Epic Baking Day

Cake pop, bitten

Eeeeeeeeek! It happened. No, not that Nobel Prize thing. The Epic Baking Day that I’ve been eagerly anticipating ever since Bakerella got me popstruck and changed my life forever.

For months, friends have been asking me when I would make cake pops. Soon, I’d say slyly, soon. It was like that time in third grade when I told everyone that I was going to jump off the high dive at the pool and then when I got up there I looked down and thought, Hm, maybe I shouldn’t have told quite so many people that I’d jump off quite so high a diving board, because I’m probably allergic to this kind of thing and I might have a heart attack.

I was nervous about the cake pops, but luckily my friend Danielle from Cozycakes Cottage agreed to help me out (and by help me out, I mean buy everything, bring the book, and make me drinks while telling me what to do). This was a happy day because though Danielle and I have been friends for years, I hadn’t really seen her in a long time. Danielle is double-jointed just like me, so you should really check out her blog. Though I am trying to convince her to merge our blogs into All the Cozy Cottages are Taken.

Danielle unpacked this first so it must have been obvious that I needed it:

Sustenance

And then we thought we should take a picture of us, to document the momentous day (even if the momentous part hadn’t happened yet):

Me and Danielle

If we look a little strained in that picture it’s because we’re squatting. There was no one around to take the picture so we had to use my cheap, short tripod. That’s why I look like I’m in a huddle about to say “hut”.

Danielle also bought a bunch of other stuff, since we had big plans to make tartes and popovers. We never got to those.

Before we knew it we only had a couple of hours left, so we got down to business.  The objective: make baby chicks.

The night before, I made the cake balls. Following Bakerella’s advice, I used Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix and canned cream cheese frosting (about 3/4 of a container). They looked like meat balls. They chilled in the fridge overnight.

Cake balls

We started by punching out little stars and shaping beaks out of fondant, which as far as I can tell lasts forever, since I haven’t made it since this post. I used a handy punching tool that my friend Sandra sent me from Japan.

Punching tool

Then Danielle put the candy coating in a bowl and heated it up:

Candy melts in bowl

Doesn’t she have nice hair? I got that apron for Christmas from my husband.

Aren’t these sticks pretty too?

Sticks

Our first dip:

Dipped cake ball

…and our first baby chick!

Baby chick

Typical firstborn — we took tons of pictures of him. Yes, that’s dish washing liquid in the background.

Baby chick

Awwww, love you baby chick! We had to eat some of the really deformed ones in the back to put them out of their misery.

Here he is with some friends:

Baby chick with friends

…and at his school play:

School play

Maybe not such a flattering angle of him, that one.

Then I cried because Danielle had to go. The chicks were separated, and we hadn’t made that many. Danielle left us lots of candy coating and other supplies.

My kids decided to get in on the action:

Pidge

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They made Rocker Chick:

Rocker Chick

…and her band:

The band

Then, abruptly, we had to stop! We had friends coming over. We cleaned up. So we didn’t get to the eating part yet…and actually we still have many more pops to make, so…more to come.

But for now, thank you Bakerella for making cake pops such an important part of my life. Instructions here for how to make the cake balls, and of course her site is full of amazing ideas for pops. Thank you Danielle for hand-holding me through it. And thank you friends for pushing me so far beyond my inability to make frosting.

What should we make next?