a couple of weeks ago I had the fun project of making the birthday cake for my church's 4th birthday. with little energy to spare this time around, I opted for a large-ish centerpiece type of cake instead of assembling a team to execute cupcakes again. the theme was a bowling party. I think because 4 year olds have bowling parties? I don't know these cultural references as I was raised in a chinese home where I was allowed to have 1 birthday party. ever. my parents were flexible and gave me 2 in the end. I chose age 10 and 12 to have those parties. that's right, I waited until I turned 10 to have the party. that's classic chinese principles being applied to childhood right there: saving up.
so the original idea was a bowling trophy in a large square cake form. then my husband made some silly comment about making a small amount of cake pops to add some whimsy, and like the glutton for punishment I am, I said, "good idea!"
this is the original small amount of cake pops being readied for bowling pin transformation.
after being chilled to be more easily handled, I shaped each one into a bowling pin.
I like to complicate my life.
here are the original small amount of cake balls being prepared for bowling ball cake popage.
this is the saturday afternoon prior to delivery time and my husband is faithfully helping me dip the chocolate bowling ball cake pops, while I shape and dip the bowling pins. mischaela was super cooperative by happily doing her own crafts, making christmas cards, i.e. peeling sticker backings off christmas foam stickers and piling them onto card paper. here she is dumping the entire bucket of stickers onto the table. we both shrugged our shoulders and encouraged her in her creativity.
ten minutes after that photo was taken, she gave me a heavy card laden with 12 snowmen. good job mischaela!
here are some of the bowling pins and balls in its final form, covered in chocolate and ready for consumption.
between then and this last photo, disaster struck. my main portion of the cake buckled under pressure and began leaning and sliding. after a few attempts at remedying the problem, it became clear that the cake mix cake we were using could not hold such an ambitious shape, my structural posts were bent, and our incredibly warm house was just adding to the meltdown. at about 4pm, I made the painful decision to turn what was a disaster into... more cake pops.
not pictured: me poking my eyes out.
not pictured: my husband poking my eyes out.
not pictured: us poking each others' eyes out.
after what seemed like endless rolling, molding, dipping and drying bowling cake pops, we finally completed our task at 12:30am. oh, I did end up whipping up a smaller centerpiece cake that had part of a bowling lane on top so we could poke bowling pins and a bowling ball after delivery.
what's important to note in this photo is that both my husband and I, I blame fatigue, failed to see the crucial error in our solution to transport over 300 cake pops, in that don't ever. EVER. stack cake pops more than 2 or 3 layers high.
not pictured: the mortified look on our faces early the next morning when we discover that the bottom half of that huge tupperware of bowling ball cake pops had cracked under pressure. we resorted to weeping and gnashing our teeth due to lack of poked out eyes.
not pictured: me giving myself a time out in the kitchen after the main cake suffered a side swipe when my helpful but panicked husband and aunt was trying to salvage the cracked cake pops.
here is half the final project in completion, the other half is not pictured, but you get the idea, lots of bowling pins and bowling balls. (sorry, low quality iphone photo - I lacked the motivation to lug my dslr that morning)
thankfully, not a crumb was left for me to bring home. I attribute that to the fabulous people that eagerly took the cracked pops in support of leaving the nice ones for their friends, the fact that every body else in the world cares a lot less about the preciseness of their sweets than yours truly, and that there were 350+ people in attendance.
glad to be a part of this community.
so the original idea was a bowling trophy in a large square cake form. then my husband made some silly comment about making a small amount of cake pops to add some whimsy, and like the glutton for punishment I am, I said, "good idea!"
this is the original small amount of cake pops being readied for bowling pin transformation.
after being chilled to be more easily handled, I shaped each one into a bowling pin.
I like to complicate my life.
here are the original small amount of cake balls being prepared for bowling ball cake popage.
this is the saturday afternoon prior to delivery time and my husband is faithfully helping me dip the chocolate bowling ball cake pops, while I shape and dip the bowling pins. mischaela was super cooperative by happily doing her own crafts, making christmas cards, i.e. peeling sticker backings off christmas foam stickers and piling them onto card paper. here she is dumping the entire bucket of stickers onto the table. we both shrugged our shoulders and encouraged her in her creativity.
ten minutes after that photo was taken, she gave me a heavy card laden with 12 snowmen. good job mischaela!
here are some of the bowling pins and balls in its final form, covered in chocolate and ready for consumption.
between then and this last photo, disaster struck. my main portion of the cake buckled under pressure and began leaning and sliding. after a few attempts at remedying the problem, it became clear that the cake mix cake we were using could not hold such an ambitious shape, my structural posts were bent, and our incredibly warm house was just adding to the meltdown. at about 4pm, I made the painful decision to turn what was a disaster into... more cake pops.
not pictured: me poking my eyes out.
not pictured: my husband poking my eyes out.
not pictured: us poking each others' eyes out.
after what seemed like endless rolling, molding, dipping and drying bowling cake pops, we finally completed our task at 12:30am. oh, I did end up whipping up a smaller centerpiece cake that had part of a bowling lane on top so we could poke bowling pins and a bowling ball after delivery.
what's important to note in this photo is that both my husband and I, I blame fatigue, failed to see the crucial error in our solution to transport over 300 cake pops, in that don't ever. EVER. stack cake pops more than 2 or 3 layers high.
not pictured: the mortified look on our faces early the next morning when we discover that the bottom half of that huge tupperware of bowling ball cake pops had cracked under pressure. we resorted to weeping and gnashing our teeth due to lack of poked out eyes.
not pictured: me giving myself a time out in the kitchen after the main cake suffered a side swipe when my helpful but panicked husband and aunt was trying to salvage the cracked cake pops.
here is half the final project in completion, the other half is not pictured, but you get the idea, lots of bowling pins and bowling balls. (sorry, low quality iphone photo - I lacked the motivation to lug my dslr that morning)
thankfully, not a crumb was left for me to bring home. I attribute that to the fabulous people that eagerly took the cracked pops in support of leaving the nice ones for their friends, the fact that every body else in the world cares a lot less about the preciseness of their sweets than yours truly, and that there were 350+ people in attendance.
glad to be a part of this community.
3 comments:
As always, I am astounded by your skills and creativity. Mad skills right there, Deb.
wow. that's SO intense now that i know the work that goes into one cake. i couldn't get the candy to melt for the cake pops... too thick. any suggestions? and yes, please never do this again. i feel your pain from across the world.
how did you melt them? I use the make-shift double boiler method - boil a pot of water, place another pot that rests short of 1 inch from the top of water that contains the chocolate. and I use shortening to thin out the chocolate to make it easier to dip and gives a smoother coat.
be sure to not overheat the chocolate in the process, or else you over-temper the chocolate and it doesn't coat or set properly.
also, what kind of chocolate did you use? I've found the wafer kind (where the chocolate is shaped like a flat circular disk) the easiest and fastest to melt.
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