Easter Dessert Round-Up

Easter is right around the corner (one week from today!).  It has always been a time for our family to get together.  I've picked out some of my favorite Easter pop creations.  Seriously, peoples creativity and skills with cake pops and cookie pops shock me!  It is like ART.  Here are some Easter treats on a stick that people of all ages will enjoy.  


I'm sure you know of Bakerella's cake pops.  The woman is a genius.  Her Easter cake pops are SO adorable I might hesitate for a minute before eating it (but who can resist for more than a minute?)

To see how Bakerella created these adorable confections, visit her blog: She takes you step-by-step through the creation of her Easter Bunny and Easter Egg cake pops, her Spring Chickens, and her Sheep cake pops.

Stylishly Sweet makes some absolutely adorable cake pops, too.  I really love her little accents with the ribbon and tags.  Simple addition yet over the top cute.  The pictures on her Flickr are seriously impressive!

All About You has some goofy bunnies that I think are just hilarious.  The young guests at your Easter get together would really like these ones.

Speaking of seriously impressive, Baking 911's Tulip Cake Pops look so real, it is hard to imagine biting into one!  These are absolutely gorgeous (and must require a lot of patience to make so perfect).  

Don't feel like making Cake Pops?  I've been seeing Cookie pops floating around on the internet for a while, and these Easter Cookie Pops have got to be amongst the best I've seen.  Baking 911's Easter Basket Cookie Pops are simply stunning.  

Cake Journal takes you step by step with lots of photos for how to make these Bunny Cookie Lollipops.  I love those step-by-step photo tutorials - I'm such a visual person, these how-to's make it so straightforward.

If Cake Pops and Cookie Pops are not your thing, you could always try some Rice Krispies Treat pops.  

Hungry Happenings made some Easter themed chicky rice crispy treats and put them on a stick because everything is more fun on a stick!

And where better to put all of these adorable Easter treats on a stick?  On your The Smart Baker Cake Pop Stand of course!  Now through Easter, we're offering a $5 discount on Round and Square Cake Pop stands. Just enter CakePop5 at check-out to receive the discount!

...and if you're feeling lazy but still want a fancy pop display, you can buy doughnut holes and call it a day. :)

Club: BAKED - Caramel Apple Monster Cake

On Sunday we celebrated Halloween with the family.  I saw this Monster cake and really wanted to make it, so when I saw we were baking the Caramel Apple Cake with Club Baked, I thought how perfect!  I'd turn the Caramel Apple Cake into this furry little monster.  

I don't have 3 round cake pans, so I made 2 nine-inch cakes, and split each into two - creating a four layer cake.  Also, I cheated with the frosting.  I saw mixed reviews of the frosting recipe on the Club Baked P&Q page, so, being short on time (I made lots of cake balls and puff pastry intestines, too... pictures to come soon), I decided to make a shortcut and just whipped up a batch of my favorite buttercream frosting - adding 1/3 cup of store bought caramel topping for ice cream.  

First we crumb-coated.  Then we (I say WE because the husband did all of the fur piping! I should really say "HE!")  used a grass tip (flat tip with several small holes in it) to pipe the orange fur in concentric rings.  His mouth is black licorice, and his teeth are made of Candy Quik that I piped into triangles on parchment, and then let harden before transferring to the monster.  

His eye balls are devil's food cake pops dipped in vanilla candy quik.  The orange bit is a Candy Melt wafer with black food coloring gel painted on with a paint brush, and a dab of Candy Quik for the little while shine.  We painted the veins on with red food coloring gel and a paintbrush.  It was time consuming, but fun!

As for the cake, everyone who tried it loved it.  My nephew had two bowls full!  What wasn't eaten at family dinner was thoroughly enjoyed at work the next day.  

Thanks for Melissa of Lulu the Baker for selecting this recipe and hosting this week!  What a great pick for this time of year, such a nice Fall spicey cake. Be sure to visit Club Baked and check out how the other Club Baked bakers did with this Caramel Apple Cake.

Customer Spotlight: How to display Cake Pops like a Pro

Not too long ago, I posted about a customer of ours in Miami whose shop we got to visit.  I think I'd like to do a regular Customer Spotlight here on the blog, showcasing some of the amazing businesses who use our products.  While we haven't been able to visit this next customer yet (notice I say YET, because each new picture they post on facebook makes me want to drive over there even more!), I still wanted to show you all a bit of what they do.

The Lollicake Queen is in Sarasota, Florida.  If you find yourself in the area, you'll have to stop in and taste some of their lollicakes.  The Lollicake Queen makes all different flavors of golfball sized cake balls.  They even make special order cake balls in a variety of custom designs and colors!  What a great gift or party favor idea, huh?  Check out some of the Lollicake arrangements they've creating using our round and square Cake Pop Stands:

Don't you just love them?!  Be sure to "like" the Lollicake Queen on facebook to keep up with all the great things they're baking up.

Square Cake Pop Stand and Cake Pop Accessory for Cupcake Tower

Recently I posted about our new Round Three-Tier Cake Pop Display and our Round Cake Pop Rings - an add-on accessory for our 5-Tier Cupcake and Treat Tower.  Well, now we have the Square versions of both of those items.  It looks like the square versions quickly became the favorites and are currently outselling the round ones.  Check them out!

Need a better way to display Cake Pops?

I do love Cake Pops.  Cake is good, and cake with frosting is good, too, but there is something absolutely magical about mixing the two together.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good cupcake. But when you bite into a chocolate or candy coated cake and frosting ball, it is like a little bite-sized dream.  
The first time I made cake pops, it took me such a long time.  I was still getting used to the process.  My melting wafers kept hardening, things got clumpy and those little cake balls kept falling off the stick.  When I was finally done, they looked OK...a little on the lumpy side.  Now, I've done them a few more times and I've gotten a little better at it.  I learned to use a little chocolate tempering pot to avoid clumping, I learned to coat the cake pops in sanding sugar (it hides those lumps perfectly and adds a delicious crunch!).  But it still takes time, it is definitely not a 1-2-3-DONE preparation.  
So, when I'm all done making cake pops and I'm ready to show them off and serve them to friends, the LAST THING I want is to serve them on an ugly or unreliable display.  I've seen tissue paper wrapped styrofoam blocks used to hold the cake pops' sticks, which can look half decent, but something scares me about putting those precious little pops in styrofoam.  Will they stay standing?!?
We came up with these two new products to solve this problem.  


First, we made a 3-Tier Cake Pop Stand.  It is kind of like the mini-version of our Cupcake and Treat Towers, made specifically for Cake Pops (or Lollipops if you are so inclined).  Just like our Towers it is size adjustable, so it can hold 16, 32, or 40 cake pops.  It is the same great PVC material that can be easily wiped down and taken apart for storing flat.

For more information on the Cake Pop Stand click HERE to visit The Smart Baker.

Second, we made a set of Cake Pop Rings - a Cake Pop accessory for our 5-Tier Round Cupcake and Treat Tower.  It is a set of 5 rings - each ring is made to fit on a tier on the Cupcake and Treat Tower and  has holes to hold Cake Pop Sticks.  This item I am really excited about - Now your cupcake tower can double as a cake pop tower!  Plus, it allows you to be really creative with your Cupcake and Treat Tower.  Use all of the rings to hold up to 124 Cake Pops, or use a few rings - alternate a tier of cupcakes, then a tier of cake pops.  You can pick and choose which rings you'd like to use and which tiers you'd like to use for standard cupcakes.  

For more on Cake Pop Rings accessory for the 5-Tier Round Cupcake and Treat Tower, click HERE to visit The Smart Baker. 

ps - we'll be adding square Cake Pop Rings for our Square Cupcake and Treat Tower soon.

Sesame Street Cupcake and Dessert Tower

This weekend, our niece Ella turned two years old!  In honor of her second birthday and her Sesame Street theme celebration, we made her a Sesame Street Cupcake and Dessert Tower.  Nothing but the best for our niece's birthday party!  We used our Round Cupcake and Dessert Tower, and on it there were vanilla cookie monster cupcakes, red velvet elmo cupcakes, cake pops, and cookie pops with her name on them.  All the preparation was worth it when she stood next to her dessert tower (which was almost as big as she was) and made that adorable two-year old smile.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!  

Here are some Turkey Cake Pops (from Bakerella's Cake Pops book) I made for our Thanksgiving dinner.  What are you making this year?