Santa Babies

This evening we did one last trip to Target (he said he was tired, I guess he was right!)...

...followed by dinner at McDonalds while on our way to see an AMAZING christmas light show.

The snow is falling, the christmas lights are glowing, the house is filled with the smell of baking and the sound of Christmas music (and sleeping Santa babies). Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Many Merry Cake Pops

A month ago I made these fabulous cake pops for Emmett's birthday. They are from the Bakerella website. They are SO much fun and the perfect size for the toddler mouth. A woman from church saw the ones I made for Emmett's birthday party and asked me to make 200 for the preschoolers at the Christmas Eve service. I said yes! Here are the many merry cake pops!

For those of you who are interested, I've reposted the recipe with some additional pictures.

Cake Pop Recipe

So I can not take credit for this. I got this recipe from Bakerella.com which I found through my friend, Marie. Click HERE for the Bakerella directions. The link is actually for the cupcake pops (slightly different look, a few extra steps) and she has a different set of directions for the cake lollipops but they don't include how to make the actual cake balls. So, I've consolidated her directions here and have included tips from my own (very novice) experience.

What you will need:

Boxed cake mix (or you can make from from scratch)

Jar of cream cheese frosting (or you can make it from scratch)

popsicle sticks (from Michaels or other craft store)

Candy melts (from Michaels) or Chocolate baker's squares or chocolate bark

sprinkles or other decorations

wax paper

styrofoam to dry and display them on

Directions:

MAKE and BAKE cake as directed on box

COOL completely

CRUMBLE cake into fine pieces. I put it into a food processor. Put all the finely chopped pieces into a large bowl.

ADD cream cheese frosting slowly with a large spoon or spatula until it's a moldable consistency. For me it was 1/2 - 3/4 of the frosting jar.

FORM into 1"-1.5" inch balls (when you dip in chocolate they will get bigger. The dip adds a surprising amount of diameter). Make sure to smooth over the cracks, otherwise they may

fall apart at the cracks.

PLACE balls onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper

CHILL for a while - I chilled them overnight in the fridge. Bakerella says you can also place them in the freezer if you want it to go faster.

INSERT lollipop sticks into the balls

CHILL a bit longer. I think this might help the sticks stick better in the pops, not really sure.

MELT the chocolate or candy according to directions on package. It worked really well to melt about a custard dish full at a time. Here are a few observations based on my experience:

White chocolate bakers squares - really drippy and harder to work with. Easy to overcook the chocolate so melt it really slowly

Milk chocolate bakers squares - easy to work with. Even when dry the shell isn't super hard. It maintains it's shape fine though. I think it goes on a bit thicker than the candy melts.

Candy melts - I haven't found these in the grocery store, but had to go to Michael's to get these. Easy and smooth when melted. When they dry they are harder than the chocolate. Appx one bag of Candy melts per cake.

IF you see some of the balls cracking, don't dip these, they'll just break off the stick. Simply take them off the stick and collect the balls in a bowl, add a little more frosting then reform, and rechill then dip.

DIP pops in chocolate, spin in circular motion to let excess drip off

SPRINKLE sprinkles lightly on top (Once when I made these I covered the chocolate dipped ones in red sugar sprinkles. It looked really pretty!)

PLACE pops in styrofoam to dry. A few of them may drip so I'd recommend having one drying area and a different display area (or not caring if your display gets dripped on).

DISPLAY them however you want. I spray painted the styrofoam, tucked tissue around the foam and wrapped the styrofoam with wrapping paper.

Merry Christmas!

Pops, Pickles, Potty chair and Trivial Pursuit

We had a wonderful day full of pops, pickles, potty chair and trivial pursuit.

Pops...A woman at church asked me to make 200 cake pops for the preschools at the Christmas Eve service at our church. I said "yes!" and then recruited my friend Jennifer and my husband Eric to help me dip!

Pickles...the kids asked for pickles and gnawed away at them while we took pictures of their cute little selves.

Trivial pursuit...Israel and Jennifer came over to hang out with us this evening. The kids actually played upstairs while the adults engaged in a heated game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. The ladies won (although to be honest, our win wasn't exactly fair, the guys totally deserved it).

Potty chair...this is the second time that I've found Eisley "doing her business" on the potty chair. Good job little lady!

Graffiti

The kids had fun making their own graffiti today. Squirt bottles, water and food coloring.

Tears, Smiles, Tears!

Our day begun with tears in the car (on the way to church) and ended with tears on the car (on the way home from Christmas shopping). In between the tears however, there was a lot of laughter, smiles and even the rare nap for me!

Santa!?!

This was our trip to see Santa...

Poor Santa did not even make it into a picture. But Emmett did have a conversation with him, Eisley cried on his lap, and Emmett received a mini nerf football. We went to Mudd Lake this morning to see Santa. Although there were more tears than smiles, it wasn't so bad.

We ended up going back after naps with our friends and we had a MUCH better time! However, I didn't take any pictures. My friend did though, so hopefully she'll share them with me and I can post some on here.

Jennifer sent me this picture she took. Having a friend who just happens to be a fabulous photographer as well is certainly a nice perk! Thanks Jennifer!

Cranberry Cake with Butter Cream Sauce

Just typing the title makes me want to hop right out of bed and go get a piece! I know right, YUM!!!

Eric and I went to MckMama's Christmas party and had a blast! Our contribution to the party (in addition to my husband's witty remarks) was this amazing Cranberry cake. The pictures aren't great but I promise it will be a hit! I'm going to make it again for Christmas Eve.

I originally had this type of cake at a MOPS leadership meeting and just fell in love. When I googled looking for a recipe, I found this one for a bundt cake, which I personally prefer in presentation to a 9x13. Even though I forgot my powdered sugar, I thought a little sprinkle on top would be a nice touch.

Butter cream sauce served warm!

my half eaten (fourth) piece!

Now that I've got you salivating, here is the recipe. I made it directly from the allrecipes.com recipe.

Cranberry Cake with Butter Cream Sauce

CAKE

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups evaporated milk
• 1 (12 ounce) package cranberries

• PREHEAT oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• GREASE and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
• MIX together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• CREAM together the 6 tablespoons butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the evaporated milk. Stir in the cranberries. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• BAKE in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• COOL in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

• 
  
• SAUCE
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• COMBINE in a sauce pan, cup butter, 2 cups sugar, and cream.
• Bring to a BOIL over medium heat, reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
• SERVE slices of cake generously covered with hot butter sauce

DELISH! ENJOY!