solar system cake pops

As I consider the diminished frequency of my posts (thanks to several weeks of juggling three jobs, followed by a dramatic lifestyle change into a 9-5 as of last week), I really ought to avoid consecutive posts on the same topic.  However, I had a surplus of cake and frosting from my previous post, carrot cake pops.  The result: a further exercise in the making of cake pops, specifically marbleizing, manifested in the likeness of planets.

In the midst of my cake pop research, I stumbled across Wilton’s decorating technique of marbleizing candy for pops.  I contemplated uses for this particular technique and was inspired by something I’ve been teaching children over the past three years — to build a model of the solar system.

Simply take several colors of candy melts, swirl a tiny bit, and let the act of dipping create the full marble effect.  For Saturn’s rings, I made a marbleized candy disc on parchment, carved away the center with a knife, and slipped it over the planet.

Marbleizing is a fitting process to make planets, especially the hazy clouds of Jupiter and Saturn.  This is a fun kitchen project to do with kids.  Your little ones can learn about the colors and surfaces of each planet as each is created.  What’s best is these planetary models are not only educational, they are edible!

carrot cake pops

I have officially jumped on the bandwagon of cake pops.  A bit tardy on the trend, but better late than never.  For my first endeavor in cake pop creation, I thought to start with something simply and organically shaped — the carrot.  Of course, carrot cake is among my favorites.  Appropriately so, these carrot cake pops are both carrot in flavor and form.

I had ambitious plans to make my own carrot cake with honey walnut cream cheese frosting.  However, considering I have never developed my own carrot cake recipe (yet) and although the recipes I’ve posted here have been my own making, I decided to skip that process by sticking to the tried, tested, and true method of making cake pops — cake mix and ready-made frosting, which is what I discovered online that most people use.

Cake pops are usually in the form of balls, like a lollipop, although they are evolving with more dimension.  These carrots are my take on cake pops.  If you haven’t seen cake pops before, head straight over to Bakerella, who, from what I gather, is the person to thank for inventing cake pops in general.

I did face one very, very silly conundrum — which side of the carrot to insert the stick.  I wanted the cake pop to be held as you would hold the wider end of the carrot when being eaten (meaning the stick is at the top of the carrot).  I already knew in advance I wanted paper grass in the photo.  The stick being at the top of the carrot, I had the forethought of the carrots appearing to grow upside down and above ground.  So with that thought, I was stuck.  I chewed it over for a while.  But I thought to stick with it.  Oh, the little things that confound me.

You will need: carrot cake mix, cream cheese frosting, about three cups of orange candy melts, half a cup of green candy melts, and lollipop sticks.  All this stuff is about $10 and yields 20 carrot cake pops.

1. Bake your cake according to package instructions.  Let cool.  Crumble baked cake into a bowl and mix with 2/3 of the frosting.

2. With clean hands, take about 1/6 cup of cake and form into a carrot shape.  Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.  NOTE:  In hindsight, I realized that I could’ve achieved great details by using the edge of a butter knife to create short horizontal creases, giving more realism and texture to the surface of the carrots.  The more organic, the better.  I will try this butter knife technique next time.

3. Melt green candy melts.  Dip about 1-1/2″ of the lollipop stick.  Insert 1″ into the chilled carrot cakes.  The candy melt will automatically pool around the lollipop stick.

4. Melt orange candy melts in a tall, narrow container (I used a 6″ mug).  I did a cup at a time.  Dip the carrot cakes.  Tap off excess by holding the stick with one hand and flicking the tip of the stick with fingers of the other hand.  Stick into a Styrofoam block and let dry.

Enjoy making these carrot cake pops for Easter!

easter egg balloons

I’m a balloon type of gal.  I love balloons.  Even more than flowers.  Balloons liven up a room and turn the average day red letter.

Back in October, I decided to doodle away on a few balloons and came up with one of my favorite posts that I’ve ever made for this blog to date — Halloween balloon body parts.  Of course, being the Halloween baby that I am, I have a partiality for balloons on Halloween.  But back in October, I also knew balloons had to be on my Easter to-do list.  Fast forward to March, a month away from Easter, and I’ve got myself doodling on balloons again.  I still love my balloon body parts (especially the eyes) for their novelty and impact, but I can’t help but smile at the joy of these oversize Easter eggs.

For this project, I had to look into pastel-colored markers at my local art store, Curry’s, and discovered Sakura Permapaque.  They are water and pigment based paint markers that claim to be opaque (even on dark surfaces) and waterproof.  I wanted to ensure they wouldn’t smudge as I doodled, and sure enough, the marker dried in seconds and there was no problem of smudging as I went along.  I also ran a decorated balloon under the tap and the colors did not budge.  What’s best is they are dual-tipped (medium point and chisel — and it is very difficult to get chisel tip markers in a variety of colors).  Overall, I’m quite content with the new vibrant addition to my crafting inventory.

So if you find egg decoration is too dainty and cumbersome, you may want to try decorating these balloons for size.

easter egg carton chicks

Here’s a fun and simple Easter craft that you can do with the little ones.  Repurpose those egg cartons to make these cute candy-filled chicks.

You will need scissors, glue, and the following:

a. Egg carton

b. Yellow paint and black marker

c. Yellow and orange card stock

To make each chick:

1. Cut two egg carton cups.  Glue a 1/2″ x 1-3/4″ piece of paper to each half, acting as a hinge.

2. Paint throughout.

3. Take small pieces of card stock, two yellow and two orange, each measuring approximately 1″ x 1/2″.  Fold a 1/4″ flap from the edge.  From the fold, cut into triangles.

4. Affix one yellow triangle on each side of the inner bottom egg carton cup.  Affix one orange triangle on the front of the inner top and another on the inner bottom egg carton cup.

5. Cut orange card stock into feet and adhere to the bottom cup.  Take a black marker and draw small eyes.

Fill with candy treats, give away, and watch your loved ones chirp with delight.

black milk tea tapioca pudding

I suffer a nagging obsession over bubble tea (or boba tea, which more accurately implies tea with tapioca).  I love it so much that I rang in 2011 with sips of black milk bubble tea.  A resounding “yes!” to bubble tea over champagne.  And if it weren’t chockfull of calories, I would have it everyday.  Well, I do, in fact, prepare black milk tea (without tapioca) everyday at home.  And so, it was over one of my daily black milk tea breaks that I thought — why not black milk tea tapioca pudding?!?  I love tapioca pudding and what could possibly go wrong to flavor it like the drink I love so much?  Well, it didn’t go wrong.   And I think I just made a brand new dessert!

I made sure to use real tapioca pearls instead of opting for the shortcut, instant tapioca.  Small tapioca pearls are very inexpensive, and you can pick up a nearly one pound bag for $1 at most Asian grocery stores.  They may require a lot of patience to make, but they’re worth the wait.  Make sure to soak your tapioca in the tea overnight to get the full flavor in the pearls.

2 c water

6 bags of black tea

1/3 c small tapioca pearls (not instant)

1 c evaporated milk

1/2 c condensed milk

1 egg yolk

 

1. Boil water and place tea bags.  Turn off heat.  Steep tea and cool.

2. Add tapioca pearls to tea.  Cover.  Soak overnight.

3. Wring and remove tea bags.  Heat tapioca and tea over medium heat.

4. In a bowl, whisk evaporated milk, condensed milk, and egg yolk.

5. Add whisked milk and egg to tapioca and tea, stirring continuously over medium heat until it boils and thickens.

6. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes until desired consistency.

The use of evaporated milk and condensed milk is what makes most Asian black milk tea so special.  And appropriately, they give this tapioca pudding the authentic black milk bubble tea flavor I crave.  Too bad, this is one dessert I can’t have (mustn’t have) everyday.

potted paper shamrock

I’m sorry.  I had to do it.  I gave the Irish shamrock a tropical twist.  Blame the artificial potted orchid sitting conspicuously in my stairway for planting the idea in my head.

I hesitated on this craft all week, but finally dared this afternoon.  I’m happy I did.  I think the end result is a successful variation on St. Patrick’s Day décor, for those not looking for the obvious.

From across the room, there’s no telling about the holiday.  But the paper shamrocks are a charming surprise up close.

You will need: bowl or pot with Styrofoam block, two dried rose stems and two dried filler flower stems (lucky I only lazily considered disposing of my dried up Valentine’s Day bouquet from O.T. without actually doing so), two shades of green cardstock, scissors, tape, hot glue gun, and glue sticks.

1. Using tape, attach a dried filler flower stem close to the top of a dried rose stem to create a curved (almost horizontal) stem extension .  Most filler flowers have skinny, curved stems and make for a good stem extension.

2. Cut cardstock shamrocks in various sizes.  Make two shamrocks per flower: one large (outer) and one small (inner), some with stems, some without.  I noticed that orchids have the gradation starting from a darker center to a lighter edge, so I made the inner shamrock darker than the outer.

3. Glue together the shamrocks.  I placed a rhinestone in the center of each.  It’s gives a nice dimension, but it’s not necessary.

4. Glue the shamrocks on the stems.

5. Carefully insert the stems in the Styrofoam block.

6. Fill the bowl or pot with gold coins.  I thought the coins would give enough character, but I felt it was still lacking, so I finished it off with a rainbow ribbon.

Let this fun potted paper shamrock liven your desk or windowsill or add more green to your St. Patrick’s Day party spread.

little leprechaun hat favors

Today you will find me crafting over at Canadian Living‘s The Craft Blog.  Head right over to their site to read my super simple tutorial so you can make these little leprechaun hat favors in time for a fun St. Patrick’s Day celebration next week.

sneak peek!

I just finished writing a really fun St. Patrick’s craft tutorial for Canadian Living‘s The Craft Blog and of course, I’d like you to be the first to have a peek here.   You’ll find the project on their site this Friday, March 11 —  stay tuned!

whale wine cork board

The cork tile I used for yesterday’s Kill Bill sword push pins comes in a pack of two.  While I have them out, I thought I may as well craft something else using the second tile.  Since crafting my wine cork pens a month ago,  I’ve had wine corks on my mind.  And today, all I could think about is cork.  So I whipped up this super quick and easy cork board project.

Whales are quite a craze these days.  I think the whale may have even replaced the owl in popularity.  Hard not to love, there’s a certain calm congeniality about the whale.   I intended for my wine cork whale to be both functional and decorative, but even so, I found it grim to tack anything on him, although taking tacks is really his purpose.

You can easily whip up your own whale wine cork board, too, with a square foot cork tile, a bunch of wine corks (I used 44), and a hot glue gun.  Simply arrange the wine corks in the shape of a whale (or any shape, for that matter) and affix with hot glue, and you’ve got yourself a fun cork board in under fifteen minutes.

kill bill: sword push pins

This week on Iron Craft — Challenge #9: …and the Oscar goes to…. The challenge is to create something reflecting any movie that is special to you, not necessarily one from this year’s Academy Awards.

Now, Kill Bill was never nominated for the Academy Awards (it did, however, get best actress and best supporting actor nominations for the Golden Globes).  But it was the first movie that popped up in my head after reading the challenge description, perhaps for various reasons.  First, I truly enjoyed the Kill Bill movies, lauded for their visually graphic, push-the-envelope, cheeky, not-take-itself-too-seriously approach.  Second, I had already crafted a Kill Bill papier maché project many years ago, back in 2003 when Vol. 1 came out and my group of friends decided to dress up as Kill Bill characters for Halloween.

I was Gogo and I devoted a few hours into making a ball and chain weapon using a balloon, newspaper, glue, metallic paint, and a few feet of metal chain from the hardware store.  I don’t ever know what happened to that craft and I only have these pictures to remember it.  There I am in my cheap black wig, almost eight years ago, flailing my papier maché ball and chain.

Source: Global Prints (www.globalprints.com)

Well, I didn’t want to remake the ball and chain from Vol. 1.  I feel its duplication would rob me of the experience of creating something entirely new.  And sometimes, I really don’t know what overcomes me to come up with some very random crafts.  But after googling Kill Bill for this challenge, I wanted to make use of the graphic conveyed in the poster for Vol. 2, and the thought process transpired as follows: death list — grocery list — sword — push pins.  Just like that, this one idea came within seconds, which does not happen nearly often enough in my culling of ideas.

The thought process of how-to came rather quickly, too.  I had a paperclip right beside my keyboard, and I knew instantly that a miniature sword push pin could be constructed by the simple bending of a paper clip, some 1-1/2″ square paper scraps, glue, black electrical tape, and faux-metal Con-Tact paper (which I’ve recently used to make a faux metal bib necklace and faux metal flowers).

To create your own sword push pins:

1. Stretch a paperclip and bend in half, ensuring that the sides are straight, parallel, and 1/4″ apart.  Apply glue on one 1-1/2″ square scrap of paper.  Place the paperclip along the edge of the paper and roll, making sure the bend is covered and the two paperclip ends are exposed.

2. Cut a 1-1/2″ x 3/4″ piece of Con-Tact metallic paper.

3. Wrap the Con-Tact paper around the paper-covered paperclip.

4. Cut a 1″ strip of electrical tape.  Fold 1/8″ from the edge, sticky sides facing away from each other.  Snip 3 little triangles.  Unfold and you’ll have 3 diamonds.

5. Affix electrical tape on the top end of the paper-covered paperclip.  Again, snip 3 little triangles to appear on the back side.

6. Wrap electrical tape around and trim any excess.  This makes the handle.

7. Cut a 1-1/2″ strip of electrical tape.  Fold in half, sticky sides facing each other, to make a double-sided square of electrical tape.

8. Cut electrical tape square into a circle.  Cut a 1/4″ slit along the center.

9. Slide the paper-covered paperclip through the slit until the circle reaches the bottom of the handle.  Trim the circle and round the corners of the handle.

Now, tack onto your cork board to help you attack your lists of to-do’s!