Sweet Escape 2: Owl cake pops

Cute! And SO yum..

Cake pops. Easily the most fun and most delicious thing I’ve ever made. I read a lot of baking, cooking and craft blogs, and my favourite is http://www.bakerella.com. Her website is where I got the idea to make cake pops. She’s very creative, and from the photos of her intricate work, very patient. She’s just published a book (Cake Pops) and I’m expecting mine to arrive in the mail any day now.

I know I now have 2 owl related posts in a row, but that’s just the way it worked out. I thought they’d be easy to make because they have round little bodies. I don’t have any step by step pictures for them at the moment, but I’m making a bunch next weekend, so I’ll remember to take some then.

The basic idea is this:

1. Bake a cake 2. Make some cream cheese icing 3. Crumble the cake, and mix the icing with it to make a dough-like consistency 4. Make into whatever shape you want 5. Insert lolly pop sticks in the bottom 6. Dip in chocolate and decorate

Ok, it’s a lot more complicated than that, and really really time consuming. If you want to know all about it right now, visit Bakerella’s website. Otherwise, enjoy the photos and stay tuned for a cake pop how-to (Eva style) in about 2 weeks. But for now…more owl pops!!

Oh hi! We're delicious!

Check out Mr Back Row Second From the Left...he's got a little crazy-eye goin' on!

What? Owls are nocturnal!

Sweet Escape 1: Owl cake

Owl cake pre-party

In May this year I made an owl cake for my friend. His girlfriend (also my friend!) asked me to make a cake for his birthday, and an owl was the theme we settled on. Themed cakes are traditionally thought of as being for children, but I don’t agree with that. Adults are just as impressed by fancy-lookin’ cakes as children are; possibly even more so, as adults are better able to appreciate the time and effort involved in making cake look like a bird.

I can’t post a recipe with this one, because I don’t remember what I used, but it was a butter cake with buttercream icing. I baked one big rectangular cake, then put it in the freezer for a few hours so it was easier to cut. Then I used a big knife to carve the owl shape. Two different amounts of cocoa powder were added to the buttercream icing to make 2 different shades of brown. His chest feathers were sliced almonds, his eyeballs were large chocolate melts, around his eyes was chopped Milky Bar, his beak was a carved piece of Milky Bar, and his feet were cut ice cream wafers.

I need to thank my Mum here, because she was visiting that weekend and helped me with the decorating process. Some of my ideas were a little…ambitious, and she helped me see that before I wasted an hour trying to do something that couldn’t be done.  For someone who doesn’t really bake, she’s quite patient and calm in the kitchen.

I didn’t attend the birthday party (hanging with my Ma), but I’m told the cake was received well, and the birthday boy was as excited as a child (as evidenced in the photo below!).

Owl cake being the life of the party

Look at that grin!

Sweet disclaimer

Most of the photos I post on here are going to be of average quality, at least for a while, because I don’t have a fancy camera. In fact, most of them have been taken using my phone. Just sayin’.

Sweet beginnings

Starting this blog has been difficult. It’s my natural tendency to put things off for as long as possible, and with something as personal as a blog, there are no deadlines to motivate you.  Except ones that you set for yourself, and I’m not really in the habit of listening to myself at the best of times. I’m also really good at over-thinking things, and this has been no exception. Who’s my audience? Depending on who my audience is, what tone will my writing take? And what about content? Am I posting recipes and photos only? Am I writing stories? Should I just post all my old baking photos in one big post and then start from there? Will anyone even read it? So after ‘discussing’ these finer details with myself for a while, I decided that I had to start somewhere, and that somewhere is here: my first Sweet Escape Baking blog entry. Considering if you’re reading this you’re probably a close friend of mine, a member of my family, or a friend of my Mum’s (hi guys!), I’m not going to bother with a personal introduction. But if by some universal accident you don’t fall into any of these categories…my name is Eva; I’m 27; I live in Melbourne, Australia; and I love baking.