Wilton Treat Pops Review

I love to cook and bake. One of my favorite things to make is cupcakes. It's also one of my favorite things to eat. So, when I had the opportunity to work with Wilton, I was extremely excited. Wilton is the

Crème de la crème of cake decorating and candy making supply companies. I have been buying Wilton products for years. They wanted me to share with you some of their really awesome products. I received the Treat Pops, which is really cool because I love the sherbet treats that these were inspired from.  I love that it is so much easier to eat, especially for my six year old.  We can make whatever cake we would like and any icing flavor. I love that these are reusable. It reminds me of my Grandma Rose, because she would reuse anything she could. It makes the Treat Pops more fun because you can have countless treats in them.  I also received the Mini Whoopie Pie Baking Pan. When I first heard of Treat Pops, I was kind of curious how the cake would fit.  I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to crumble the cake up. I know that would make a messy presentation and possibly a messy treat, I was excited to learn that they have a pan for that. Wilton really thinks of everything.   You could also use the pan to make mini whoopee pies.  I don’t think I have ever had whoopie pies, which will be my next baking venture.  Another product I tried out was the Treat Pops Decorating Set.  I have a love/hate relationship with icing, when it comes to decorating.  I am happy to report that the Treat Pops Decorating Kit was so easy to use. I actually had fun doing the icing and it turned out nicely. I think it is because you get bigger tips.  Bigger tips are easier for me to use. The tops of my treat pops actually looked professionally done.  

Making Treat Pops are really easy. I used boxed cake mix. Now you get a lot of extra cake batter so either have extra Treat Pops available or come up with a dessert for the leftovers. I refuse to throw away cake batter.   My original plan was to make Treat Pops for our weekly play date, but then I realized there are a lot of kids involved.  There are a least twelve kids, not including parents.  I also knew that I would be worried that someone would throw away one of the Treat Pop containers away in the park trash can.  I decided that I would just make six Treat Pops, since that is a lot of Treat Pops for just me and Noah. I ended up using the rest of the cake batter and frosting to make cupcakes for our play date. It ended up making the exact number I needed.

 I filled up the Mini Whoopie Pie Baking Pan per Wilton’s instructions with a Tablespoon of batter in each, and then baked them until they were done. I started with 9 minutes and added more time until done. I didn’t want them to burn.  When they were cool I added coloring to my icing and then filled the pastry bag with the long tip in the Treat Pops Decorating Set.  I put a cake in the bottom and then began layering with icing. The top of the Treat Pop container doubles as a stand which is really helpful when you are filling them.  You have to be careful that you don’t push it up though.  I finally topped with a big swirl of icing and used some sprinkles.   These are so good. They are also portable and really fun to eat. Noah was so excited to try Treat Pops.  They are the perfect blend of cake and icing. I know my best friend who loves icing would love these, especially because you can control how much icing you put in them. You can also use fruit. I think gelatin and cream would even be good in a Treat Pop. 

Have you tried Treat Pops? What flavors would sound good to you?

Thank you to Wilton for providing me the items in this post for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Sheila's Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jell-o Shots Recipe

When I was in New Hampshire, visiting my best friend Brandy, she knew I never tried Jell-o Shots before. I don’t know why, cause I love Jell-o a lot. I of course really liked them, no surprise there. She didn’t really like them, I am not sure if it was because there was Malibu in them or what, but they were so good.  As most of you guys know I love coming up with my own unique recipes.  I started thinking about how I could make a drink that tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry. Cream Di Cacao is a chocolate liqueur but, honestly you can really taste the alcohol in it. I learned that the hard way when my friends and I tried to make chocolate martinis. It was the grossest thing I ever drank.  I also wanted to incorporate Jell-o shots.  The thought of Jell-o and chocolate pudding mixed together, made my stomach churn, so I had to keep brainstorming. I knew that they sold molds to make your own shot glasses but I wasn’t sure if that would be enough Jell-o shot. I almost bought a shot glass mold from Amazon, but decided not to.

I went to Michael’s and I am addicted to Wilton products and I saw a tart mold. I thought this would be perfect and I picked up the Jell-o Shot supplies and some milk chocolate chips and I was ready for my creation to be born.

This is a fairly simple recipe. I highly recommend getting more than one Tart Mold for this recipe. They are like 2 dollars apiece. I need to pick some more up soon.

You will need:

A box of strawberry Jell-o

1 cup boiling water

1 cup alcohol of choice I used Malibu, you can use vodka

A bag of Milk Chocolate chips you can use any type of chocolate chips you want

One Tablespoon of shortening

Wilton Tart mold (will make three) The recipe will make about 9 or 10

1. Boil the water and combine it with the package of Jell-o, stir until dissolved.

2.Stir in 1 cup of alcohol and mix well

3.This is a very important step.  Put the Jell-o in the fridge, while you make the shells. Don’t let it get completely firm.

4.Melt  chocolate and shortening in a bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir and microwave 10 more seconds at a time if not completely melted.

5.Fill the bottom tart mold, it pulls apart, 1/3 the way full. Snap on the lid and press down on the mold to completely cover the mold with chocolate.  Place in the refrigerator.

6.I didn’t want the look of the clumpy Jell-o, so I came up with a brilliant plan. After the Jell-o is no longer hot or warm, but still liquid, pour in the top of the mold and return to the fridge. You can also cut it in cubes, or whatever shapes you want, or do it clumpy. You will want to let it sit probably for quite a while, overnight if possible for everything to set up nicely.

7.Carefully pull apart the mold, and remove the chocolate tarts, then remove the Jell-o. You can use a toothpick to help prevent it from sticking too much. I wasn’t able to get the perfect Jell-o shape but I was able to get it out in two pieces. 

These are yummy. I don’t think I would eat a bunch of them because they are rich but they would be great as part of a dessert sampler at a dinner party, or just a classy way to serve the classic Jell-o shot.

You could also make it with cherry Jell-o or Raspberry or any flavor you think would sound delish!

Please remember to drink responsibly. You must be 21 years or older to enjoy this recipe.

Wilton Cake Pops on a Stick Transportation Pops!

I had the opportunity to take part in a contest with Wilton. Wilton is the premier brand of cake decorating and baking products. The contest was to create your own original cake pops. I bet you are wondering what a cake pop is? It is cake on a stick dipped in delicious candy melts. I really want to show you all how to make cake pops. I decided that I would use my adorable little boy as my inspiration for deciding what to make. Noah loves everything having to do with transportation, that’s what I would do. I would make a few of his favorites in to a delicious treat. Since he truly loves them all, picking which ones to do was somewhat difficult. So, I went to the source and asked Noah, he wanted rocket ships, submarines and cranes. He also mentioned blimps but, unfortunately the blimps were too warm and it was like the Hindenburg disaster.



I received a Cake Pops kit from Wilton to help me get started in my first cake pop adventure. Since I am left handed and tried to decorate Noah’s cakes before I was very nervous as they didn’t turn out very pretty. I had confidence in myself and along with my trusty and adorable assistant we were ready to hit the kitchen and start creating. First thing we did was use The Cake Pops on A Stick book to make the special recipe for the cake part. Noah really helped a lot; he poured everything in for me and even helped to stir it all up complete with construction vehicle noises. Once it was baked and cooled, we crumbled the cake.



I can honestly say that was Noah’s favorite part. He told me before we started baking that he was going to make me in to a cake pop and tickled me and said crumble crumble crumble. It was very cute. It was fun to crumble the cake up. My Grandma Rose always said that your best tools are your hands, and I agree completely.

After we crumbled it we added some icing and mixed it up with our hands. I had bought my favorite cake mix and frosting on clearance for 42 cents since it was green holiday icing, we looked like swamp things after we were done. I had to remind Noah, many times not to try and eat it all off his hands.





I decided to let it chill for a bit to firm up some, which was a great idea because it was pretty messy before. Once it was firm enough to shape without making a mess. I started making the shapes for the rocket ships, blimps, cranes, and submarines. I put them back in the refrigerator for a couple hours before I dipped the 6 inch sticks in melted Candy Melts to help them stick. Since my cake pops were bigger than the average cake pop I was worried that it would fall off if it didn’t have enough time to chill. I left them in the refrigerator for 24 hours, just to make sure.




I was ready to dip them with my new Chocolate Pro Electric Chocolate Melter. I melted some more red Candy Melts being careful that I wouldn’t waste them, when I was ready for the next color after washing some of the candy melts down the sink, I figured out if I poured the leftovers on parchment paper and let it dry I could reuse it. It peeled off really easily and I also figured out that you have to melt quite a bit to get easy coverage on your Cake Pop. I was able to make it work easily with a spatula on the bottom of the pops so they were completely incased in Candy Melt. It doesn’t take the Candy Melt very long to harden which was a good thing. I dipped the Red Rocket Ships and the Yellow Submarines first. I let Noah pick the colors all of them, since I bought every color of Wilton Candy Melts they had at the craft store.

I have always wanted to try out fondant and I thought no time like the present since I wanted to add specific details. I purchased several packages of colored ready to use fondants. I ended up using yellow fondant on all of the Cake Pops. I had also used some little cutters in different shapes. It was really easy to roll out even for me. My crowning achievement was when I put the yellow candy melts in a disposable icing bag and wrote USA on the rocket ships. It is legible even. I am not sure if Julia Child was guiding my hands like in the movie Ghost or what but it was perfect. I was so afraid that the rocket ships were going to be drizzled in yellow candy melt. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I was so proud of myself at that moment.

I decided to make the wings of the rocket ship out of fondant. I used yellow fondant as the periscope of the submarine as well. I had some trouble thinking of what to use for the windows on the submarine. I was going to first use the candy eyes that were included in my pops kit turned backwards, that didn’t work too well so, I thought marshmallows would work. I decided to rip them and shape them for the windows. After attaching them I decided, it looked weird so, I melted some white candy melts and put those in a disposable icing bag and drew the windows on. I thought they really needed the porthole covers around them too. I used some melted chocolate chips in another disposable icing bag. Melted chocolate chips are a different consistency than the Candy Melts so it was harder to manage. Noah reminded me that submarines have propellers so I used some pull and peel licorice that I had purchased for the cranes to make it. By that time I had poured out the yellow Candy Melt to harden so I just kind of dipped the back of the pop in the yellow melts and attached the licorice. Two down two to go I thought to myself. I was doing this and it was working for me.

 

When it was time for the blimps I went to dip them and since they had been sitting out for a hour or more they were no longer cold. I almost started to cry after I watched the Cake Pop fall apart. I was thinking, it’s ok I have two more blimps. I didn’t realize until after that was the reason they fell apart, I dipped the second making sure it was carefully placed on the stick. I went to dip it and it fell apart too once it hit the Candy melts. At this point I yell Darn it. Noah said, “Mommy, that is a bad word.” Thinking after two were ruined I couldn’t have just one blimp I dipped it and covered it in sprinkles and watched it fall off the stick as I put it in a bowl for Noah to enjoy. I put the pre-dipped cranes back in the refrigerator for a few hours so, they would survive. I think next time I will keep them in the refrigerator until the last second before dipping. I highly suggest you do so too. It makes it a lot easier and saves you from the heart break of your beautiful creations plummeting from the stick.



After waiting a while I decided the cranes needed to be dipped. I had purchased some thin pretzel sticks to be the arm of the crane. I knew how fast the Candy Melts dried so I figured that I had to dip the cranes and then stick the pretzel in quickly or my cranes wouldn’t have an arm. I thought about dipping them with the pretzel stuck in it already but decided that would probably end badly. I took a spoon and covered the pretzel with Candy Melt. I cut out some yellow little squares and circles for the wheels and windows I attached with water on a little paintbrush. I put them back in the refrigerator to make sure the arms of the cranes were dried. Everyone knows that cranes have strings on them so I thought the pull and peel licorice would be perfect for that. It’s fun to eat too. I just tied it on and it looks really cool.



I received a Cake Pops stand in my Cake Pops kit which is really nice; I plan on saving it for a special occasion. I thought since these Cake Pops capture the essence of my little boy, I wanted the stand to be something that was Noah’s. I decided to build a couple rows with his favorite blocks that have holes in them, which are perfect for holding Cake Pops. Noah’s little eyes lit up with amazement when he saw them all done and placed on our display blocks.



I received the Wilton Cake Pops Kit for my contest entry where I could win a $500 VISA Gift card or 9 other prizes. I did purchase additional products for my Cake Pops and all thoughts and opinions and ideas are in fact my own.

Noah and I Are So Alike.

It is so funny to watch Noah. He reminds me so much of me when I was little. If you were in my family you would know about the infamous Here’s Bozo video. I think I even talked about it on my blog before. I said something like Ladies and Gentleman Here’s Bozo and ran in the room over and over and eventually fell down. Recently, Noah was running around the house saying Ladies and Gentleman, Start your engines or something along those lines. Another thing he does is he talks like I did when I was little. On the same video I am sitting in our plastic swimming pool and I ask my mom to get our beach towels and I said We have towels. Noah says we have *insert whatever he is talking about* and he says it the same way I did when I was well his age.

Today, I had a mess to clean up. I am assuming it was payback for the baby powder from when I was little. I dumped a whole bottle of baby powder on myself, my old best friend and all over the room. It was that dreaded Talc kind and I am sure I inhaled a ton of it and I turned out ok. Well, I thought I would be smart and put the baby powder up where Mr. Noah couldn’t reach it. He found some Wilton powdered royal icing that I totally forgot I had bought, it was in a cupcake kit. I guess I should look on the bright side and he only opened one package and not everything. It was a total mess though. Powdered Royal icing all over the counter, the floor, the stove top, and my son who decided it would be fun to make foot prints with it. He also was rolling his trains and fire trucks in it. He also had a whole package of cupcake wrappers strategically placed on the floor. I thought maybe he was trying to make cupcakes or a treat for his mommy. Well needless to say I was not amused. It was kinda funny but it was a pain to clean up. It took forever to sweep it, mop it etc, while not making icing because that would have been a total pain in the butt.

I was reminded of my grandma Rose as I was cleaning it up. We used to make paste for crafts with flour and water all the time. I also remembered doing Paper Maché with my cousin Susie, I think it was Susie. It was a long time ago, if it wasn’t Susie, it was Rory. I can’t count how many crafts we did with my grandma and assorted cousins.

After I cleaned it all up, I sat him down for a talk. He was in trouble. I wanted to know what he was doing exactly. He told me he was making it snow inside. I explained that it doesn’t snow in our house and to not get in to things he knows not to get in to. He doesn’t like to talk about it, because he knew he was in big trouble. He also learned that even mommy got in trouble when she was little. I always follow up time outs and punishments with hugs and kisses and I love yous.

Noah is definitely a character, like I was. I wonder where he comes up with this stuff.
Do you see your children doing the same silly things you did when you were a child? I would love to hear your stories.