Watch Out, Martha

I have been such a crafty diva this week!  I mean...Martha Stewart's got NOTHIN' on me. I started out the week making the baby blanket and stuffed bear for my cousin's baby shower. Then, I made 3 cards for her (one from me and my hubby...one from my mom and step dad...one from the whole extended family). If that weren't enough...I was in charge of making the cake. I promised y'all I'd post about the cake. So here it is.

I decided to try something new for the cake. Fearless I am--to try a new recipe... for the first time... at a party. But why not? I decided to make cake pops instead of a traditional sheet cake or cupcakes. I thought they'd be cute, unique, and portable. So, I scoured the internet for recipes on making cake pops. I found one that made sense so I used it.

In THEORY, cake pops are super easy to make.

• You bake a cake.
• Toss baked cake into bowl.
• Totally macerate the heck out of it until you've rendered it into crumbs.
• Mix in a LITTLE BIT of prepared frosting.
• Form into balls.
• Chill.
• Insert sticks.
• Dip in chocolate.
• Decorate.
• Done.

I enlisted the aid of my dear hubby, Jonathan. I ended up making about 60 cake pops, in 3 different flavors--lemon, chocolate, and confetti vanilla...so I could certainly utilize his cake-ball making skills. You add JUST ENOUGH frosting to the cake crumbs so they'll hold together. It's sort of like fluffy Playdoh. You do NOT want it as dense as real Playdoh. We set up an assembly line and each took turns scooping, forming, and placing the balls on a cookie sheet.

Jonathan making cake balls.

Naked cake pop balls

After we made all the balls, I set up my assembly/decorating supplies. Well, I say "set up"...I pretty much just dumped it all out on the table.

I decided I wanted them to look like little baby heads with bonnets made from muffin cups. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be uber cute. So I drew out various babyesque faces on a piece of paper to use as a reference when I painted them on the pops. After I got a dozen of them finished...I decided 12 was enough...the rest would just sit in the muffin cups with bows tied on them.

Hmmm, they actually look more like ghost pops at this point. Oh well...it's close enough to Halloween.

I used paste food coloring and hand-painted on their faces. NOTE* the food coloring NEVER dried (even overnight)...so I ended up having to blot off their faces before I assembled them the next morning.

Here is the end result, all set up at the party.

They look like babies now!

They were a HUGE hit! I must admit, they tasted FABULOUS and were just too cute!
 

Martha better watch her back...

Torrey's in da house!