolate cake with chocolate icing dipped in a minty dark chocolate coating...the possibilities are endless. Let me know if you try these and how it works out. If you want more detailed instructions, check here.

Favorite Meals

I just wanted to share one of our favorite meals that is SUPER easy and delicious! I am a bit of a fish snob. I usually don't like it much unless it's fresh. However, I have found a great frozen product at SAM'S CLUB. It is Blackened, Seasoned Atlantic Salmon Fillets by C. Wirthy & Co. Each fillet is individually packaged. You just pull out what you need and thaw it in the package for about 30 minutes in a bowl of cold water. I just remove from package, drizzle a little olive oil on each side, and cook on the stovetop in my grill pan about 5 minutes on each side and WALLAH! It's that easy. It's not "fishy" like a lot of other frozen fish. With it we usually have another one of our favorite products from the local Super Walmart. Mann's Ready, Set, Steam vegetables. It comes in Stir Fry, Garden Herb, or Brocolli with Cheese Sauce. You just peel off the sauce packet, put the package in the microwave on high for 3 minutes, peel off the top of the package, add sauce, stir and WALLAH! Delicious vegetable in 3 minutes! I also usually make 10 minute brown rice to go with it. So you can put together a great, healthy meal in less than 15 minutes if you don't count the thawing time. Look out Rachel Ray! 30 minute meals HAH!