I Heart Bakerella's Cupcake Lollipops

It was a typical February afternoon in Seattle. Cold, windy and rainy. Blah. The day was progressing like any other and it was lunch time. I had just arrived back to my desk, waiting patiently for my piping hot (yet still frozen in the center) Cedarlane vegetable enchiladas to cool off. As I do just about every work day, I fired up the first of several of my favorite blogs while I started to dig into my lunch:NotMartha.org. The daily post consisted of a collection of a bunch of links to interesting stuff of or related to my favorite subject: food. Yay!

I scroll through the links: something about beef (gross), crust less quiche (promising)...and then I see it: "cake lollipops at Bakerella". Bakerella? Cake lollipops? I'm so there!

Oh. My. Goodness. These cake lollipops were the cutest things ever! That was until I clicked on the picture and was directed to Flickr. I immediately started looking at Bakerella's photostream and that's when I saw them....Cupcake Lollipops!!! Only the coolest most adorable thing EVER! I knew right then and there I had to make these -- so I did, two months later :-)

These were challenging (and fun...and messy!) to make but worth the effort. If you'd like to make them you can either go to Bakerella's blog where she *just* posted really wonderful step by step instructions (I would have loved these yesterday!) or to theMarthaStewart.com website(there's a step by step video there). Bakerella, was invited to be on the show to make these! How cool is she?

I have a few tips after making these:

1. I didn't use cheesecake frosting from a can but instead make it from scratch. I just don't care for canned icing. The recipe still worked out fine, although the "dough" (cake + frosting mixed together) was on the soft side. My recipe is really simple: 3 8oz blocks of cream cheese, at room temperature. 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature. 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix the cheese and butter together until really well blended, add the vanilla and mix again. Add powdered sugar and mix on low until the sugar is combined. Then mix on high for about 2 minutes. Done. (Makes about 2 1/2 cups)

2. Don't skimp on the Almond Bark for the bottoms of the little cakes or try to use candy melts or even real chocolate. What's Almond Bark? This is the stuff you usually find on the bottom shelf of the chocolate chip isle that comes in a solid block. It typically comes in two flavors: chocolate and vanilla. Don't worry, it doesn't taste like almond or contain almonds. What I loved about this product was that it stayed viscous for a long time which meant I didn't have to keep tempering it. I also loved the way it looked when it set. It was very smooth and even. Eventually I ran out and had to use candy melts instead and the texture was just different and it didn't look as pretty to me as the bark did. I think the almond bark also adds a nice chocolaty flavor. The candy melts don't really taste like anything so bark is a nice contrast.

3. The directions to use the 1 1/4-by-3/4-inch flower-shaped cookie cutter. I had a hard time finding this at first but eventually found it at Williams & Sonoma as part of a six piece pack for $10. I also found the exact same six piece pack, although packaged differently, at Michael's for $3. Yeah... I'm bringing back the set from Williams & Sonoma (rip off!).


4. While you're at Micheal's, pick yourself up a big hunk of WHITE Styrofoam. Avoid the green kind. Why? Well, the green kind is designed to work more with silk flowers and breaks apart as you touch it. Before you know it you have have this green, sand-like material all over the place, which will attach itself to the pops. Ick.

5. Give yourself lots of time. It took me many hours to make this from start to finish. Be patient and think through each step before you start.

6. Always use the lollipop stick when handling the cupcakes, especially when you're sticking them into the Styrofoam. I made the mistake of pushing on down onto the top of the cupcake to stick it into the Styrofoam and the stick went right through the top of the cupcake, breaking it.

I really enjoyed making these little guys. I already have some other ideas on what I can use the "dough" to make next. It's a great way to show your creativity. I think I got a little carried away but I loved the results.
Bakerella, thank you for this recipe. You're a genius!

Yield: I made two cakes, using two boxes of cake mix and made about 75 total cupcakes.
Would I Make This Again? Um, YES! Just a little aside: One of the gals at the party today asked me if I made food like this for a living after she ate one of these little guys. I laughed out loud and told her I was a business analyst by day. If there was ever a reason to rate a recipe 5 out of 5, that was it.
(I made this one for my hubby. Happy Anniversary honey!)

Mandy's Candies

Mandy has given more thought to her birthday treat than anyone else I know. She's considered a lot of options over several months. Some of possible selections were Baklava, Lemon-Coconut Macaroons, and a Lemon-Coconut Tart. But then the topic of graham crackers came up and how much she loves coconut and then hazelnuts and I got inspired by this recipe I found on Epicurious. She took one look at it and gave me the green light to make it.

I adapted it (as usual) as I found it to be extremely versatile. Here's how I made them:

24 plain graham crackers (or any kind of non-savory flavored cracker. Saltines are wonderful)
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
11.5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (I used Guittard)
1 cup hazelnuts, chopped
3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 25 x 17 x full sheet pan pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang at each end. (Note: the recipe on Epicurious said to use foil and I ended up peeling tiny pieces from the bottom of the candy. Baaad idea.)

In a separate, smaller pan (a brownie pan works great), spread the coconut out in an even, single layer. Bake, stirring after 5 minutes or so, until the coconut becomes an even golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside. Increase the oven's temperature to 375F.

Line bottom of pan with graham crackers (it will be a tight fit and you'll need to break a few in half. Set aside.

Melt butter in a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then add brown sugar and salt and cook, whisking, until mixture is smooth and combined well, about 2minutes. Pour over crackers, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until golden brown and bubbling, about 10 minutes.

Scatter chocolate chips evenly over crackers and bake in oven until chocolate is soft, about 1 minute. Remove pan from oven and gently spread chocolate evenly over crackers with offset spatula. Sprinkle nuts evenly over chocolate and cool crackers in pan on a rack 30 minutes.

Refrigerate overnight or freeze for 15 minutes.

Carefully lift crackers from pan by grasping both parchment paper, then peel it from the. Break crackers into serving pieces.

Note: Crackers keep, chilled and layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, 2 weeks...but they'll never actually last that long. One whiff of these babies and they disappear!


The smell of this sweet concoction alone makes it worth making. It seems so incredibly good!

Happy Half Birthday Eve Mandy! I hope this was everything you had hoped it would be

Yield: This will serve several. Depending on how you break up the candy, you could potentially get 50 servings out of it.
Would I Make This Again? Yes! This dessert, in my humble opinion is an All-Star! 5 out of 5 stars.

Bake Sale Caramel Chocolate Pretzels

I made these for a fund raiser to help raise money for the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk over the weekend. Homemade caramel with Belgium milk chocolate and white chocolate... Yummmm!

If you ever need a unique idea for a bake sale, these might be the perfect thing to make. I kept it simple and only created one variety. But if you wanted to get fancy, you could make some with crushed nuts (cashews are perfect), M&Ms, or even S'Mores with crushed graham crackers, chocolate, and mini marshmallows. I did something similar with caramel apples late last year and these were a lot faster and easier to make. The only caveat is that the caramel and chocolate got a bit soft in the heat. These might be better suited for a winter fund raiser.

Martha's Chocolate Truffles

When I asked Martha what she wanted for her birthday her answer was, "I’d love something small (bite-sized even) and very chocolate". The first thing that popped into my head was truffles. After all they were bite-sized and are to some the very definition of chocolaty. I did my usual research and found two recipes to try but couldn't' decide between the two so I made both.

The first one I found was just a basic Chocolate Truffle recipe. It was easy to prepare but BOY is it messy to shape and form. I think with more practice, it would be easier. They taste like the real deal! When I gave one to my husband, he squinted his eyes and said, "Wow is that chocolaty! Woo!" The second recipe I found was Easy Decadent Truffles. I was intrigued by it because of the high number of good reviews it received. Personally I think it tastes more like a rich chocolate cheesecake and less like a real truffle. However I can see how it appeals to so many people. It was much easier to shape and it wasn't nearly as messy as the traditional recipe. This recipe was a lot less intense on the chocolate scale, even though I used 71% dark chocolate. The cream cheese seems to cut the bitterness a bit.

I elected not to enrobe the truffles in a chocolate shell because I had ran out of good chocolate so I skipped that step and just dressed the little fellas in coconut, powdered sugar, dark chocolate cocoa, and almond dust. Here are the flavor combination I put together:

• Grand Marnier rolled in coconut
• Grand Marnier rolled in almond dust
• Mexican Vanilla (thanks Mandy!) rolled in powdered sugar
• Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake Truffle rolled in dark chocolate cocoa powder -( for these I used a high quality dark chocolate that had espresso beans premixed into bar.)