My son's first birthday is quickly coming up. I still cannot believe that he is almost one! Due to a ridiculously busy schedule for our family this month, last Saturday was the only day that we could celebrate with all the family together. My dad and brother-in-law, also September birthdays, got in on the celebration as well.
I was so excited. I love birthdays. I love celebrating them. I love planning on them. I love getting creative with the ideas. And I especially love them when they are for my children.
Since my son is also my Little Monkey, I decided to go with a monkey themed birthday. I know - cute, right? Only, monkey stuff is a lot harder to find than I thought it would be. But I still managed to find cute stuff that worked.
My next major great idea was to do Cake Pops for the kids. Its the new rage and they are super cute! I looked into ordering monkey cake pops but it was way too expensive for the amount that I needed. And, really, how hard could it be to make my own? According to the step-by-step directions I read it would be a piece of cake...no pun intended!
I figured I would do mostly solid colored ones, some spelling out "Happy Birthday" to my Little Monkey, and a couple monkey heads and it would be so cute! And the only difficult ones would be to do would be the monkey head ones...right?
COLOSSAL FAILURE!
All those people that said it would be "easy" are a bunch of liars!!!
I did three things very wrong:
1) I used "whipped" frosting instead of the regular stuff...I really do think that it made a big difference
2) I just refrigerated them instead of freezing them. Again, big difference
3) I attempted this without the magic touch of my sister, Christi, being there. Definitely the biggest difference!!!
My first clue that it wasn't going to go as smoothly as I had believed was when I started rolling the cake mixture into balls. They weren't sticking together as well as I thought they should. My second clue was when I tried putting the sticks in the balls and some of them started falling apart. My third clue was when I tried dipping the balls into the candy coating and the stick went through the other side of the cake ball and the cake ball itself went less than a quarter of the way into the candy coating...it all went down hill from there.
Some cake balls look too adorable to eat. Mine looked too atrocious to eat. They were sad pathetic little things that turned out nothing like I had envisioned. Not the little balls. Definitely not the monkey heads. I just couldn't figure out what went so terribly wrong.
And that's when it hit me. Christi wasn't here to help.
Somehow the crafty gene skipped my oldest sister and myself and landed all in my middle sister. Are her cakes "bakery" quality? Not really. But they always turn out so cute and nearly perfect. Every time. How silly of me to have tried to do something cute and creative without her.
Despite my grave disappointment in the way my first attempt at making cake pops turned out, everyone seemed to really enjoy them. Especially my son. Which was, of course, the most important part!
So, if you still feel that you absolutely must try making your own cake pops...attempt them at your own personal risk and do a trial run. And? Find someone who is creative to help!
I was so excited. I love birthdays. I love celebrating them. I love planning on them. I love getting creative with the ideas. And I especially love them when they are for my children.
Since my son is also my Little Monkey, I decided to go with a monkey themed birthday. I know - cute, right? Only, monkey stuff is a lot harder to find than I thought it would be. But I still managed to find cute stuff that worked.
My next major great idea was to do Cake Pops for the kids. Its the new rage and they are super cute! I looked into ordering monkey cake pops but it was way too expensive for the amount that I needed. And, really, how hard could it be to make my own? According to the step-by-step directions I read it would be a piece of cake...no pun intended!
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| Cute Cake Pops |
I figured I would do mostly solid colored ones, some spelling out "Happy Birthday" to my Little Monkey, and a couple monkey heads and it would be so cute! And the only difficult ones would be to do would be the monkey head ones...right?
COLOSSAL FAILURE!
All those people that said it would be "easy" are a bunch of liars!!!
I did three things very wrong:
1) I used "whipped" frosting instead of the regular stuff...I really do think that it made a big difference
2) I just refrigerated them instead of freezing them. Again, big difference
3) I attempted this without the magic touch of my sister, Christi, being there. Definitely the biggest difference!!!
My first clue that it wasn't going to go as smoothly as I had believed was when I started rolling the cake mixture into balls. They weren't sticking together as well as I thought they should. My second clue was when I tried putting the sticks in the balls and some of them started falling apart. My third clue was when I tried dipping the balls into the candy coating and the stick went through the other side of the cake ball and the cake ball itself went less than a quarter of the way into the candy coating...it all went down hill from there.
Some cake balls look too adorable to eat. Mine looked too atrocious to eat. They were sad pathetic little things that turned out nothing like I had envisioned. Not the little balls. Definitely not the monkey heads. I just couldn't figure out what went so terribly wrong.
And that's when it hit me. Christi wasn't here to help.
Somehow the crafty gene skipped my oldest sister and myself and landed all in my middle sister. Are her cakes "bakery" quality? Not really. But they always turn out so cute and nearly perfect. Every time. How silly of me to have tried to do something cute and creative without her.
Despite my grave disappointment in the way my first attempt at making cake pops turned out, everyone seemed to really enjoy them. Especially my son. Which was, of course, the most important part!
So, if you still feel that you absolutely must try making your own cake pops...attempt them at your own personal risk and do a trial run. And? Find someone who is creative to help!
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| Monkey heads in the freezer - before the candy coating |
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| trying to redeem the cake pops and failing miserably! |
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| The monkey heads - bottom right one turned into a vampire overnight!!! |
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| Monkey heads, a few of the other Cake Pops, and the monkey gummies :) |
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| The Birthday Boys :) |
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| My Little Monkey enjoying his cake!!! |
Looks like your little monkey enjoyed it, so that is all that matters. AND, I thought they were cute.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun and a learning experience. And a good time was had by all.
ReplyDeleteMy little monkey did enjoy it...and all the nieces and nephews enjoyed them too. One of my nieces said it was the best party ever!
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, it was a fun learning experience...even if all I learned was that I cannot make cake pops! lol