Gingerbread & Cake Lollipops ;

so i was surfing thru the web, and i found pictures of "Cake Lollipops" !
which i decided would go GREAT with my original plan for gingerbread cookies.
it also gave me the idea of turning my gingerbread into pops too !
Basically "cake lollipops" are decorated balls of cake , on a stick. 
simple , brilliant, and SO cute !
then again any food on a stick is pretty friking awesome, amiright?

Red Velvet Cake
its just instant cake from a box, it can be any cake of
your choice, but since its christmas, i decided to go with a
pretty red colour ~

Baked Cake
heres how it looks, fresh out of the oven

Crumble the Cake

- Let the cake cool completely, before crumbling the cake
into tiny pieces & remember its important to
NOT have big chunks, so sift through the crumbs carefully,
and take your time with it.

- Also mix 3/4 of a can of cheese cake frosting into

the crumbs. it`ll help act as a glue, for when you roll up

your cake into balls.

Cake Balls

- Take a small bit of your cake crumbles, and roll them
into a ball. if you ball has a hard time keeping its shape, try
adding a little more frosting into your cake.
- The cake balls should be the size of an average lollipop,

or as wide as a quarter.

- Set them out on a large baking sheet

- Let them cool in the fridge for a few hrs, until firm. or put

them in the freezer for an hour if youre in a rush.

(dont let them be ROCK hard, you just want them to be

firm enough to keep their shape, as youre inserting sticks

into them & decorating them)

Cake Lollipops

- Once your cake balls have been firmed in the fridge,

gently insert lollipop sticks, half-way into them.

White Chocolate
i used melted white chocolate for this one, since it seemed
to go well with the red cake & its Christmas theme.

- melt your choice of chocolate in the microwave, in 15 second

 intervals. Be sure to heat & mix your chocolate until it has a

smooth and creamy texture. You will be using this to dip &

drizzle your cakes !

- (Tip - it helps to always keep your bowl of melted candy

atleast halfway full, it makes it alot easier to dip your cakes,

in & out quickly.)

Drying Cake Lollipops
i used a large sheet of styro-foam, that
i bought at my local crafts store, to
help me cool my decorated cake pops.
i also bought a bottle of dragees
(edible balls of colored sugar)
(mine were a silver blueish color),
for additional decoration.
(Tip - it helps to keep half of your cake
balls in the fridge, as your working on
decorating the other half, because it
gets harder to decorate your cake balls
when they start melting & softening up.
They tend to slide down the stick or
crumble, when you start to dip them)

Making Gingerbread
(i sort of messed up on this picture, i wasnt suppose to add
 the brown sugar together with the spices, but luckily i was
able to carefully scoop out the sugar and use it properly.)

CAREFUL! i used this recipe to make almost 40 cookies, 

since i was using them for my gift-baskets, so if you dont

want a bunch of cookies on your hands, cut this recipe

in half!

- 6 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

- 1 1/2 tbs ginger powder

- 2 tbs ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp ground cloves

- 1 tsp ground nutmeg

- 1/2 finely ground black pepper

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

mix together these ingredients & set aside.

Creaming the Butter

- With an electric mixer, cream 3 sticks of unsalted butter.

- Add 1 cup of dark brown sugar, and beat until fluffy.

Adding Molasses & Eggs

- Add 1 cup of unsulfured molasses & 2 eggs into your

fluffy butter mixture.

- Gradually add in the flour mixture, and mix on a

low speed. (you may need to knead the last bit of flour with

your hands, since the dough will get harder to mix.)

Ginger Bread Dough
heres how my finished dough turned out~

Dividing Dough

- Divide the dough into balled thirds.

3 Balls of Dough

- Wrap each third in plastic, and let cool in the fridge for

atleast an hour or over night.

- Before rolling out, be sure to let the dough sit at room

temperature for 10 minutes, if its still too hard to

handle, heat the dough in the microwave for 15 seconds, &

knead with your hands until it softens.

- Or if the dough is too soft even after refrigerating, work in

a little bit of flour until its in a workable constancy.

Cutting Out The Gingerbread Cookies

haha! i couldnt help eating the one on the right, 

poor guy... no head or arms .

- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

- Place a dough third on a lightly floured counter-top and

roll out your dough into desired thickness.

(Remember that these cookies will almost double in

thickness when baked!) i had to make mine a bit thicker

since i needed to insert lollipop sticks into them.

- Use a cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread shapes.

- Feel free to decorate them with chocolate chips, raisins,

or candy if desired. (personally, i enjoy mine plain)

- Carefully insert the lollipop sticks into them, BEFORE

baking. (dont worry, the sticks wont burn~)

- With a careful hand, transfer them into ungreased baking

sheets, & bake until crisp, not darkened. about 10 minutes.

Make Your Own Royal Icing !
i never thought making my own icing would be so easy~

Recipe ;

- 1 egg white
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice

- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the eggs, lemon juice, & vanilla extract with an

electric mixer. Gradually add the powdered sugar until

stiff peaks form. (feel free to add more sugar if needed)

Pour the icing into a corner of a sandwich zip-lock bag,

and cut off a tiny portion of the edge. You will be using

this to decorate your gingerbread!

Decorated Gingerbread

i liked decorating only a few of my gingerbread cookies,

i the look of the natural plain ones ~

 too many faces & buttons seemed a little too hectic

for my taste. heh

Arranging the Finished Product !
oh my god.. as fun as it was baking all of these, it did take
a while~ , but they ended up looking so pretty! i love it!
i bought cute little Christmas baskets at a crafts store to use
as my gift baskets, they`ll usually have some on sale,
ranging from $1- $3 (for the bigger ones) not bad!
i bought the bigger baskets as group gifts, & Christmas
themed to-go boxes for individuals.

- to keep the gingerbread & cake lollipops standing, i cut
out pieces of styro-foam, to fit inside the baskets.
- i used shredded green paper to cover up the styro-foam

and for decoration purposes of course~

(you can buy shredded paper at a crafts store as well, or you

can use a shredder at home, if you own one)

they`re surprisingly pricey for just shredded paper....

Close-up of a Basket
this one was for Frankies Family~

Finished Gift Baskets !
i used a post-it note to write my "To's & From's" &
bought clear wrapping paper to wrap, but if you`re
planning on using the same sized baskets for all your
gifts, buy the ones that are already pre-sized.
i also bought (flexible-wired) red & silver trimmed ribbon
to tie these up ! Arnt they beautiful? hehe

These were made for the people who
mean the most to me,

Ho Family - (Frankies family & my second family)

Tiffany - ( my best friend since `05)

William & Lyn (my "brother" & his new girlfriend

(shes super sweet))

Josh (who is now a bastard, for being too busy to

pick these up!)

&

"The Group"(that attended the Christmas,

White Elephant party)

Jerry, Steven, Charles, Vivian, Jill, Andrew, Thomas,

Spencer, Danno, and whoever else was there! haha~

i hope you all enjoyed these lollipop`ed cakes & cookies~

i love you all & best wishes for the New Year !