Bicycle pops: challenge... accepted!

I've neglected writing about my pops for a bit.

Time to make amends.
The cycling type.

The type that involves supreme hard work, extreme endurance, will of steel.

Presenting... the bicycle pops!

I did these a while back - a request to commemorate a very special book launch.

The author is a brilliant mind with strong insights, and has just completed his book tour, bringing Floating on a Malayan Breeze to the US.

> For more on author Sudhir Vadaketh: sudhirtv.com

If you do a quick search for bicycle cake pops, you'd find there aren't too many options that come up.
> Another sportsy cake pop outing: Hole in One

To the obvious 'why' question: Bicycles aren't meant to balance on a stick.

Humans riding and staying atop bikes - that in itself is a skill.
Balancing 2 wheels and a frame on a lolly stick - near madness.

Highly risky business.

Simple physics.

Still, I enjoy a challenge every now and then.

If Sudhir could cycle round every state in Peninsular Malaysia with nothing more than a bike, daily allowance of US$3 and two changes of clothes, I could darn well create these bicycle pops and make them stay up on sticks.

Yes, I do know these are 2 vastly different challenges.
But hey, whatever does the job of motivating, right?

Wheels made of cake pops, bike frame
painstakingly fashioned by hand. Nearly went
blind assembling the tiny parts. Many were broken
along the way, snapped in pieces - much patience
needed... just like writing the book.

Told you there were similarities ;)

Hand-painted flags (yes, edible too) of Singapore and
Malaysia, ethos behind  the book.

Making it personal: a personalized note
upon a trusty 2-wheeler

Sudhir is starting research on his next book, so catch up quick and get a copy of Floating on a Malayan Breeze on Amazon.

More cake pops you might like:
> A very lovely elephant day
> Hello, 2013!
> Rabbit pops
> Pony pops

A very lovely Elephant day...

So I had a surgeon tinkering about my knee a couple of days ago, fixing my torn ligament. 

I'm now hobbling around like a grandma, and it takes me forever just to arrive at the bathroom. 

"Hmmm..." said the surgeon when I asked if I could go back to baking by this week. Which in doctor-speak, is NO. 

Guess that makes this just the time to sit my hiney down and get back to blogging :)

I had the perfect entry to cheer things up - baby Teja's one year birthday bash, just before I checked in for my day with the surgeon.

Love doing dessert tables!

This was an extra special bash.
Teja's mommy is a dear friend, and I had the chance to collaborate with summer77 - another special friend who's also a baker.

Mommy's brief was simple - greens, purples, elephants - Teja's faves.

      > here's another mommy's birthday bash -  her love was dogs!

We started out with an elephant-themed invite, and the rest of the setup quickly fell into place...

A little corner to share a little love for the birthday princess

Beautiful chocolate elephant cake, baked by summer77. Took all my
resolve not to reach out and lick some of that purple frosting right off!

Sprinkles and splashes of green & purple
add magic to the strawberry cake pops

Edible landscape of berry financiers & mini
mushroom pies, where do we start?

Finally had a chance to do layered sweet treats
I'd been dying to try out. Next to do them in jars, super cute!

Just for the snackers - pretty jars of crunchies and munchies

Everyone got to bring home a triple chocolate brownie, sweet!

Looking for more birthday inspirations?
> Dinosaur roarrrr!
> 10 years young
> Tanjoubu Omedetou, a Rilakkuma birthday
> Hole in one, anybody?
> 3 cherries in a row, jackpot!

Sleigh bells are ringin, your Christmas desserts a-callin'!

Hi Petite Popp-ers & friends,

We're almost on to Christmas, it's just barely 3 weeks away - where did all that time go?!

Christmas carols are playing everywhere, the lights are up, and it may be rainy these days - but you could almost turn that into a nice chilly Christmas season.

Everyone is already feeling the festive-in-our-bones, and we do wanna help get your Christmas shopping on the way. We have something new, something homey, something decadent, something classic... something for every sorta taste. Almost anyways ;)

Have a look at the Petite Pops Christmas Bake List above, share it with friends and family who are looking for a little something special for Christmas this year.

Email your orders to PetitePopRocks@gmail.com as early as you can, the more time to work on your orders, the better!

And don't forget - sign up for our newsletter at petitepops.blogspot.com for updates.

xoxo,

Petite Pops

Baked with love

This tin was my inspiration over the weekend.

I'd picked it up a couple of months back (how do you say no to "Baked With Love"??), but hadn't had a chance to use it. The fine-engine-red top signaled to me from the avalanche of baskets and supplies I'd been steadily accumulating (I can't help it, things call out to me...), and I thought it was time.

Looking for more red?
> Gotta be Elmo!
> Poppin' red cherries, even the jackpot ones

A girlfriend had reached a milestone in her life, the perfect time to bake her a little something to celebrate.

Related reading: happy things in life
> Happy Dayz
> My OLPT: Official Little Pops Tester
> What in the world are Cake Pops?
> How to share a good pineapple tart

I decided on some lemon & poppy seed cookies, a recipe I'd been mentally pinning on my 'to try' list for a while.

Cookies can be a little quirky, like kids. Or dogs. Or just human beings in general.

They kinda surprise you when you first try them out,  keep you guessing till the time you bite in. And then - you discover: this is a crunchy cookie recipe just what I expected, or darn that one's too soft, a nightmare to decorate.

That's the fun with cookies.
Ok I have to qualify that... it's only fun when you're not up against a delivery deadline!

Back to my lemon poppy seed dough... I wanted the cookies rustic, and I had a hunch these were going to be light and crumbly, just what I was looking for...

Not the prettiest photo but I wanted to show you the
chilled dough log before they got dissected into 4cm circle patties

Fresh from the oven, yes they did indeed turn out light and crumbly!

Food twine does wonders in prettying bakies,
just handle with care cuz those cookies are fragile! 

These made someone smile today, now it's your turn
- pass the smile on, spread the happy (not a typo, I do mean 'happy'!)

There's never too much red around... with Elmo

There's a little pressure when you're doing characters that are as well-loved as... say Elmo.

Which is exactly I found myself doing.

You wanna make sure you do justice to such characters, because their fans - 8 or 80 years old - WILL let you know when you're doing a crappy job.

Gotta tread carefully....

For 2 year-old Zander's birthday party, the request was for Elmo cake pops to share with his little friends.

Yay, this was going to be such fun!
More on birthday pops: Hole-in-One, Monkeys, Ponies, Doggies

First, and most importantly - his eyes. The trademark Elmo eyes are white and round, they had to be just the right size in proportion to the rest of his head. That's probably one of the trickest parts of making any cake pops - getting the sizes of all the parts right. or they'll just look like looney bins.

L: Orange/red little candy bullets for nose, you can substitute them with orange tic tacs
R: Perfect mini white Jawbreakers for eyes from Candilicious

This was just the occasion to break open my new jet black fondant pack, to create his mouth. I preferred not making these too much in advance, didn't want them too stiff and dried out so they would fit better into his fur.

Cut with 1.5cm round circle cutter, and cut them further
into 2 halves - there, you now had 2 Elmo mouths.

Special effects out of the way - on to Elmo himself.

After dipping each strawberry cake ball into red Wilton candy melt (apparently available only at Bake-It Yourself), create his trademark fur-running-amok with a toothpick, raking and lifting through the coating immediately after.

By the 10th Elmo, you begin to get a slight cramp from gripping the toothpick in continuous raking motions.

And by the 20th - you're asking yourself "what on earth am I doing??"

When you reach that point, this is what you have to do: Put toothpick down, unlock fingers, look at army of Elmos you've created.

High on hats!

It'll be worth it. You'd smile. Guaranteed.

The process was tedious, but it made the design forgiving at the same time - the ruffled fur helped conceal coating imperfections.

To add a special touch (this was an order from a very good friend!), I created a special 'Zander' name plate for the birthday boy, made out of fondant. It was a little laborious, but just like all the other little cake pop effects - added a zing to the Elmo army, and was all worth it.

Petite Pops goes to the zoo ... Canines go upscale!

So dogs don't exactly belong in a zoo, but you get the idea...

After chicken rice, 4D, bubble tea and soccer - dogs are probably next on the list of Singaporeans' favourite things.

This was done for a birthday celebration - 59 glorious years of life and living!

The birthday mommy loved dogs, and we decided we just had to make her some doggie pops.

I'm not sure what breed my doggie pops fall under (did I just create a new breed??) ... so let's call them Floppy Ears.

Floppy ears!
Shaped with teardrop cutters.

Read about Petite Pops' other zoo escapades ... Ponies and Monkeys.

Since they were going to be a delicious chocolately brown base, I made Floppy Ears out of a spongy chocolate cake. The tan coating went perfectly with the cocoa-coloured cake inside, never too much chocolate!

Check out other chocolate pops at the golf course)

On went the tiny chocolate button noses. And then the marshmellow collars, the floopy ears. After I piped their little eyes and doggie noses, they were complete.

Almost.

I decided to accessorize.

Gave one a little multi-layered hat, another couple had 2 green pigtail hair-ties.

Green's quite a good look for Floppy Ears?

A few more had their purple starburst hats tilted at an angle.

Not quite Kate Middleton :)

Special surprise touch...  chocolate chip  birthday cupcakes!

Done.

One day, I'll attempt to make pops that look like my dogs.

Let's Get This Going!

 

Happy 1 month, Megan!

My posts will serve as a form of photo gallery, to give you ideas and let you imagine when cake pops can pop up in your life.

This was one of my first proper cake pop creations, for a baby shower last year.

Baby Megan will probably never ever know she had baby pops at her shower, but her mommy and daddy were quite delighted!

Naturally the ladies did most of the oohing and ahhing (both over Baby Megan and the cake pops) at the party, but the pops were snagged and gobbled by everyone.

There were none left by the time some of the later guests arrived.

Sparkley purple disco pops

 



These didn't make it to the final pot... got devoured enroute!



 





Welcome to Petite Pops!

Magic in the kitchen... this is how cake pops start!

Finally made some time to get the blog going, it's long overdue!

Welcome to Petite Pops...

I wanted to start this little venture of happiness with cake pops, and the brand new year was the perfect time.

Life is just too short not to have some fun and laugh while you can... seize the time when you're able, willing, and ready.

I'd been dithering quite a bit on starting Petite Pops... thinking, wondering, imagining.

And now's my time.

Petite Pops is where I make cake pops, with the aim of making your day dance a little.

What exactly are cake pops then?

The Petite Pops definition says: little oodles of fun that put a smile on your face!
Ok ok... that may not be a satisfactory answer to some.

Let's give it another try.

Cake Pops: little bites of cake on a stick, dressed up in the cutest designs, any way you can imagine. Kinda like a cakey-lollipop. But you bite it, not lick it.

Right... what's the deal with cake pops?
Try looking at a well done cake pop and not smiling... wasn't easy, was it?

I've tested them on nieces, nephews, friends' kids - and yes, even adults - girlfriends, boyfriends, sister, cousins, co-workers, neighbours, anyone I can get hold of. They've all given the 'aye' and loved the pops.

They make great gifts, and moms love giving them out to kids at parties cuz there's none of that hassle of cake cutting and plating, cream and mess galore.

Pick up a pop, hand it to desired friend or kid. Watch their intrigue as they turn it, poke it, bite it, lick it. Done deal, no cleaning up to do. It's great fun.

I love cake pops, and hope you will too.