House Cake Pops

Talk about a housewarming gift!

Original recipes for the win! :3

And yes, I did bring these to my friend's new home.  She moved away :( but I still keep in touch with her.

Anyhoo, if you knew me, you'd know that I jump at every chance to make cake pops.  Every chance - whether it be Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, or for my own parties.

And here are the results of another chance: house cake pops.

Okay, yeah, they do look like birdhouses.  They look a lot like birdhouses - because they're on sticks.  I hadn't thought of that before I'd already dipped all of the pops.  But, whatever.  If you try making these, you could just make them house cake balls and stick them in green/floral/whatever mini cupcake wrappers.

I am quite proud of these, actually.  I do declare my cake pop making and decorating skills are improving.  I probably messed up only one of these.  And then promptly ate it.

In case you're new to the cake pop making world, then I'll post the actual yellow cake and vanilla frosting recipes I use.  They are my go-to recipes, and work wonderfully - figures, they're from Bakerella!

True, they're both included in my cupcakes post, but now, in future cake pop posts, I can just link back here! ^_^

Now, without further ado, I will present you with the original recipe - and then go into a fairly detailed breakdown:

House Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

REQUIRES ROOM TEMPERATURE EGGS AND MILK

REQUIRES COOLING TIME (1-2 hours/overnight)

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (3-4 hours/overnight)

Makes 40 cake pops

Cake:

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Add vanilla and combine.
4. Alternatively add flour mixture and milk, in this order: 1/3 flour mixture, 1/2 milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread into prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool completely - this often takes overnight.

Frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

1. In a large bowl, beat together softened butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.
3. Add milk if necessary to make the frosting more creamy.

Assembly:

10 full graham cracker sheets

1 Hershey's milk chocolate bar

1-2 bags Target white chips

40 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block with holes for pops

1. If there are any brown edges to your cake, cut them off.  Then crumble the remaining yellow cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly even.
2. Form into 40 cake cubes, method demonstrated here.  Use remaining mixture to create 40 triangular prisms, pictured below.  Place triangular prisms on cubes, pressing slightly.  Place house cubes on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight or until firm.
3. Break graham cracker sheets into four sections, and break each section in half.
4. Take 10 sections of a Hershey bar and cut into four pieces.
5. Place a metal bowl over a saucepan of water and heat; make sure the water doesn't touch the other side of the bowl.  Drop in a few white chips - when they have melted you are ready to begin.
6. Pour a small amount of oil in the bottom of the bowl and pour in some white chips.  Let melt and stir smooth.  TURN OFF THE HEAT.
7. Dip lollipop sticks into melted white chips and then into the bottoms of the house cubes.  Refrigerate while you dip the rest of the sticks.
8. Dip pops completely in melted white chocolate, brushing off excess with a toothpick.  Immediately stand in styrofoam block and add 2 graham cracker pieces to the roof and 1 Hershey's piece as a door.  Make finished cake pops one at a time - white chocolate will set up quickly.
9. Continue dipping and decorating.  If more white chocolate is needed, turn on heat, add more oil, and add more chips.  Turn off heat once it has melted and continue to dip.
10. Let pops harden completely before taking them anywhere or serving them.  They may be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 3 days, and frozen, tightly covered, for about 2 weeks.

Breaking it down:

So your house cubes will look like this.  You need the little prism-thingies so that the graham cracker roofs can go on easily.  They're pretty easy to form, but it did take me a few tries to get it right.  Just try to make them look like this:

And here are your graham cracker roofs.  IMPORTANT TIP: With your fingernail, try indenting where you want to break the graham cracker fourths in half.  They'll break much easier and you won't have to scrap (or eat xD) as many graham crackers that way.  You want 80 of these by the time you're done.

Now, on to the Hershey's bar.  Just cut the sections with a table knife.

In half...

And then in fourths - long ways.  So NOT like [][][][].  Those doors are too skinny then!  In half vertical, and then in half horizontal.

And make 40 of those.

Then dip your pops.  If you need help dipping, see my dice cake pops post.

Don't they look adorable when they're done!?

And if you want to make a display - I used styrofoam, green tissue paper, and black duct tape.  The other decorations are foam shapes glued on or toothpicked.

Have fun making these!

-JJ

An Attempt at S'More Cupcakes

Let me explain why this is an attempt.

These cupcakes epic failed.  And I know that's practically an archaic term now, but it's so unbelievably true.  They epic failed.

And I know exactly what I did wrong.

I'm sure these would have turned out absolutely delicious, except that I sort of managed to mess them all up.

The result: cupcakes that weren't baked through at ALL on the bottom half and collapsed in the middle.  In other words: nasty.

And then I realized one thing that had gone wrong - the pan I'd put beneath the cupcake pan to catch drips had been literally underneath the cupcake pan.  As in, the pans were stacked.

Well, no wonder the bottom half wasn't baked.

And as for the collapsing, I have no idea.  I'm sure a thoroughly-baked lower half would have helped with the collapsing issue, and the collapsing isn't really a big deal.  Just cover it up with an extra marshmallow and ganache, like so in the picture above.

This recipe was from Bakerella, and you will find it here.  Where she did it right.

But I'll break it down for you anyway:

Make your graham cracker cupcake batter...

And your chocolate cupcake batter...

And then your graham cracker topping.  Try not to eat this right away.  It's gonna be hard, but you can make it.

Pour in some graham cracker batter and top with the topping..,

And marshmallow halves.

Top with the chocolate cupcake batter...

And more gorgeous graham cracker topping.

Bake as directed.  Hopefully yours won't spread out over the top of the pan as much as mine did.  Try actually filling the cupcake cups 3/4 of the way full.  And the drip pan does not go directly beneath the cupcakes!  No, no, no, no, no!  Also, me being a person suffering from the common sweet tooth, I found the ganache to be too bitter.  Add some sugar to the ganache and taste it if that's the case with you, too.

Well, on to the next recipe!
-JJ

S'Mores Bars

First, an announcement: I'm going to New Mexico for a week and a half!!  Woot!!  And I'll be sure to bring back plenty of pictures this time.  I promise - this time I actually will charge my camera!

So, I won't be posting for a little bit.  Sadface. :(

But I do have one last recipe for you before I leave: S'mores Bars!

Now, there is a story behind these bars.

For countless summers, our neighborhood has hosted a block party sometime between the 4th of July and Labor Day.  There would be games and pet parades and a potluck and glowsticks and all that good stuff.

And each year, the family who hosted it would bring these bars.

I couldn't eat enough of them.  They were heavenly.  They were one of my favorite parts of the entire summer.  And that's saying a lot.

And I had no idea how to make them.

Until I started reading the Hannah Swensen mysteries.

It was the same recipe, except called Rocky Road Bar Cookies and it had added cashews.  So I modified it to be the same as the block party bars.  You can find the original recipe in Carrot Cake Murder.

You have got to make these.  They are pretty easy and really delicious.  They may look a little weird if you've never had them before, but veteran chocoholics like me know scrumptious when we see it.  And these are scrumptious.  Trust me.

S'Mores Bars

12 graham cracker sheets (approximately)

2 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease or Pam a 9x13 baking pan.
2. Lay out graham crackers in pan.  You will have to break some in half or in quarters, and they may overlap.
3. Sprinkle marshmallows evenly over graham crackers.
4. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over marshmallows.
5. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat, stirring constantly.  Stir in brown sugar, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
6. Drizzle evenly over pan.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes or until marshmallows are golden.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.
8. Once cool, cut into bars and serve.  Store covered chilled or at room temperature.  Makes 24-36 bars.

Breaking it down:

Lay out your graham crackers like so...

Sprinkle evenly with marshmallows...

Sprinkle on those chocolate chips. :D

Melt your butter...

with brown sugar...

Remove from heat and add vanilla...

Pour over your pan...

And bake about 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool, and serve.  They are delicious.

And now, my fork rant.  At the block parties, I had no choice but to eat these with my fingers - which is fun and all, but it gets your fingers very sticky.  Thus, the fork.

I love forks.

I will seriously eat anything that I bake with a fork.  Brownies, bars, cake, pie, muffins, cupcakes.  Forks rule the world!

Cookies and donuts are like my only exceptions.  So that's why there's a picture of a fork in nearly every post.  Maybe I should design my own fork.  The Lemonade Fork.  Yeah, that could work.

Enjoy these!
-JJ

S'More Pops

So.  I got this idea from Love from the Oven, except that of course I had to go and change it up a little.  I love all her ideas for these pops, so I decided to combine a bunch of them.

This is perfect for summer (which it is right now :D) and giving away to friends, teachers, etc.  They're sorta messy to eat though - graham cracker crumbs everywhere! :P

This recipe is just for 12 pops.  Feel free to double, triple, whatever the recipe.  Make as many as you'd like!

S'More Pops

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME

16 full sheets graham crackers

12 marshmallows

1 bag chocolate chips

pizza cutter

12 lollipop sticks

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Break 12 graham cracker sheets in half and lay 12 halves out on a wax-lined baking sheet.  Save remaining 4 full sheets for later.
3. Cut each marshmallow in half with the pizza cutter and place 2 on top of each graham cracker-half.
4. Bake 2-3 minutes.  Immediately squish remaining 12 halves on top of melted marshmallows and stick lollipop sticks into the side of each s'more.
5. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.
6. Crush remaining 4 graham cracker sheets, not too finely.
7. Melt chocolate chips in saucepan or double boiler.
8. Tear off excess marshmallow from pops.
9. Dip each pop into melted chocolate and then dip into crushed graham crackers.  Lay on wax paper.  Repeat with each pop.
10. Chill 1 hour.  Makes 12 pops.

Breaking it down:

Place half-marshmallows on half-graham cracker sheets...

Bake 2-3 minutes at 425 degrees F. and stick halves on top and lollipops in the side.  Trim off the excess marshmallow.

Crush graham crackers...

And place in a small bowl for easier dipping.

I dipped each marshmallow only halfway in, so that you can see the graham cracker beneath the chocolate.  It's more artsy that way, and less dense, if you're interested in that kind of thing.  Hard-core chocoholics, ignore what I just said.

Take a bite (over a napkin so you don't spill too much!) and enjoy the yum of a chilled reverse s'more!

Happy summer!
-JJ

Don't Arrest Me!

The name of this candy-cookie recipe is a little startling at first.  It's called Chocolate Crack, from Joanne Fluke's Apple Turnover Murder.  (Check out her website here.)  This is NOT a drug!  It's called "crack" because you have to crack the sheet of candy-cookies to make smaller, easier-to-eat pieces. But... you may become addicted to this if you're a toffee-lover! :D

Chocolate Crack
REQUIRES CHILLING TIME

1 box graham crackers
2 sticks SALTED butter, cubed
1 cup brown sugar
12-oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
2. Line 10x15-inch jellyroll pan with heavy-duty foil.  Spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Line pan completely with single layer of graham crackers.  Be sure to cover the whole bottom.
4. Melt butter in saucepan.  Add brown sugar and combine.  Bring to full boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Then pour hot toffee mixture over graham crackers, covering the layer as evenly as you can.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over toffee.  Wait two minute and then spread chocolate chips out with a heat-resistant spatula, wooden spoon, or frosting knife.  (Spatulas work best!)
7. Chill in refrigerator until fully hardened.
8. Peel foil from cookies and break (or "crack") into random-sized pieces.

Now, before we break it down, here's a warning: I made two batches of these.  So no, this isn't what yours should look like unless you plan on making two batches.  Here we go:

Line foil-lined pan with graham crackers...

(copy the layout of the graham crackers above - it worked!)  Note: if you're making a double batch, you'll end up using the whole box instead of half a box.  Combine brown sugar and butter in saucepan...

Boil for 5 minutes.  Pour over graham cracker layer... (sorry, you'll have to twist sideways)

Bake for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips...

Wait two minutes and spread...

Chill.  Crack into random-sized pieces... and you're done! :)

Don't get too addicted! XD