Happy Discounted Candy Day!!

Hi Hello!!!  Today is a super special day!  I just love the day after Valentine's Day!!  I get candy to use over the next few weeks in my classes and projects. YAYAYAYA!!!  :-)  Hey, the only thing better than chocolate, is chocolate at 50% OFF! Amiright? hehe.  I don't necessarily NEED it.  I've got no shortage of chocolate anyway.  But I've gotta do it. It's a thing! ;-) 

We have another wonderful tradition at our house on Valentine's Day.  It all started when Tinker Tom and I first became serious.  Like many who have ever been jaded around Valentine's Day, I had learned to hate the occasion. Nay! Despise it!! So I would go about my day as if it didn't exist and avoid the stores like the PLAGUE the week of.  But, when TT and I got together, he was determined to change all that.  Thus, our family Valentine's Day tradition began.  He got one of those printed flannel tablecloths, a couple heart shaped plastic plates, some valentine's decorated champagne flutes, and all the fixin's for fully loaded pancakes.  I came over that Valentine's Day to find a fantastically sweet spread of hearts and pancakes, sprinkles, chocolate, cherries and of course ready whip!  It was so adorable!!

Now, every year,  Tinker Tom gets the "Valentine's tote" out of storage and puts the cloth on and brings out the heart shaped plates and decorated glasses.  He makes a Pancake breakfast with all the fixin's and we all sit down to eat before giving our Valentines to each other.  It's become a very special "THING" that we all look forward to.

This year, we toned it down quite a bit, but still Tinker Tom drug out the Valentine tote and got the table ready.  He made pink heart pancakes and farm fresh eggs from our girls.  It was very sweet!

And they were yummy too of course! ;-)  We gave each other our little tokens of love and I was so thrilled to see my wonderful family being creative with their gifts!!  Tinker Tom handmade a Valentine's Card for me and our sweet mini me made a love jar for me and filled it with little slips of things that she loves about me.  I'll cherish them forever!!  I thought they both did an incredible job!

This year, I made cake pops for them.  They're always a delicious treat.  And even though they're not really difficult to make, they require a small degree of patience.  I thought maybe I would share the instructions with you today, if you don't mind.

Ok, the things you'll need are:

* A cake mix prepared and baked according to directions
* A jar of ready made frosting that goes with your flavor of cake
* Candy melts/wafers in your choice of flavors/colors
* Sprinkles or candies (optional)
* A double boiler (or a makeshift one)
* Lollipop Sticks
* Candy wrappers/ties
* Shaped Mold (also optional, but I recommend a silicone one if you do. You could certainly just roll the cake dough into balls)
* A firm piece of styrofoam that can hold your pops in between stages

Once your cake is baked and cooled, crumble it into a large bowl. Add a big dollop of icing to the cake.  Keep crumbling it up and kneed it until the frosting is well incorporated and it forms a nice dough. If you're going to use a mold, you'll want to press the dough into the cavities making sure you fill it completely and evenly without any air pockets or cracks. If you're just rolling into balls, you'll want to ensure the same. NO CRACKS!  THIS WILL BE VERY IMPORTANT LATER!

If you're just doing balls, lay them on a wax paper lined tray or plate.  Put the balls/molded cake pieces into the freezer for about half an hour to firm up a bit.  At this point, go ahead and set up your double boiler and put the candy wafers in to melt.

Now, this is where the patience starts to kick in.  You will have greater success if you temper this candy slowly, rather than set it on high heat to melt it quickly.  So, set your stove to medium or medium low if your stove is prone to run hot. Stir often until the candy is all melted.  It should be a loose creamy consistence.  When you turn a spoonful out, it should stream off the spoon and not "plop".  If it's totally melted and it "plops", you may need to add just a tiny bit of coconut oil to it to thin it a little. But I caution you not to thin it too much. It won't coat your cake pops very well.

Ok, once your candy coating is melted and a good consistency,turn the temp down as low as you can make it.  You can also get your cake pops out of the freezer and start making "pops" out of them.  You take a lollipop stick and dip just the tip of it into the melted candy.  Then, gently push the stick into the pop just a bit. You don't need to push it all the way through.  Just into the pop about a half inch is good. Notice that a little bit of candy sits at the opening. That's great! It helps seal the pop to the stick.

This is where the styrofoam comes in handy.  I like to put all of my pops on the sticks first, and then come back to coat them. This gives the initial bit of candy coating a chance to fully harden and hopefully hold the cake pop to the stick. Sometimes it doesn't........ Sorry about that. Just eat it! It never existed!! HAHAHA!

After you have put the pops on sticks, it's time to coat them with the melted candy. This is where patience is paramount!  You are going to use a "DIP AND ROLL" method to coat your pops with the candy.  Honestly, it really doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it fairly quickly and evenly.  The candy needs to coat the ENTIRE pop including the entry point of the lollipop stick. Notice the spoon in the pan. This is to scoop up some candy and pour it over the cake pop if I need to.  Once it's coated, LIGHTLY tap the stick against the rim of the pan, thus tapping the excess candy coating off of the cake pop. 

Repeat this process for all of your pops, sticking each one back into the styrofoam block. Make sure they don't touch each other.  If you were wanting to add sprinkles/sugars/nonparels/candies/etc, you would want to do it right away after each dipping, while the candy was still wet. It will dry quickly so you don't have much time.  Know ahead of time what you want to do here.   I like to coat the pops with one kind and then drizzle with another. It LOOKS fancy but is actually easier! haha.

Here are my cake pops.  I have so much fun making these and everyone really loves em!  At this point, you're finished.  Let them set til they're totally dry and have a hard shell before you wrap them.  Put a candy wrapper over and tie with a bow and they make fabulous gifts.

 

Cake pops are delicious and their flavors are limited only by your imagination!  These were dark chocolate fudge! YUM!!! I hope you try some for yourself. You'll see.  YUMMO!!!  Comment below and let me know if you've ever had cake pops and what you think of em. Or if you're going to try and make some yourself. You could just as easily make cake balls and never even put them on sticks.  In that case, just use a fork to run them through the melted candy and then tap the fork on the side of the pan for the candy melt to drip through the tines. :-)

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial, even if it wasn't a card project.  Let me know if you make your own! I'd love to hear about it!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Please FOLLOW my blog so you don't miss my next post. 

Have a super fantastic day, my friends!

Until next time,
Happy Crafting!