Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been called crazy before and I'm sure it's not the last time. So, I'm sitting at Abby's school helping with the Book Fair when I'm browsing through the cookbooks and Scholastic has Bakerella's Cookbook. The lady has the most amazing cake-pops, which I'm sure you've seen all over the blogging world, Pinterest & the Internet in general. 

Well, I'm browsing through this book & start thinking "Wow, these would be really cute to bring into the Valentine's party for Abby's class tomorrow". Yes folks, you heard me - tomorrow. So I wrap up helping with the book fair & tearing it down since it was the last day & counting the funds since I'm the treasurer. So...it's already after 8 when I leave the school & head out to the grocery store & craft store. 

 I already had Valentine napkins on hand, but I picked up a styrofoam block for my pop stand at the craft store. There, I also picked up candy melts & the extra long popsicle sticks. I made a grid pattern, used a tooth pick to poke holes, then used 1 popsicle stick to finish out the holes. I opened up a napkin and wrapped the foam block then re-poked the holes.

I mixed up a white cake mix and while the 9x13 cake was baking I helped Abby with her Valentine cards that she would give to her classmates & I even painted Catherine's fingernails. The cake was done, I let it rest on the cooling rack. Since I needed it to cool quickly I went ahead and cut it in 1/8 size pieces so the heat would escape faster.  Once it was cool I crumbled the larger pieces of cake into a large mixing bowl.  Abby helped crumble the cake up even smaller. 

Then I took 2/3rds of a tub of frosting and mixed it into the cake crumbs.  Yes, I clipped the box-tops (Bonus this round with 2 of them on this tub) it's amazing how fast the school can earn money by clipping these little box-tops and turning them in!

I used my large Pampered Chef Cookie Scoop to make uniform sized balls that I dropped onto wax paper. Then I rolled them into tight little cake balls. I placed them on wax covered lids (I suppose if I had cookie sheets I would have done that...but I only use pampered chef stones...and I didn't want to lug those heavy things into my freezer drawer - since I didn't have much room in there.) and popped them in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

While they were firming up I prepared my space. I counted out the right amount of popsicle sticks, had my foam board ready to go. I melted my candy melts according to the package directions. I used my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. It worked perfectly (at the time I didn't realize I would need a second bag of candy melts...but I bought an additional bag the next day & quickly finished the last 6 I needed for the party).

I pulled my cake balls out of the freezer, I dipped the popsicle stick in the melted candy & plunged it 1/2 way into the cake ball - I repeated this for all of them. Then I started dipping the cakeballs into the melted candy. Being careful not to roll them - just dipped them straight down and pulled them straight back up. I rolled them & did the "careful bounce" to remove the excess candy off of the ball. I placed the balls into the form and let them dry.

 They were completely adorable and I was so proud of myself for making them. I will certainly be making more and even working with more elaborate designs. :)

Here they are at the party:

The kids enjoyed them, and were tickeled pink that they could eat them! :)


We've been busy with other pink related items. Abby has been practicing a dance routine with a friend for the annual talent show. She's dancing to "I'm a Barbie Girl" by Aqua. I ordered bar-stools (I'm so thankful to John & Sherri over at Young House Love for telling us about the stools they found & how so many comments were made about how great they hold up. Purchased here) for the basement and the boxes were perfect to create Barbie Boxes for Abby and her friend.

 I picked up wrapping paper and the dollar store and printed a few Barbie images from the internet. One down and one to go! From the front panels that I cut out I even created a vanity or dresser for the girls. This one has the flowers on the inside and the stripes on the outside. I may reverse it for the next one and put the stripes on the inside. So far I'm loving how it's turning out. Her talent show is this Friday, so it won't be long before I post the video for you!

First image is showing the front and right side of the box - the second image shows more of the left side and still the inside.

The girls will stand in their boxes for the first few lines of the song then jump out as if they just came alive. Then towards the end of the song they'll pop back into their boxes....think Toy Story. I will show pictures of them on stage this weekend - the Talent Show is this Friday! :) The girls are all ready talking about how they want to make sure these come home so they can play with them. Catherine says she's turning hers into a race car! :) LOL

UPDATE: You can view Abby's Talent Show here.