Tanjoubi Omedetou, a Rilakkuma birthday

I have my friend Z to thank, for introducing me to the world of Rilakkuma.


She’s mad about all things Jap + cute, and Rilakkuma ranks high up there in her top 10. Naturally, my first exposure to the little bear was through Z, she just about went nuts when we went to Japan – Rila heaven.

When the request came for Rilakkuma cake pops for a little 6-year-old's birthday, I knew exactly what she wanted, and I already had visions of how they would look.

Thank God for Z and her fanatical loves.

Rilakkuma (left) means' bear in relaxed mood',
perfect for this cheeky lil lazy bear!

> More on other well-loved characters: There's never too much red around with Elmo, Curious George (or rather his look-alike!)

As always, work started with the add-ons to the pops beforehand, what I call ‘fun & frills’ – the most fun parts about pops, but also the most painstaking.

Hmmm, colours...

Rilakkuma is a malty brown, so I started mixing up tawny fondant for his ears, and added tiny yellow insides, each ear barely half a cm small.

Make your 'fun & frill' parts beforehand so they
get to dry enough to stand on their own on the pops 

No bear should ever have to be alone, so I brought his pal Korilakkuma along.


This cheeky fellow - his name means 'small Rilakkuma' - is a creamy pale yellow, and I gave him tiny pink insides for ears.


I drew on teeny mouths with an edible black marker (I find these markers work well only with fondant, they're pretty much hopeless on any other material!). 

All set, let the dipping begin.

The 'fun & frill' parts are holding up well, yay!

Wait, something’s missing…. 
It’s a birthday, so we had to have some party hats! I shaped cone hats out of fondant, added confetti dots, and set the hats on a few lucky bears. 

Ready to party

Wait wait... something's still missing.
It aian't no party without Kiiroitori! For the uninitiated, this yellow duck-bird completes the Rila trio, and I just had to throw in a special Kiiroitori surprise for the birthday girl.

My fave - Kiiroirtori

Tanjoubi omedetou or 'happy birthday to you', my little Rilakkuma fan.

Petite Pops goes to the zoo... Curious George!

Curious George might have just slightly smaller ears, but I think he'd hit it off quite well with our mischevious monkeys :)

The inspiration behind these pops was the birthday girl's resemblance to the furry mammal. In a good way. Eyes the size of saucers, ears that stood out a little, round skittle-like head.

Very endearing.

Chocolately round nekkid monkey heads!

The trickiest part to the monkeys was their yellow mouth. 

Candy melt discs were perfect cuz they had a little upturn in the center that resembled the monkeys' upturned mouth. I cut them down with circular molds, and had to work quickly so the heat from my hands didn't start melting them. 

Mmmm, too big, too thick. Monkey looked like a bee stung his lips, or he'd been sucking on an empty Vitagen bottle for too long. 

Sliced them down vertically by half - bingo.

Making pops is a lot of trial and error. You have to spend time experimenting, looking for parts that would work as you wanted them to, adjusting positions of each fixture to sit just the way you like it.

On went the beige eyes and ears, finished with royal icing piped to fill in eyeballs, a nose and a smile.

Oooh... I see the light

If you're Monkey cake pops, just remember that the ears sticking out make them more suitable to go into an arrangement of pops rather than individual treat bags - you don't want a trail of ears falling off.

Have fun!

There goes the eye, right after the ears!

My poster boy

He's mine, my little poster boy. He makes first contact with my pops.

Ok... more like my OLPT - Official Little Pop Tester.

OLPT's private moment with his pop

He was introduced to my first ever cupcake pops when he went to his aunt's house for the family's weekly dinner; his aunt is a good friend of mine. When he saw them, he picked one up, looked hard and asked," What's that?"

My first attempts weren't the prettiest. I was foolish enough to start with cupcake pops... they looked so adorable in the book, I dove right in.

What was I thinking??
I wasn't - apparently.

I had to get the cake baked, and then frost-mixed. It spent some time chilling in the fridge before I could shape them into tiny cupcakes. Of course, my cake was too moist - it was my first. And it was a pain in the ass to shape cake that wouldn't hold, and will that soggy mess to stay on the stick.

Virgin pops - they tasted better than they looked, honest!

To add to the fun, it was a 2-step shaping process. Which meant extra handling of the cake, which led to the inevitable - my cake got even softer.

All too much for a first timer.

I felt exactly as I did when I climbed Mount Rinjani in Lombok, all 3000m of it - madly exhausted, half crazed.

But my OLPT was such a dear, he lapped it up.
And even asked for seconds.

I experiment with designs on weekends, there're just so many ways you could work a pop.
Swirls, dips, sprinkles, buttons, confetti, piping, tri-coating, pearl dusted ... endless.

 

 And every Sunday, OLPT looks forward to the pops.

He's never afraid to try, he never rejects. Sometimes he'll say 'it's yummy!' (his fave phrase for pops). Other times when the designs are bad, even he has to ask again," What's that?"

Kids never lie (not yet at this age, at least) - and that's the best part about my OLPT.

It's his birthday next week, I'm psyched to be doing his birthday pops!

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.