Thursday, March 15, 2012

Part B of Why I Don't Have a Cooking Blog: I am NOT Bakerella

Today I'm continuing the saga about why this blog will  never be one of those fabulous cooking blogs that I stalk read regularly.

If you read Part A of this series, you will recall that creativity in the kitchen was last weekend's theme. In addition to the Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, on the menu was making some fabulous "OH WOW" treat to end the season of city league basketball for the Youngest Kiddo and his teammates.  Since cupcakes were "soooo last year" (insert rolling eyes here______), I asked the Kiddo if he voted for Awesome Basketball Sugar Cookies or Bakerella's Basketball Cupcake Bites? 

Cupcake Bites won hands down. 

Once again, reality decided to smack me on the forehead and shouted in my face (quite loudly, I might add) that I am not Bakerella.

Everything started out fine.  I made a gluten free cake mix.  Found out that there is a reason the largest pan size was a 9x9.  Betty Crocker's Gluten free doesn't appear to rise as much as Betty's other cake mixes.  But, that didn't really matter.  You just crumble the cake anyways.  So, cake crumbled, frosting added and cake balls formed. 

Here would be my first clue that maybe I should PRACTICE this "fancy" treat thing more often.  It would appear that while I thought I was forming cake BALLS, what I really was forming was cake semi circular shapes. 

Second clue:  Obviously Bakerella, aka Angie, has made hundreds, possibly even thousands of cake pops and cupcake bites.  She even wrote the Cake Pop cookbook that I was following along with for the directions.  If Angie thought it worked best to pour the melted candy coating into a squeeze bottle in order to fill up the candy mold, why, why, oh why, would I think I'm so much smarter and try to save washing another dish and pour directly from my spouted measuring cup that I melted the candy in?!!  BIG HINT:  follow the directions.  Trust me.  The squeeze bottle allows you to control the flow of the candy and the amount being poured into the molds.  A spouted measuring cup is not so easy to control in that manner.  I will give myself a very small pat on the back for the fact that I realized my mistake fairly quickly and poured the rest of the melted candy into a squeeze bottle.  A leaky squeeze bottle, but a squeeze bottle!

And when you discover you have melted WAAAYYY too much candy coating, you can always practice writing your alphabet.

Like the glob "I"?!!  That's what happens when you squeeze the bottle too hard!!

The results of my semi circular cake balls and wonky pouring of the candy into the molds produced some funky looking basketballs.  And my dipping skills need a bit of practice.  A LOT of practice.  Some basketballs got a double and triple dip in my attempts to cover up gaps between the oblong cake balls and the nesting candy coating.

Wisely, I decided to use an edible paint marker to make the lines on the basketballs versus more candy coating.  Of course, trying to draw neat lines over bumpy candy coating can be a bit of a challenge.  And I really need to figure out what center is.  Out of the 50 cake bite I made, I'd say that maybe FIVE looked like Bakerella's/Angie's.  Five.  That is probably being generous to myself. 

But the kids gobbled them up.  The moms thought that the treats were "just too cute!!" . Dads were popping them whole into their mouths. 

 I think that  after eating a couple of these sweet treats, you'll give yourself enough of a sugar high that you won't care what they look like anymore!!


Onward to the next creative adventure!! 

6 comments:

Sylvia said...

Starla, I think you are selling yourself short. These bites look fabulous! Either that or you had to much sugar when you looked at them! Kudo's to you, actually I still think you should look into humorous writing! Glad the basketball season ended with these treats. Have a wonderful day in Bakerella land!

Glenda said...

How cute are these! I think you did a great job on them. Very creative and I'm sure totally enjoyed! ( You just might be a bakerella after all)

Anonymous said...

Where is the spaulding ?

Melody (lacyquilter) said...

I salute you, girl. You are a whole lot more daring with food treats than I ever was (or will be). Too cute.

Micki said...

lol, yeah I got that book on the Cakepops and regardless if following directions or not, it NEVER - EVER turns out like it should and the dipping the pops into melted chocolate.....R-I-G-H-T!!!!
Now you're cake pops looks awesome. Looks like you had no issues with the melted chocolate. And love the alphabet.....love you..... always giggle and feel better after reading your posts!

kaiandkristi said...

Seriously?!?!?! NOT FAIR!!!! I really think that you should be limited to card creativity, but no, you have so much creativity in ALL areas, that the rest of us just have to sit back and just admire all of the awesome stuff you do! Seriously though, AWESOME job!!!!