Cake Pops

Do you like cake? Silly question! Well, here's a blog entry all about CAKE!

#omnomnom

I made this cake for my mum's birthday. Jeanette - #whatababe

 Do you like lollipops? Am I changing the subject? Not at all! (and yes, I love lollipops) Well - this is your lucky day! Let's talk about my favourite crafty food adventure of the moment, CAKE POPS!

picture quality - not da best...

Yep - you read correctly, it's like cake and lollipops all rolled into one! (Literally...I rolled them myself!)

Cake Pops are excellent for all sorts of occasions. Birthdays, picnics, occasions where it's weird to have a cake, but awesome to have cake at the same time. You know the type - finger food occasions. Cupcake occasions. Cake Pops are like the baby cousin of cupcakes. The cute little cousin who looks kinda like the rest of the family but gets all the attention because of his cutie-patootie cheeks and wobbly little back knees.

 

HOW DO I MAKE TASTY CAKE POPS?

It's pretty simple, or pretty intricate, depending on what you want to achieve. Starting simple is a wise idea, but less fun than trying and failing and making your first cake-pops in a goopy fun mess!

WHAT DO I NEED?

• Cake (you can make it from scratch or get a packet mix - it doesn't matter)
• Icing sugar
• Cream cheese
• Melting chocolate or icing or Candy Melts
• Fun things for decoration
• Little sticks (I use lollipop sticks...not used ones...you can get them from kitchen stores or Spotlight or sometimes the supermarket) 

METHOD (and also madness)

1. Make a cake!

 












Simple really. Any cake you like. Cook that bad boy!

2. Mash up your cake

Excellent fun, mashing up a cake. Good therapy if you're feeling cranky. But mostly just fun...particularly if you're a generally destructive person...you know...that type that jumps on your brother's sandcastle just as he finishes it...)

3. Add some icing sugar and cream cheese to your mashed up cake.

 

Good focus, camera!
 

Look, I'm sure there's some kind of ratio that I could tell you to stick to, but just pour some in till you can roll your mashy cake mixture into balls that stay ball-shaped. Pretty much you want to make your mashy cake mix feel like playdough

4. Put le mixture in le fridge for a while.

 Half an hour...a day...however long you like, really.

 

5. Make some sick shapes!

These ones are mushrooms (don't stick the stick in yet though...next step)

 

Anything you like! Balls are good to start with if you're new. but you can make anything! Birdies, mushrooms, TARDISes! Use your imagination!
 

6. Put le shapes back in le fridge

You do this to make them firmer. Easier to mould. Easier to cover with chocolate meltedness. The colder your balls, the quicker they will get hard again. Wow...sorry...
 

7. Cover your balls! (really...sorry...)

This is the potentially messy part. Using melting chocolate can be a little tricky, icing is easier, but there is less scope for decoration. Not sure about candy melts - never used them. I gather they are the easiest. 

Anyway - first, melt some of your chocolate and dip your stick into it. Pop your stick straight into the bottom of your cake shape. When you've done that to all of them, stick them back in the fridge again for a bit! Trust me - there's nothing worse than your cake pop falling down its stick while you're decorating it. Annoying! (well, usually it just means that you probably ruined that one cake pop and should probably just eat it right then and there...which is totally a shame...right?)

Once you've done that and you're satisfied that your cake pops wont fall down like a pair of oversized board shorts in the surf, start to cover them. I wish I could tell you the easiest method, but alas - I am still stumbling through this step myself. Most of the time, melting the chocolate in a little container or bowl and then just dipping your balls in will work fine. (wow...still sorry) If you feel you need to double dip, feel free!  I recommend waiting till the chocolate has hardened completely though :-)

8. Decorate!!!

Here's the fun part! You can do whatever you like! Just use your imagination! Dip your cake pops in some sprinkles for a simple and totally cute decoration (for this one, don't wait till your chocolate has hardened!) You could use some food dye and paint them if you like! Food dye sometimes doesn't like chocolate covering though. It does that thing markers do on glass and goes all separatey. Try mixing a little bit of icing sugar with your food dye. That can help! I paint my cake pops with food crayons. You shave a bit off with a knife, add some alcohol to make a paste (I've taken to using vanilla essence because I don't make a habit of keeping vodka around the house. More fool me! :-P ) You can paint faces, letters, numbers, entire animal bodies, anything you like! Sometimes I also add some fondant shapes. Once I made an owl so I used fondant for the wings and the beak. Anything is possible

 

And that's CAKEPOPS!!!

Hello Kitty Pop (same decoration!)

Birdie Pop
(covered with white chocolate and painted with crayon)



Ewok Pop (same as the first two)





Dalek, 10th Doctor and TARDIS (covered with fondant)

 

 

This is not a cakepop. But it is fun. It's Batcake! (but mostly, look at the crayons behind it. That's what I used)

 

Voila! :-) Also Viola!

My Alice in Wonderland 21st

How can I have a craft blog without the craftiest mission of them all?

My 21st Birthday

Now, most of the craft missions were only inspired by me, and actually embarked upon by my brilliant crafty family. Here are some of the amazing things they did!

My Cake!

 This is my Wonderland birthday cake, made by my mum and me. There are three layers, chocolate, vanilla and gluten free chocolate. The icing is fondant (I'm pretty sure it's called fondant). We used food paint crayons to colour the icing. we made the card-suit stick things and the balls out of royal icing. The stripes and triangles are made from fondant. It was a biiiiiiit of a mission, but it turned out funny and loopy and glorious!

Suit candies made with royal icing - before painting

My Looking Glass!

Dad made this, because he is a hero! Note: This is what happens when you don't live in the city where your parents live/where your party will be. Your parents turn into Party Planning Superheroes!!!

This looking glass is made from wood, paint and silver material. Dad took the pattern from a neat mirror he saw at Ikea. He made it with a jigsaw and some severe skillz!

The FOOD!

Queen of Diamonds Cards made with crumbed camembert and cranberry sauce

caterpillars, made from olives, cheese, cocktail onions, cabana and gherkin, on a bendy piece of wire

Oysters, ala Walrus and the Carpenter. With salmon and creme fraiche

...I actually don't remember what these babies were. But they are starwberries with brie and chocolate eyes. NOM!

Mock Turtle Soup. Actually pea and ham soup with turtles shaped croutons. How did we find turtle shaped cookie cutters. My dad made them, of course! Oh, and did I mention they are gluten free?

The Decorations!

 

The ceiling decorations are my favourite! Giant lantern balls, hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs, the face of the Cheshire Cat, fairy lights, a clock that keeps terrible time (the more hands it has, the better time it keeps!) and a giant flamingo!

 

The tables were decorated with all manner of unusual things. The napkins were suit-coloured, there were cards everywhere, giant bottles, tiny bottles, clocks and teapots. 

 

The bar was stocked with lots of wine to drink from our mismatched tea cups and some mystery liquor in little bottles marked 'drink me'

 

Finally, that table that all 21sts must have, the 'Oh Goody, Look How Much I've Grown' display table :-) This one has my cake in the middle (look at it with all its majesty!) and some pictures I drew when I was a wee winky (one is even Alice in Wonderland!) The funny coloured cloth was painted for me by my babies in the childcare centre where I used to work, which was aptly named 'Wonderland.'

So that's my Xtreme 21st, brought to you by my amazing Superhero Party Planning Parents!

Here's what the party was like...

Alice, with Cienda - the Dormouse

  

Ben - the Mad Hatter

My beautiful family: Nette the Queen of Hearts, Ben the Hatter, Barry the White Knight and Josh the Bishop

Julianne the Red Queen, Nette the Queen of Hearts and Kaitlin the White Queen

The Three Mad Hatters: Ben, Cat and Tye

Jane the Talking Flower and Emily the Dutchess

Penny the Caterpillar. Her costume was a supreme craft effort on its own!

 It was an amazing night full of laughs, love and...minor explosions. I would have loved to have blogged this one in full, but alas, it was a year and a half ago and the tiny details have escaped me. However, never fear - this year I am planning Jeanette's 50th Midsummer Life's Dream Party...and it wiiiiiiill be blooooogggged, it wiiiiiiill be bloo-oo-oogggged :-)

Don't Blink!

Every year at university, the fundraising team hosts a Sleaze Ball, which is just as the name suggests; a sleazy night of dress-ups and drinks. This year the theme was 'Horror - Things That Make Me Scream'. So in true crafty/nerdy fashion I came as...

A Weeping Angel!

Making my Weeping Angel costume wasn't all that difficult. Here's how to do it!

1. Find a grey/silver dress
My grey/silver dress was a hand-me-down from my fashion savvy friend, Julianne. Now, this dress has a whole story of its own. It didn't start its life belonging to Jules. No-one really knows who owned it, actually. All we know is that Julianne was going crazy one year trying to find a dress for the races, and after finally giving up and deciding to wear something she already owned, this dress appeared outside her apartment in a dry-cleaning wrap. She left it there for a day or so, and when nobody claimed it, took pity on it and wore it to the races. When I moved to Ballarat, she passed the legacy on to me :) It seemed only fitting to bring it out for Sleazeball!

2. Sleaze up your grey/silver dress
This option is only applicable if your weeping angel costume is supposed to be sleazy. I do not recommend a sleaze-up for a regular costume party/convention. Unless you take your parties with Mean Girls rules applied. In which case, sleaze away! To sleaze up my costume I took a few steps. I didn't want to sleaze up too much (as it happens, I think I was the most-clothed person at the ball! Ooh la la!) so I settled with lowering the neckline a little and synching the dress in places to hoik up the hemline and give it a bit of a different shape. Made it scrunchy-like!

After sleazing up my dress, I realized I needed some appropriate underwear to go with it. I didn't however own a grey/silver bra and in true shoestring fashion, decided to alter what I already had. I got my bikini top and tacked some silver material and lace onto the top of it. Only that tiny bit at the top showed when my dancing skillz threw my dress around a little, so I was all set and no-one would be any the wiser! Sneaky...

3. Find some grey stockings
Do this as early as you can! It's actually a lot more difficult to find grey stockings than you might think! I bought two pairs - one for my arms and one for my legs. You can always get just the one, or even neither, and paint yourself instead. Being winter, and not wanting to spread my paint all over my friends with every touch, I used the stockings option. I cut a whole in the crotch of the arms-stockings, and five holes in each foot for my fingers. It didn't look as shmick as the paint would have, but I was warm (and showing even less skin! Ha ha!)

4. Make some wingalings
Again - pretty easy! I found some cardboard and cut it out into a nice wing shape. I made them smaller than the regular weeping angel. I figured dancing and body length wings didn't really go together all that nicely. I cut my wingalings and then went crazy with the grey paint. I outlined the edges and made some patterns. The back side of the wings is the same colour as the outline of the inside. And the wingy/feathery cut-away at the bottom goes up in the middle. I bought some maribou to go around the outside, but it didn't look very nice so I didn't attach it (and now I have grey fluffy stuff in my craft collection - win!) I made wee holes in the shoulders and tied some silver twine through them to put around my shoulders. Note: this was not super effective. I lost my wingalings some time during the evening.

5. Find some silver shoes
I didn't have any silver shoes to wear (nor them money to buy some), so I went crazy with a can of spray paint and painted some heels silver. (I was very tempted to buy a pair of silver sequiny kids hightops that I found in Target for $10, but I figured that hightops didn't quite go with the sleazy theme I was after. I was however impressed that I fit into a child's pair of shoes...)


6. Paint your face and do your hair!
Excellent fun, this! Luckily, my house mate had some silver face paint lying around (I know! What are the odds?) So the face was greyed up without any expense. It wasn't too tricky either, which was lovely. I bought some silver hair spray and curled my hair with my hot-rollers, using the colour-spray as hair spray. Super effective. I pinned it back into some kind of curly bun thing and voila - hair complete!


...and that's how I made my Weeping Angel costume...

Don't Blink!

 The evening was a great success, everyone had a whole heap of fun and those that understood were tres impressed with my costume. I was pretty impressed myself - a pretty good costume for a severe shoe-string budget!

Me, with threeof the four horsemen of the apocalypse (the third one is hiding...it's like Where's Wally for the End of Time) and Jack the Ripper. As you can see, the paint started to come off a little...that's ok...it was dark...

Old Mate Coke Label

My friend Emma recently got diagnosed with the old Glandular Fever chestnut, so to make her feel jut a wee bit better I made a bit of a tongue-in-cheek present.

See, Emma has this charming habit of referring to her bits and pieces as 'Old Mate'. So I thought, why not? Everyone wants to share a coke with Old Mate!

Hardly the most elegant craft creation in existence, but it made her giggle, which is all that's important!

<3 Emma <3

Rachel's Steam Punk Birdies

Not too long ago, my crafty friend Rachel turned 21. Not really knowing what to give to the girl who could turn a table cloth into a couture gown with more magic than Mary Poppins, I crafted her gift, knowing that even if it didn't turn out all that well, that she'd at least appreciate the effort.

Rachel's 21st was steampunk themed (which I might very well post about as well, if I can find some photos of the evening) so I decided to make some Steam Punk Birdies for her house.

Rachel's Steam Punk Birdies

HOW TO MAKE BIRDIES FOR YOUR PERFECT FRIEND
**now with helpful step-by-step photos :-) 

Things You'll Need

 

1. Material in all sorts of colours and patterns
2. Stuffing
3. Potpourri (optional)
4. Bits and bobs (buttons, ribbons, household items, etc)
5. Sewing machine
6. Glue gun
7. Scissors
8. Your think-outside-the-box hat

How It's Done  

1. Find everything in your craft room that's brown/green/vintage coloured. Set it all out and feel pleased with yourself that you own so much prettiness!

2. Cut some birdy shaped bits of material, two mirrored pieces for each bird you make. Make them fat or you will end up with emaciated birdies. Icky!

3. Cut some wingalings for your birdies, four pieces for each bird. Match them together with some birdy bodies. Get creative! Put spots with flowers, checks with stripes, shiny with furry (actually, I'm not sure about a furry bird, but if that's what floats your boat, GO FOR IT!)

4. Sew your birdy body together, wrong sides up. Leave a little gap on the birdy's shoulder, the same size as the flat edge of your wingalings. You will sew it up later.

5. Sew your wingaling pieces together, wrong sides up. (Don't sew all four together goosies, make sure you have two wingalings!) Leave a gap on the not-pointy end.

6. Stuff your birdy's body and wingalings so that you have a nice, pudgy friend! Or if you're feeling aromatically-inclined, you can add some smellies. Remember My Potpourri Adipose? Cross your crafty missions and cut up some potpourri to add to the stuffing!

Cutting up potpourri feels like cutting up other plant-life. Yeah, craft just got hard-core!

7. Pin your newly-fat wingalings to your newly fat bird. Pin so that the wings sit inside that gap you left in your birdy's shoulder. Don't forget to fold the shoulder bits under so that you don't have a raw edge. Sew the little guy up! (if you don't have thread the same colour, never fear! Neither did I! Crafty solution incoming!)

 

8. Gather all your vintagey bits and bobs. Look for things that can make eyes, monocles, ties, cravats, clocks etc. Use your imagination! I for one, took apart my broken DVD player! Find the bits you want to use and experiment with your glue gun! (or your supreme hand-sewing skillz)

See the flowery ribbon thing on Birdy's shoulder? Hides that little stitching line quite nicely! ;)

 9. Line up all your Birdies and applaud yourself on your creativity!

I only have photos of two of my birdies apparently, but that's ok. Black and White Birdy has feathers for wingalings instead of material, a button for an eye and a piece of ribbon and a zipper for a tie. Brown and Flowery Birdy has some kind of booble for an monocle eye glass and a little chain attached to the eye and his shoulder. Another of my birdies had a button pocket-watch, one had an earring for a monocle and screws for eyes. You can use anything at all!!!

So that's how to make birdies :-) I believe these little guys now live in Rachel's living room. Happy Birthday Rachel!

Potpourri Adipose

Have you ever dived into your undies draw only to be disappointed by the lack of old Granny smell?

...no?

Well, nevertheless, here's the cure! It's simple, it's squishy and it's super cute! It's..

A Potpourri Adipose!

(yes I know...it doesn't look exactly like an Adipose...but still...it's kinda cute...)

What I Used
1. Some white material
2. Two little black buttons
3. Black wool
4. Some ribbon
5. Potpourri (rose scented, of course!)
6. Scissors
7. Thread
8. Needle
9. Sewing machine
10. Stuffing

How YOU can make a wonky, smelly Adipose too
1. Cut two matching wonky rectangles out of your white material
2. Cut four arm pieces and four leg pieces (two for each arm and leg)
3. Hand sew the buttons to one white rectangle to make eyes
4. Hand sew the wool to the same piece of material to make a cute little mouth
5. Sew the little arms and little legs together, so that they have a back and front piece. Only sew the toes/fingers but, so that there's a nice arm/leg hole
6. Turn the little arms and legs inside out (well, the right side out) and stuff with the stuffing (don't stuff them too full, you need some seam room where the little arm holes are)
7. Take your two rectangles and put them together, wrong side up. Stick the little arms in between the rectangles, making sure the little arm seams are visible out the sides of the rectangles. Pin it all together (my Adipose is waving - that's because I fixed the angle of his arm while I pinned him. You can do this too!)
8. Sew the Adipose up, leaving his bottom free
9. Turn the Adipose right side out and stuff him with Potpourri! (If your undies aren't in need of a smelly fix, you can stuff him with more stuffing and make a wee plushie)
10. Fold the seam of your Adipose's bottom in and pin his little feet into the middle of the folded seams
11. Sew his bottom up (try and keep the seam as close to the edge as you can, otherwise it will look messy!)
12. Thread your ribbon through a needle (a big needle) and thread it through the top of the Adipose and tie it in a bow (your Adipose can now hang from a doorknob or Christmas Tree!)

and...

Hooray! A smelly Adipose friend!!!

Send your Adipose to friends in the mail! Surprise them at university with a wonky plushie friend! Get caught in a sewing machine power trip and make thousands of little fat babies!!!

Jane's TARDIS cushion

Want something fun and super duper easy to make? MAKE A CUSHION! (please assume the use of capslock represents me screaming and dancing with craft-gasm joy)

Cushions are nice and easy because they use a lot of squares, a bit of imagination and not a whole lot else! You can do whatever you want, really. :-)

Today's cushion...

(unsurprisingly enough...)

A TARDIS CUSHION

I made this cushion for my friend Jane for her birthday. Here's how I did it...

TARDIS CUSHION 101

What You Need

1. A square of material

2. A slightly bigger square of material

3. Two even bigger squares of material 

4. Two rectangles of blue material (differently sized. One for the body of the TARDIS and one for the top)

5. Two small rectangles of material, the same colour as the smallest square (for the windows of the TARDIS)

6. A button

7. Thread (matching your TARDIS blue, your smallest square and your middle-sized square)

8. A sharpie (or not)

9. Stuffing (the fluffy kind, not the turkey kind...)

How To Do It

1. Select four squares of material, one small, one medium, two large (it might be nice for the two large ones to be the same pattern...or not...whatever you like)

2. Prepare the two rectangles of blue material (one for the TARDIS body and one for the top bit)

3. Prepare two little pieces of material, the same colour as your smallest square, to use for windows. Draw the window lines with your sharpie (or stitch them with black thread)

4. Sew your TARDIS rectangles to your smallest square piece with

Note: Don't forget to fold the seams down first!

5. Sew your windows on (I sewed them only in the middle, so that they can move a little bit. Don't know I feel about that, in retrospect...)

6. Sew a centre seam down the middle of the TARDIS (for the door)

7. Sew a button to the TARDIS for a door handle (or something a little softer if you actually want to use your cushion for comfort)

8. Sew the smallest square on to the middle-sized square (in the middle...it makes a nice frame)
9. Sew the middle-sized square on to one of the large squares in the same fashion
10. Sew the two large squares together, wrong side up (Leave a little bit unstitched for stuffing)
11. Turn the material right side up and stuff the stuffing in
12. Sew that little unstitched bit up (try and make it as invisible as possible)

Voila!!! A TARDIS cushion! Ready to be stuffed in an envelope and sent across the pond to friends with love!