Cupcake Pops & Cupcake Bites

For these Cupcake Pops you will need:

 1. 1 13X9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch … any flavor)
 2. 1 can cream cheese frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent from scratch)
 3. 1 flower shaped cookie cutter (1.25″ wide X .75″ tall)
 4. 1 package chocolate bark
 5. 1 package pink candy melts or white chocolate bark
 6. bowls for dipping
 7. wax paper
 8. aluminum foil
 9. lollipop sticks
10. sprinkles, m&ms or something similar for top of cupcake
small plastic treat bags and ribbon to package the Cupcake Pops
candy cups and truffle boxes to individually package the Cupcake Bites
styrofoam block

1. Bake a cake from a mix or from scratch and cool completely. 

2. Crumble cake into a fine consistency into a large bowl.
    TIP: If the texture is too coarse, you can run it through a food processor.

3. Add can of cream cheese frosting or homemade frosting and blend together using the back of a large       spoon. Blend thoroughly.

4. Roll mixture into 1.25″ – 1.5″ size balls and lay on wax paper covered cookie sheet. You may want to periodically rinse and dry your hands off in between.

5. Cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for several hours. 
    TIP: You can speed this up by placing in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

6. Remove. Begin to shape into cupcakes using a small flower-shaped cookie cutter. (see below) Take the chilled ball and roll it into more of an oval and then slide into cookie cutter. Push it into cutter until about half fills the cutter and the rest sticks out of the top in the shape of a mound. Then push the shaped cupcake carefully out of the cookie cutter from the bottom. Set right side up on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Continue with remaining balls.

7. Once shaped, cover and return to freezer. (5-10 minutes)
TIP: You can leave them covered in the refrigerator overnight if you want to do the dipping on the   following day.

8. While cupcake shapes are chilling, begin to heat up your chocolate bark.

9. Brown chocolate bark for the bottoms. Pink or white chocolate for the tops.

10. Follow the instructions on the package for melting. Most recommend heating for 30 second intervals at a time and stirring in between. You can also do the double boiler method.

11. When you are ready to dip, remove from freezer and set up another wax paper covered cookie sheet.

12. Take the cupcake shaped mixture and dip bottoms into the melted chocolate – just to the point where the mounded shape starts. Remove from chocolate, turn upside down and wiggle so that the excess starts to slide down slightly. Then lay on the wax paper upside down. If you want them to be lollipops, then go ahead and insert the lollipop sticks while the chocolate is still wet. Continue with rest of the cupcakes. You can also leave some without the sticks. They’re just as cute as Cupcake Bites. 
TIP: Dip end of your lollipop stick in the melted chocolate before inserting into chocolate bottoms. Not sure if this helps a lot, but it couldn’t hurt. 

DON’T – get water in the chocolate. Make sure your hands are completely dry. Water will cause the chocolate to separate and mess up all your hard work.

13. Dry completely. (15-20 minutes)

14. Once dry, dip the tops of the cupcakes in the pink or white chocolate. You may need to move it around a little to cover all the exposed areas.

TIP: Let the pink chocolate sit for a few minutes after heating to thicken. This will help it from dripping down the sides of the cupcake.

15. Remove from the pink/white chocolate and turn right side up. You may need to hold and rotate it if there is any excess so that it doesn’t drip down too far. 
TIP: You can use a toothpick to help cover any areas the melted chocolate didn’t cover.

16. For the Cupcake Bites – just turn right side up and rest on the wax paper. Then go ahead and put a m&m on the top and add sprinkles while wet.

17. For the lollipops, Continue holding and place an m&m on the top and add sprinkles. Let them dry in a styrofoam block that you have already poked holes into.

18. When completely dry, cover the lollipops with small plastic treat bags and tie with a ribbon.

19. For the Cupcake Bites, place in a candy cup and package in small candy truffle boxes to present individually.

Makes about 50.
You can store these in an airtight container and they will last for several days. You can also store in the refrigerator if you would like them cold.

Video Instructions from the Martha Stewart Show

Valentine Heart Lolly

The original Valentine Treat Box is by Angie Kennedy Juda. On her blog you will find also the video how to make it.

The Valentine Heart Lollies I found on this blog.

All you need are candy canes (here used mini ones) and lollipop sticks.

Place candy canes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Remember to leave enough room for the sticks.

Bake at 300 degrees for ABOUT 5 minutes.  All ovens are different so watch closely until you decide the right time for your oven.  Bake until you just see the candy cane melt.

Place a stick in the candy canes.

Pinch candy canes around the stick.  The candy canes and pan will be hot so be very careful!

Once completely cool you can wrap them up and you have cute treats!

I think they also make really great cupcake toppers. I had to break about 1/2" off the stick to make it fit into the cupcake.

TIP: Try to create other things...  here are some suggestions!

As long as the candy cane is hot it is elastic. If the mass gets cool, befor you are finished, just put your sculptie once again in the oven.

Jam-filled Heart Cookies

For these cookies you will need:

1. A Rolling Pin
2. two nesting heart-shapped cookie cutters
3. Sugar cookie dough recipe + ingredients
4. Extra flour & powdered sugar
5. Red jam
6. Cookie Sheet

First step is to make the dough – or  pretend you made the dough. When I use pre-made dough, I always add just a little bit of flour so it doesn’t stick to everything.

 

Next you’ll need to roll it out. I recommend 3/16″ (just a little less than a quarter of an inch) because you’ll be putting together two cookies in the end, so it gets a bit bulky. This also depends on how much your dough rises.

 

Once you’ve rolled out your dough, go ahead and use the cookie cutters to cut the big hearts in the dough. At this point you’ll want to cut little hearts in HALF of the big hearts.

I just made a few cookies because I didn’t want to eat a dozen or so. If you are going to make a lot of these, I would recommend making your own dough, that pre-made stuff is expensive.  But if you really need to save time, it only took me about 20 min from start to finish to make these awesome cookies.

Next you’ll want to bake the cookies. Just follow the instructions on your recipe. The hardest part of this whole thing was transferring the dough to the baking sheet without ruining the shape. Here are the cookies after they were baked. I also baked the little inner hearts, but had to do it on a second sheet.

I let the cookies cool for about a minute on the pan, then they are easy to move to a paper towel or cooling rack. The assembly of the final cookies is pretty easy. I had the cut-out hearts on one side and dusted them with powdered sugar. Then the whole hearts I covered with a thin layer of jam – a bit thicker towards the center.

The final assembly consisted of placing the dusted hearts on the jammed hearts. Viola! Beautiful jam-filled heart cookies! These were so so yummy, I’m going to make a big batch for Mr. ??? to take to him on Valentine’s Day!

If you are wanting to make the dough from scratch, I found this super easy recipe here.

Raspberry Sandwich Hearts
Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for work surface
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup confectioners (powdered) sugar, plus additional for dusting
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract

Filling:
½ cup seedless raspberry jam or raspberry preserves

TIP: Use standard measuring cups and spoons or scales for accurate measuring.


Dough:
1. In a medium mixing bowl, sift flour and salt together. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and confectioner sugar; beat together until mixture is smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula so the mixture blends evenly. Add vanilla extract and almond extract; stir until blended. Add flour mixture; stir to mix.
3. Form dough into a 6 inch flattened disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Baking sheets may be ungreased, lined with parchment paper, or lined with a non-stick baking mat.
5. On a lightly floured pastry mat or pastry board, and using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into hearts or other desired shapes using a 2½ inch cookie cutter that has been dipped in flour (to help prevent dough from sticking to the cutter.)
6. Using a 1 inch heart shaped cookie cutter that has been dipped in flour, cut out the center of half of the 2½ inch cookies. Re-roll the scraps, or bake the 1 inch heart shapes separately.

Bake:
7. Place cutout dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set and the edges are very lightly browned. Remove cookies from baking sheets with a metal spatula and place on a wire cooling rack to cool.

Filling and Assembly:
8. Leaving a ¼ inch border uncovered, spread about 1 teaspoon of the raspberry jam over each cookie without the middle cutout.
9. Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the tops of the cookies that have the middle cutout with confectioner’s sugar. Place the cutout cookies on top of the jam-covered cookies.

Makes about 2 dozen cookie sandwiches.