On June 24, 2011 my cousin Ashley’s childhood friend Priscilla got married right down the street from my house in Huntington Beach!

And for 3 days before then, Ashley and I worked on these! Oreo and Vanilla cake pops!



Yumm these were my favorite. I’m def an oreo type of girl!



Edward may or maynot be trying to convince us to go to the beach. hahaha.



Oreo Cake Pops
-makes about 40-50 pops
- 1 pack of Oreos
- 8oz package of cream cheese
- 1 bag white melting chocolate ( Do not use Nestle white chocolate chips, they won’t melt thin enough to dip your pops cleanly. And you’ll run into a mess of problems. Use Wilton or preferably Mercken’s Candy Melts, or any other chocolate meant for melting/coating.)
- 1 bag dark chocolate
- 1 bag light blue chocolate ( or whatever color you want)
- lollipop sticks, about 100

1. Finely crush oreos in a food processor, add the softened cream cheese and mix. (I like to mix these with my hands!)
2. Form balls about 1 inch wide, chill in refrigerator.

Vanilla Cake Pops
-makes about 40-50 pops
- 1 box white cake mix, baked
- 2/3 can of white frosting

1. Bake cake as directed on box, cool, then crumble into a bowl.
2. Add frosting a little at a time, mixing in between. It quickly goes from being too dry...too sticky. And you don’t want them too sticky.
3. Form balls and chill in refrigerator.


The steps are pretty much the same from here, so I’m going to combine the two!

4. Melt your white chocolate, we used Mercken’s Candy Melts in Super White and Dark Cocoa, as well as Light Blue for the decorations.
5. Remove pops from fridge, dip end of a lollipop stick in melted white chocolate, and insert into cake ball. Allow chocolate to harden, then completely dip balls into white chocolate. Be careful they aren’t too cold or else the chocolate will start to crack.
6. For the grooms: Melt dark chocolate and dip pops, leaving V of white in the front for the bow-tie and buttons. Then melt blue chocolate, using a piping bag, pipe bow-tie and buttons.
7. For the brides: Use white chocolate in a piping bag, drizzle chocolate onto the pops to make the dress “ruffles”. Repeat with blue chocolate leftover in the piping bag from the grooms! Pipe dots around the top for the matching necklace.

Cake pops are a challenge at first, but once you do the motions over and over it starts to get much easier. I suggest being very patient, its hard for me sometimes, haha. Or get yourself some assistants to help ya out =]








I really enjoy making wedding cake pops, so if you or anyone you know is getting married anytime soon, let them know about Hollicakes Wedding Cake Pop Favors!




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I LOVE making cupcakes for special events, especially weddings! So when a friend from high school asked me about cupcakes for her wedding shower, I was so excited!

We ended up deciding on half chocolate, half lemon with a pastel pink and white theme! And of course cute little ring toppers =]

I whipped up the chocolate cupcakes so fast I didn’t end up with any pictures. But you guys have seen my chocolate cupcakes before, right? Yep. And same with my swiss meringue buttercream, which is what I used on these cupcakes. I just dyed half of it pink for the chocolate cupcakes and added a little lemon zest to the rest for the lemon cupcakes!

Lemon! Mmm oh how I love when my kitchen smells like lemon zest.



Hello baked cupcakes!



It is hard to see in the pictures, but I loaded these cupcakes up with edible glitter to match the sparkly ring toppers!



See?







Congratulations Kim!


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Last weekend I was lucky enough to be able to make cupcakes for a wedding! A friend from high school ordered them for her sister Janine Jarman’s wedding, who you may have seen on the TV show Shear Genius a few years back. A dozen red velvet and a dozen lemon cupcakes. The wedding colors/theme I had to work with were mint green, peach, and pastel blue with a vintage-like feel.

Simple enough right? I decided to stick with my favorite frosting, a swiss meringue buttercream for both. Tinted light peach for the red velvet and an elegant white for the lemon cupcakes. I found some pearlized sugar sprinkles in ivory and mint green that matched perfect with the theme! BUT, there was still something missing. Back to the cake supply store I go...... And it was there I found what I was looking for; light yellow mini frosting roses to top off the cupcakes!

Being the procrastinator that I am, I left myself with only half a day to bake, decorate, photograph and box up these cupcakes. So thank you to my boyfriend/assistant for remembering to take these pictures =]




Red velvet cake batter in the mixer!



I don’t know why but I LOVE this picture. Maybe because it’s my lil’ KitchenAid, or maybe because I can see my favorite color blue reflecting in the metal, or because red velvet cupcakes are being made. Who knows, I just know I love it.



These came out PERFECTLY rounded, I was so stoked.




Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color (I added a little extra to get a darker red color)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Hello beautiful cupcakes!






Lemon Cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla.

Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.





Swiss Meringue Buttercream

5 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt


1. Combine egg whites, and sugar in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved and whites are hot to the touch, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Transfer bowl to the electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix on low speed, gradually increasing to high speed, until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes.
3. At low speed, add butter to egg whites, and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and salt, and continue mixing until incorporated.





Mmm lemon!



















Thank you so much to my friend Corie for thinking of me when ordering cupcakes! And congratulations to Matt and Janine! Check out A Shear Genius Wedding in People Magazine!

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