My New Toy

So awhile back I went to the kitchen store in downtown Stillwater. I had been feeling the urge to purchase an ice-cream scoop/cookie scoop for quite sometime so I finally broke down and bought one. All I have to say is OH-MY-GOSH! AMAZING! I am 150% in love with my purchase and am kicking myself for not buying one sooner.

Here is the scooper in all its glory. So shiny and brand spankin' new! LOVE IT!

I had been craving some chocolate chip cookies for quite sometime (probably because I have had the Great Minnesota Get Together on my mind and I LOVE Sweet Martha's cookies) so I found a recipe titled "The Softest Chocolate Chip Cookies" and I thought score, just what I wanted! The recipe was super easy and form the cookies was even easier! From the picture you below you can see just how perfect the dough shaped.

So here is the finish result! Absolutely, 100%, perfect chocolate chip cookies (except in my dad's mind because he likes burnt cookies...I know, right...crazy!). Just looking at the picture makes me crave one!

Thank you technology for making baking even easier and prettier! I am not letting my cookie scoop out of my sight! =]

B-14 BINGO!

This past weekend we celebrated Breanna's last night as a single lady. We headed down to Treasure Island Casino to play Bingo Gone Wild. Before (B-4...and after...sorry I am still in the BINGO calling spirit) bingo we had a taco bar at our parent's house complete with Bingo Ball Cake Pops! We tried out our new edible markers and were just semi-impressed with them. They were not writing very well and then due to the humidity they ended up bleeding down the cake pops.

When people think of BINGO one of the most common numbers they think of is B-4, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to display it in cake. I prefer B-14 because I hit my bingo on the calling of B-14 (which is now my favorite BINGO number).

Our mother plays Bingo on a pretty regular basis and let us know we did not have proper coloring on the balls. I think we were 2 for 5 which isn't too bad considering we don't play much ourselves. (I-22...a lovely pair of ducks, sorry I cant control myself) So another success was marked down on the Holy Hannah's calendar for creativity.

Love Hate

I think we've developed a love-hate relationship with the cake pop. This past weekend was a clear indication of this.

Our older sister Breanna is on the brink of her wedding day. With only one month to go before the big day, our aunts knew it was time for a bridal shower. They of course came straight to us for the dessert portion of the shower. We decided there would be nothing better than two-tiered wedding cake-pops.

The Beautiful Bride To Be

We spent all of last week buying plenty of candy melt, baking 4 cakes and rolling cake pops. We have a large family so we needed 75 cake pops to make it through the shower. We were so excited to make these, we knew Breanna would love them. All of the prep work led up to a full Friday night spent creating these miniature delights.

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

Here comes the hate part...Friday night did not go smoothly. We first had issues shaping the pops. The bottom circle was supposed to be larger than the top, but the cookie cutters we bought were just too similar in size. This resulted in our Dad drilling a hole through the top of a sprinkles container because it was just the right size. Then came the dipping issues. We tried and tried to thin the candy melt but our 25 year old microwave was not cooperating. I ended up going with a double boiler on the stove and was a bit more successful.

Our 25 Year Old Ghetto-Fab Microwave
This baby was bought to warm up Breanna's bottles...how precious

I was forced to smooth the cakes out after I dipped them, otherwise we would have gone through 32 bags on candy melt instead of 7. And you can see the shape of the cake much better in the are a little smoothed out. We then added sprinkles with piped candy melt and a heart on the top.

Bre + Jon = True Love

By the end of the night, Emilee and I were ready to seriously punch each other and the woman who decided to start the tradition of bridal showers. But, Breanna and everyone else at the shower loved them and we even conjured up some business from the endeavor.

Slew of Wedding Cake Pops

Congratulations on your big day Breanna, and no we will not make cake pops for your actual wedding day. :)

The Duffey Ladies

Bre + Jon

Here is a little preview of the cake pop creations from this past weekend. Stay tuned for an in-depth story of how these little pops came about.

Breanna Suzanna

Jon Boy

Pink Cake Pops

My coworker Judith decided to officially retire to motherhood starting today. I am kinda jealous. She had a beautiful baby girl back in May and decided she cant bear the thought of leaving her child. So in honor of her baby girl and her last day working I made some 100% totally girl cake pops. Pink candy melt, Pink M&M, and rainbow sprinkles. I don't think I could have made them shout girl anymore than they already do.

Slew of Pink Cake Pops

I was attempting to get artsy-fartsy with this next shot. I was going for focusing on a cake pop in the front which would make the remaining cake pops slightly blurry. I think my good old point and shoot camera did pretty ok.

Check out those sprinkles!
FYI these are Krista's least favorite sprinkle

Wednesday

This past weekend was filled with kiddos instead of baking. My mother volunteered to watch my 4 year old cousin and my 4 month old cousin. It was an excellent form of birth control! The end of this week will be filled with baking however. Last night I whipped up 4 chocolate cakes for a standard set of cake pops and a special treat for our sister's Bridal Shower this coming weekend.


An exciting tool we added to our arsenal are these edible writing markers. They assist us in making designs on our cake pops! We are pretty excited to try them out but it probably won't be until next weekend.

John Deer

Our cousin Blake is celebrating his 11th birthday on Friday. He requested John Deer Cake Pops to share with the kids he helps watch at a family friend's daycare.


We didn't trust ourselves enough to make tractors out of cake so we went back to the basics. A good old standard cake pop in John Deer colors. Yellow and Green candymelt, a Brown M&M, and White sprinkles. He absolutely loved them and all the kiddos are sure to enjoy. Happy Birthday Blake!!!

Big green tractor cake pops!

sorta...kinda...well, not really

The Birthday Boy!

Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

So after my disastrous night of baking on Thursday I went back at it after work Friday. I made a couple loaves of banana bread and did some prepping for an egg bake I was planning to make Saturday morning. Sorry, no pictures of the banana bread, I forgot. But good news, I didn't run into any major disasters!

Tyler's brother and sister-in-law arrived and we took them to dinner at Nacho Mamas in Stillwater. If you have never gone you MUST try it out, its simply divine. After dinner I decided I would make a quick dessert for us. I always enjoy the lava cakes they serve at restaurants so I figured I should learn how to make them myself. It was a super easy and fast recipe that turned out delicious! Again, I forgot to take a picture pre-eating so here is what the plate looked like afterwards.