Hello there, Kitty

I'm not at all a fan of cats.

They strike fear in me. I don't know why...

Hello Kitty is probably the only exception to my lifelong nemesis.
Perhaps it's the lack of a mouth and fangs (yes, they DO look like fangs to me).

Her cute little red ribbon perched askew might have something to do with making her less feline scary, too.

Check out more of our red desserts:
> Sweet, sweet strawberries
> Rich red velvet cake
> Red Santa hats
> Poppin' red cherries, even the jackpot ones

Whatever the case, she's the only kitty I'm gonna be friends with.

Ever.

I drew inspiration from cake pop goddess Bakerella, with just a few minor modifications. She's got the most amazing imagination, and has the superhero power of visualizing uses for any piece of candy.

Start off with regular cake balls, shape them into ovals and flatten them a little.

Then it's off to the details:

Minute oval balls for her  black eyes and pert lil' yellow
nose - these were barely 1mm each, soooo teeny tiny!

Uh-oh... she has SIX whiskers each... that's a whole of
ant-sized rods to make by hand. I lost count of how
 many I broke along the way, they were so fragile.

Just make sure you make tons of extras, they'll break
every step of the way. Oh. and don't freak out if they're not
perfectly shaped, animal parts are never symmetrical anyways :)

I had these sweet little confetti hearts that
were perfect for her signature bow

A cheeky lil' Hello Kitty towel to top the birthday basket off

Mission completed - my kitty litter is born!

More character cake pops:
> Never too much red with Elmo around
> A Rilakkuma birthday
> Curious George... almost!

I love birthdays!

Next to Christmas, they're my favorite celebrations.

They're your day, with your name on it (even the cake message says so).

Everyone's extra sweet, you're queen/king of the day.

There's a legitimate reason for you to eat, drink and be extra merry, and push the food guilt all away till the celebrations die down.

More birthday celebrations:
> A very lovely elephant day
> 10 years young
> Hole in one, anybody?
> Petite Pops goes to the zoo... dinosaur roarrr!

You probably share your birthday with 10 dozen people round the globe. BUT as long as those 10 dozen birthday babies stay well across the globe and far out of reach from my birthday treats - I can live with that :)

This birthday request was spur of the moment, for an office celebration of the boss' 40th.

I thought it'd be nice to make it extra rich and decadent, and paired the 4-0 cupcakes with rich, chocolately cake balls.

Started off with a sea of scrumptious red velvet
cuppies... impossible to walk away from, I tell you.

The right corner cupcake's missing, found it's way
into my stomach (taste test!), the empty spot
conveniently cropped out of the picture. 

Each of the survivors got their own crown of
strawberry buttercream, topped with gold rocks

The chocolate cake balls - dipped in a layer of bitter chocolate,
topped with a teeny bit of green sprinkles for color and sparkle

Happy 40th birthday!

Cake pop birthdays:
> Petite Pops goes to the zoo... Ponies
> Never too much red with Elmo

Crimson splash: Rich Red Velvet Cake

There are some things in life made to go together.

Cookies and milk.
The morning paper and coffee.
Fish and chips.
Kaya and toast.
Michael Jackson and music.

Things that make sense together work because they:
a) compliment - sweet to offset salty, light to counter heavy, yin to balance yang
b) enhance - bring out hidden layers, enrich and embolden. Like how surrounding black with white, makes the black look even deeper
c) sound nice together.. what's Burt without Ernie? It just doesn't work... there's no ring to it

Red velvet and cream cheese is that sort of a match, the sort that happily ticks all the above boxes.

Mmmm...  

I decided to make a red velvet cake for a farewell party, without adornments, just good 'ol fashioned rustic. Or 'nekkid', as I like to call it. 

Fuschia red when it starts in the mixer...

... after baking, a layer of luscious cream cheese frosting goes on ...

... topping the now rust-colored baked red velvet cake. 

Gimme some of that!

The cake went well with the office crowd at the farewell, folks who wanted good-tasting cake and didn't need the adornments.

The next time you're thinking of tea, coffee, weekends, taking a breather, celebrating or just indulging a little, think of cake.

It's a natural fit, a perfect match :)

More stories with a hint of red:
> Crimson splash: Red Santa Hats
> There's never too much red with Elmo around

Red - also the color of lurve...
> Is it time for Cupid yet?
> Baked with love

Get in on the lunar new year, bring your bit of red / auspiciousness to the party!
> Year of the Snake, don't let it be a party without cake
> Dong Dong Chiang!

Crimson splash: Red Santa Hats

Christmas is over, I know...  But there are a few good reasons why these cute little cupcakes are here.

Firstly, it's my delusional way of extending my favorite holiday, and making it last just a little longer :)

Secondly - there's always time for red velvet.

Lastly, the Lunar New Year is coming up, and red is just the color for untold wealth and prosperity ... so they say.
> Looking for something different this Lunar New Year?
> Dong Dong Chiang
> How to share a good pineapple tart
> Hello world, it's 2013!

So it's really just the right time to write about these adorable little Christmas head-toppers.

I think the magic is in the simplicity.

Nothing mind-boggling, nothing earth-shattering.
Just good ol' fashioned adorable.

Blood-red strawberries.... 

... perched on crimson red velvet

Their combined robust charm, just singing out Christmas all over...

The white frosting peeking out for a tinge of festive chill and cheer.

All tied up pretty ...

... and ready to jingle some bells!

Need more red?

> There's never too much red with Elmo around

> Baked with love

> Poppin' red cherries, even the jackpot ones!

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.

Stars on trees.. it's Christmas!

My favourite time of the year - Christmas!

It's usually quite a lovely, busy time with church, friends, family. Eating, catching up, spending time, connecting with those we love.

There's also a great deal of excitement tearing open lovingly-wrapped parcels, some oddly shaped, holding mystery cheer ... and sometimes getting strange gifts you have no idea what to do with.

No matter, good intentions were there, Christmas cheer all round.

This is a back-tracked post as you can tell, Christmas 2011.

I took on a bit more than I could chew, with quite a few Christmas pop orders. Drove me a little nuts, I got really, really ill by the time Christmas came round. But I guess no better way than to dive right in, and paddle like there's no tomorrow.

These Christmas trees are one of my favourit-est and most popular pops, I had such fun doing them (aside from the horrendous fever and flu I caught from the lack of rest, ugh).

I started off with small confetti stars atop the trees, but somehow they just didn't have that special oomph I wanted.

I shopped around, trawled sweet sections in malls, and found the perfect stars you see here - from Candilicious!

I had an army of trees invading the house, they were everywhere. Tables, on top of the stoves, in the ovens, on the shelves. I didn't see my table top for a good 2 weeks.



Nekkid pops!


It was quite a bit of effort bagging, tagging, ribboning each of these little trees, but I do so love how they look in the end.

Realms of luscious Christmas colours!


 

The trees... sharing a moment...




Love the tiny green trees against the rich chocolate brown!

These little babies were quicker to do. I found these adorable green trees at the baking shop a little while ago, and was waiting for the right pop to use them on. 

And I found a home for them here. 

In case you're wondering... the Christmas trees took a lot more time to do, and would cost a little more than simpler round pops with the trees like these. 

There are always options, occasions, who you want the pops for, for the budget you have in mind. So don't be shy... always feel free to drop me a note if you'd like to bounce ideas for a certain pop you have in mind, or even if it's to ask - how much would a Christmas Tree pop cost?

Merry Christmas!