Caramel and Rainbow Flavours

Since I won't be attending the July Farmers Market I've decided to spend my break doing some testing.

Firstly a new caramel flavour.  I made a caramel mud cake that I mixed some buttercream into but I wasn't entirely sure the flavour was "caramelly" (!) enough.  I then put my thinking cap on - I could add some ready-made caramel but then I didn't want to have to eat the leftover caramel as I'm sure it can't be frozen.  I could make some caramel by boiling a small amount of condensed milk; but, again, I didn't want to have to eat the leftover condensed milk.  I searched a few recipes for ideas and came up with a caramel I could make on a small scale to add to the buttercream.  I am happy to say that it did the trick and I now have an all new flavour - Caramel Mud Cake with Caramel Buttercream - yum!!

Rainbow cake pops have been floating around my head now for some time.  I've seen a few variations on the internet so I had a couple of ideas on how I would like mine to look.  I decided to try out another flavour for these, white chocolate mud.  I mixed the batter and divided it up, put the colour in and then baked them in these fantastic mini cake tins I have.  It worked beautifully.  I then had to decide how to get six different "dough" mixes to resemble a rainbow.

I tried the "bullseye" style first - to anyone that has successfully achieved this effect, I congratulate you!  My first attempt had just three colours and I was already at the size of my usual cake pop - my three year old got to eat that one!  In the end I realised that to get the effect, and stick to my standard sizing, I would need to roll some dough out and then cut circles out of it - I made a total of two in the end.  I've decided that the "bullseye" style is not for me!!  It looks amazing, but it's just too time consuming for me!

Rainbow Cake Pop - Bullseye

My final two ideas were a "layered" look and a "blocked" look.  Happily, these were much less time consuming than the previous ones!  I love the look, especially when you are greeted by a white coating and have no idea what is underneath.  I gave a couple out to people and got a resounding "wow" from all.

Rainbow Cake Pop - Layered

Rainbow Cake Pop - Blocked

I am now moving on to some more character cake pops.  I hope to do some experiments with Yo Gabba Gabba; Cars; Star Wars and The Muppets.  Wish me luck!!

Farmers Market Update

I had my second appearance at the Orange Farmers Market on Saturday.  It was a bit chilly to start with; -2.3 degrees, Orange’s coldest low temperature for this winter; but the sun did come out and so did the people.

I took 143 cake pops with me this time and, once again, they sold out.  The pirates and princesses were popular – I also had sheep, chickens, pigs and ladybugs, along with some basic pops.  I am totally amazed at the support I am receiving.  Thank you to everyone that came down.  I also have to thank my friend for coming along and helping me out again.

Sheep

Ladybugs

Princesses - Updated

The Farmers Markets are fantastic and I urge anyone that hasn’t been to go and check it out.  You absolutely have to have a Trunkey Creek bacon & egg roll, don’t let the long line put you off – it’s worth the wait.  I have to send a special shout out to Alison at Fudge by Alison too, she has been a wealth of information to me – the rubber matting saved my feet from the freezing temperature J.  Oh, and of course, she sells fudge......mmmmmmmmm!!

My friend bought us a sample of the gorgeous macarons on sale at Chesney & Green.  I will be lining up for more of the salted caramel ones at the next markets, they were to die for!!

I will be missing the July market as we are heading off on holiday.  I will be back for the August and September ones though and I hope to have some special market flavours to try out, such as beetroot cake!

Basic Cake Pops

Purple Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Ruffles

This was a creation for my own birthday!  Yummo!  I would have liked the purple layers to be a bit more graduated and am thinking that next time I may just go for four thicker layers.  The cake was a vanilla custard mud cake, which worked amazingly.

I had not tried the ruffle technique before but I found some awesome tutorials on YouTube and it, seriously, is not that hard to do.  I only ended up using two packets of cream cheese for the cake but I think next time I would go with three and make the ruffles a bit smaller.

I am definitely having a go at a rainbow cake next!

Apples, Horses and Swirls

Here are some apples and horses that I did for an order (following the Farmers Markets).  It was my first time doing horses and I totally copied this idea from www.cakepopmyheart.com (thanks!!).

Horses & Apples

Horses with Cowboy Hats

Apples with Caterpillars

These pops were for another order.  I am really liking the basic swirl at the moment.  These were chocolate cake underneath and you can still *just* see the cake under the coating but I didn't want the coating to be too thick and overpower the yummy cake inside :)

Wedding Cake Pops

I have been, over the course of a couple of months, doing some testing on some wedding cake pops.  I have seen some good examples on various sites but, of course, had a particular image in my head that I wanted to try and recreate.

Here is the end result – trial number three – the brushed section is supposed to look like a ribbon around the bottom of the tier and I’m hoping to customise this to coordinate with bridesmaid dresses or decorative colour schemes. Personally I prefer the one on the right, topped with the ribbon-style rose.

Wedding Cake Pops

 This was test number one and two, just so you can see where I went wrong LOL.  My three year old kept telling me he liked the “snowmen” so I instantly knew some changes needed to be made!

Ned Kelly Cake

I had a request for a Ned Kelly Cake.  I headed to Google, as you do, and quickly realised that wasn’t going to be very helpful!  I was completely stumped.  I knew I didn’t want to do the whole helmet in 3D with fondant but I knew that the helmet would look pretty silly as a flat-style cake (yeah, a rectangle shape with another rectangle piece cut out of it!).  I finally came up with a Wanted poster.  I used a buttercream transfer for the portrait picture and then cut the letters out of candy clay.  The cake needed to be just a little bit wider, but I think it turned out ok in the end.

My First Orange Farmers Market!!

How exciting!  After a busy, busy week and a few long nights it was finally time for me to attend my first Orange Farmers’ Market.  The air was a bit cool but once I’d carried everything to my spot it wasn’t so bad.  My friend came & helped me out, thankfully, as it helped take my mind off my nerves.  She was a trooper & stayed the entire time. 

I am pleased to report that my cake pops were a hit.  We actually sold out (98 pops) by about 11am (the markets don’t finish until 1pm).  There seemed to be a lot of interest and I’m hoping that will translate into orders for birthday parties and functions. 

The Orange Farmers’ Markets really are an awesome venture.  There are so many great products available.  Check out the site at here.  I also have to say a special shout out to Alison at “Fudge by Alison” – she has given me so many tips that have made this experience so much easier for me......oh, and did I mention the fudge???

Buzzy Bees

Cows