Delicious Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Tag: Baking with the boys
Baking with the Boys – Easy Cake Pops For Kids
Ahhhhhh Cake Pops…….
Those little balls of fudgey, soft, chocolate covered cake goodness 🙂 Whoever first came up with the idea should honestly go down in history. surprisingly they are super easy to make. While my talents are certainly no where near the type you would pay for, the boys and I adore making our own and the process of rolling and dipping these mini melt in your mouth pops is rather therapeutic. If you can get your kids to stop dipping into all the sprinkles!
Weekend baking has always been “our thing”, and Pillsbury makes it even easier of course, by allowing us to create cakes that are perfectly soft and moist, everytime. It makes the whole session a breeze and these pops are perfect for tiny hands to dip and decorate.
Heres how the boys and I made our pops, and you can do this with any “flavour” of cake you wish. We used chocolate here, but previous have used the vanilla and red velvet as well!
Ingredients:
One Box Milk Chocolate Cake Mix
Eggs, Milk and Oil as per Box instructions
One tub Milk Chocolate frosting
One extra-large slab of chocolate
Sprinkles to decorate
Method:
Bake Cake as per box instructions. Once cooled, tip and crumble the entire cake into a bowl. (Yes crumble your entire cake, though I did leave two slices out for dad to have).
Add about ¼ cup of frosting into the cake crumb mixture and mix well.
TIP: Do not use too much frosting as your cake pops will slide down the sticks!
Once mixed mould into balls (the boys rolled the balls by hand so you don’t necessarily need a “cake pop” mould) and freeze for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile melt chocolate in a double boiler.
Once cake pops have cooled and are firm, insert your choice of lollipop stick and dip into the melted chocolate (trying not to eat too much as you go along). The chocolate should set fairly quickly as the cake pops are cold.
Decorate as desired!
Top tips to ensure your cake pops not to slip down the stick:
If the cake pops are not cold enough when dipped into chocolate they will slip.
If they are too moist, they will slip (so go easy when you add in your frosting)
If the balls are too big, they will fall off the stick
To help them “stick”, dip your lollipop stick into your melted chocolate first and then into your cake ball. This will add as a “glue” ensuring they stay upright.
If they do slide – don’t worry!! Turn them upside down and place them into mini cupcake holders.
Enjoy!
Baking with the Boys – Lemon and Blueberry Bundt Cake
The Boys and I love baking together. Actually I think its more like I enjoy baking and they love sampling, but never the less its an activity we always do together. They love to pour, measure and mix and I cherish the time we have together to do it.
I have to admit though when it comes to baking with them I often use pre-mixes as its easier for the kids to do and they can almost entirely make a cake from start to finish by themselves. The sense of pride they have when taking out a perfectly formed cake from the oven is the cutest thing to watch. Pillsbury has been one of my favourite pre-mixes to use, since I was about 14! My only wish is that their ready made croissant and sugar cookie doughs were avaliable in South Africa. I have memories of living in the states, waking up to the smell of freshly baked croissants in the house all thanks to Pillsbury. It would make my weekends that much easier if I could chuck some into the oven here!
I digress, lets talk afternoon snacks. The 3 o’clock slump in our household is a real thing. The boys are often in and out of the kitchen no less than 5 times searching for snacks. This Lemon and Blueberry Bundt cake is the perfect activity to do after school, and will be ready just in time for tea! Adding in fresh fruit takes a little of the “guilt” out for me and It also makes sure that hubby has some cake for his after dinner tea which he loves so much.
Heres how we made it:
Lemon and Blueberry Bundt Cake
Ingredients
1 x Box Pillsbury French Vanilla Cake Mix
3 eggs, Oil and Water as per box
1 cup Blueberries
Zest of One Lemon (and a squeeze of Juice)
Fresh mint to garnish
One tub Pillsbury Lemon flavoured frosting
Method:
Mix Cake mix as per instructions on box. Add in the zest of one lemon and a little squeeze of juice.
Fold in one cup of blueberries.
Pour into Bundt pan and bake until done.
Once cooled, beat up the Lemon flavoured frosting until light, I added a dash of fresh cream to thin it out a little. Garnish with fresh blueberries, lemon slices and mint.
Enjoy!
Note: To be perfectly honest I wasn’t entirely sure about the “Lemon Flavoured Icing” as traditionally artificial lemon can have quite a sharp taste. However, this was DELICIOUS and ALL of my family commented on how “yummy” the icing was, from my 4 year old who typically avoids icing, to my husband, who considers himself quite the food critic! I will definitely be buying this one again, what a pleasant surprise.