happy EASTER weekend

HAPPY EASTER WEEKEND...

wishing you a relaxing time with your family & friends

love the Mana girls

xxxx

More about → happy EASTER weekend

happy EASTER weekend

HAPPY WEEKEND

wishing you an amazing Easter!

love the Mana girls

X

More about → happy EASTER weekend

EASTER MINI CHICK CAKEBALL DECORATIONS

                                                                               Peep! 

So cute, eh?

I was contemplating making white chocolate chicks, but felt that my chocolate plastic tutorial posts that people have been visiting like crazy since I posted them a while back were done to death around the foodie world.

I needed inspiration.  I hate the taste of fondant and royal icing isn’t any better.  I love buttercream but making buttercream roses are so Safeway!   I’ve seen the craze peak with the famous Cakeballs and Cakepops that have been popularized by Bakerella.  The other day, on a stroll past a Starbucks, I saw Cakepops displayed along with Gargantuan Cupcakes in the glass display in front of the baristas.   You know food trends have peaked when they hit Starbucks and now that I’ve seen macarons at Costco,  you know they are so passé!

But I do wish I could start a trend.  hee hee!

Last night, while brainstorming ideas to bake before Easter weekend, I had an epiphany of sorts.  Of all the trends, I thought about  how yummy cakeballs really are.  They’re moist and they’re quite sturdy with the chocolate coating.  They are easy to decorate.  They’re cute!   How could I go wrong with that?  I was going to bake a batch of cupcakes and mash them with buttercream to produce a whole flock of chick cake balls like I did last Easter.   But I’ve done that already.   I was waffling between baking cupcakes and making cakeballs.

So I decided to sculpt tiny cakeballs into teeny chicks that would perch on the cupcakes.  The little balls of cake were so tiny I only had to break down 3 cupcakes to make enough to make these decorations.  Decorating the chick faces was not the easiest.  You need a steady hand and tweezers.  But I had so much fun making these tiny cakeball sculptures!

And there you are…my personal contribution to the food blogging world:  Mini Cakeball Sculptures--THE NEW WAVE for cake decorating!    They are deliciously edible, very sturdy and you can make them ahead of time.  You are only limited by your imagination, your patience and possibly,  fine motor skills!

Yes, cakeballs are not new and neither are chick cakeballs, but the fact that they are sculpted into incredibly tiny forms for cake decorating is!    What a concept! decorating a cake with more cake! yah!

Here’s a close-up of the mini chick cakeball sculptures before I dunked them in the candy coating.

I added yellow food colouring to white candy melts to get this shade for my chicks.  Notice how un-chicklike they are right now?  Not so pretty.

In fact, as they are drying on the parchment here, you can see how much of a mess I made with the dipping.  I must admit this is my least favourite part of the whole cakeball- making process.  The mini sculptures have definitely got bird-like features though. 

Precious!

Once dry, I used a Food Writing Pen to make eyes and I crushed a few orange flower sprinkles for the beaks.  

From the batch of 24 cupcakes, 3 were used to make the mini cakeball sculptures and the rest were decorated as usual with Swiss Meringue Buttercream swirls.  I perched the finished chicks on the cupcakes and voila!

The little chicks were so popular with my daughters and I imagine they would be at any Easter kiddie party.   Have a good Easter Holiday everyone!

More about → EASTER MINI CHICK CAKEBALL DECORATIONS

EASTER CHICK CAKE BALLS

Here’s a cute treat to make for kiddie Easter parties and will totally please adults too! 
These were so fun to make!  The googly eyes, beaks and feet are simply glued on with white candy melts.  I used Wilton candy sprinkles: the feet are orange maple leaves; the beaks are orange or yellow coloured sprinkles the shape of mini-chips and the eyes are white confetti sprinkles coloured with a black food writer pen.

 
I just happened to be at Safeway today and spied a sale on cake mixes and frostings.  I picked up 3 boxes for $5 and the cream cheese frosting in the can was only $1.29
I think the quickest way to bake off the mix is to make cupcakes.  That way my kids get to eat the leftovers too.  For every 8 large cupcakes, I used approximately 2-3 tablespoons of the prepared cream cheese frosting.

After baking the cupcakes, let them cool and then proceed to crumble the cakes in a large bowl.  I used a spoon to help it all along.  Then add the frosting a tablespoon at a time.  Don’t go overboard with the frosting as a little goes a long way.  If you put too much, you might have issues with the cake balls setting properly (especially if you want them on sticks).

This time, I chose not to employ sticks for my chicks.  Instead, I made truffle balls and refrigerated them on a sheet pan. 

I melted one colour at a time so as not to encounter problems with the candy melts cooling down too quickly.  Do add a little bit of shortening to the candy melts after you melt them.  Stir it in until the mixture is fluid.  It’ll help prolong the workability of the melted candy.

 
You should have all your sprinkles prepared in little custard cups.  I like to melt my candy melts in custard cups in the microwave in 20 second increments.  Add a bit of the shortening after the candy has melted. 

As soon as you dunk  your cake ball into the melted candy, turn it around  (use chopsticks or a mini rubber spoontula) quickly and then place it on a parchment-lined sheet pan.  Do not refrigerate your cake balls or they’ll sweat. 
If you want sprinkles, add them while the candy is still wet.

I like to leave the chicks for last.  They don’t need to have sprinkles on them while they’re wet.  It’s way easier applying their faces after they’ve dried. 

 
If you would like to add feet to your chicks, I find that mini maple leaf sprinkles are the best.  Just use a little of the leftover candy melts to dab the sprinkles.  I use a toothpick and I imagine if you need, you can use a clean pair of tweezers to place them on the cake balls.

I found some cute green pastel mini cupcake paper liners at Superstore and placed my dried cake balls in them.  The definitely look better in their individual “nests”.  You can fussy them up too by packaging them in cellophane bags, baskets or chinese take-out containers.

I’m partial to the lavender chicks.  They were made with the lavender candy melts.  You don’t have to worry about using food colouring because the melts come in a whole bunch of colours.

This chick is my favourite.  What an expression!  He’s so sweet-looking!

As you’re making the faces, you’ll come to see that each chick has its own personality.  The placement of the eyes and beaks can create such cute faces.

Here’s one of the mini Chinese take-out containers I like to use.  I stuff them with green tissue paper, drop in a handfull of jellybeans and a few foil-covered chocolate eggs and place the little Easter Chick Cake Ball in the centre.  

 
We’re sending this guy to Bebe’s teacher tomorrow morning…

The lavender chick is for Bebe’s piano teacher…

Do make these little chicks.
They’re so easy to make and the fun factor is huge!
Shopping list for:  EASTER CHICK CAKE BALLS

• 1 box prepared cake mix (I used yellow cake)
• 1 can prepared frosting (I used Cream Cheese frosting)
• Assorted Wilton Candy melts in your favourite colours
• Sprinkles, dragees and a black food writer pen

Go through the post for step-by-step instructions on how I assembled mine.

Last year I made Easter Brownie Bunny Pops.  Check it out!

And my Brownie Chicks on a Stick are cute too!

More about → EASTER CHICK CAKE BALLS