HUGEKINs AKA Cake Pops

OKAY I am going to admit this. 

CAKE POPS SCARE ME.

I've eaten them and they taste great but the whole baking them scare me. I've heard stories of how difficult it is and I don't even want to get into that ( e.g. my friend Hanhie Poo).  If they make machines for perfect cake balls, it must be hard right???

My viewpoint of them changed after reading a blog post from 'a Beautiful Mess'. They make baking Cake Pops easy-peasy so I decided to make some for Chinese New Year last weekend!

I followed the recipe..sortof. 

Apparently 1 box of cake mix makes ~50 cake pops but I was only able to make 25 -____-!!! Therefore my Husband called them HUGEKINs because you needed to take a break in between bites from being so HUGH and Sweet.

Recipe:
1. Bake the cake as instructed on the box. I used Red Velvet because Red is a lucky color for Asian New Year and hey its red velvet!
2. Wait for the cake to cool and then add in the frosting. I used the 12oz Cream Cheese Frosting but other recipes have used 16oz. I thought 12 was just fine to use.
4. Mash the frosting into the cake. This can be done with clean hands BUT I don't really like that so I used a fork instead.
5. Roll into ball shape (a inch all over?) and place onto cookie sheet.
6. Freeze for 30 minutes or so.  I used both the Freeze and Refrigerator (refrigerate for 2 hours or so) method and with the freezing method, the icing for the cake balls looks ALOT BETTER so freeze it!
7. Melt the white chocolate and add 1 tablespoon of oil to prevent seizing.  I used just regular white chocolate chips and melted them in 15 second intervals up to 1 minute.

8. Gently dip the cake ball in the white chocolate using a fork. I didn't have lollipop sticks so I placed them in mini cupcake liners.

Funny or Not-So-Funny Story: I showed these to my dad and he starts LAUGHING OUT LOUD- like seriously laughing. My response, 'Dad- they don't look THAT BAD'. I still have no clue why he was laughing at me. I guess that's where I get my random outbursts of laughter from.

Once you started eating these HUGHKINs, there is a little surprise hiding in underneath.

One thing you should know about me. I LOVE shopping the after holiday sales aisles.
LOVE IT.
When I saw the red lace paper dollies, I couldn't resist. I only bought 1 pack after getting the evil eye from the husband. I wanted to be a bit crafty and use my leftover dollie sheets from the wedding and the red heart and BAM romance and cuteness right there!

 I forgot where I got this idea from but I think its a cute idea to use it as a labeling tool.

Yay for day-after Valentine's Sale! 

OUR WEDDING: Hot Beverage Bar 101

Me and the Hubby aren't totally into sweets and didn't want to have a dessert table just to have a dessert table. Thinking outside the box and something that reflected us, we thought,   'Wouldn't it be cool to have a Keurig table?'  I started furiously pinning for inspiration. I even made a Beverage Bar Board (HERE). Our game plan: Set up a table of Keurig machines and multiple flavors so guests can pick their own flavors and self serve.  The flavors: 

My biggest worry was how can I make something so robotic, more romantic? hmmm...What else can these hands make? HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS AND SUGAR CUBES!!!!!!!!!!!! O YA! Perfect toppings for your hot cocoa or coffee/tea.  Heart Shape Marshmallows-  Tutorial HERE I won't talk about 'the incident' in which I drove to every supermarket in my area for those darn jumbo marshmallows, or that I  LITERALLY was on sitting Indian style on the floors of TARGET emptying those shelves looking for those darn jumbo marshmallows. As I was about to have a heart attack because it was 3 days before my wedding ( SLACKER- YES!), this angel/sales associate 'Marvin' found them in the back storage room.  Heart Sugar Cubes-  Sugar cubes ( found in your local supermarket) Honey and toothpick mini heart sprinkles First I used the edible marker method-  CRAPPY! The ink bleeds onto the sugar cube so my hearts do not look like hearts, more like a disfigured C's. I've heard of people using ketchup but I AM NOT using ketchup on sugar cubes for my guests.  1. With a toothpick grab some honey and place it on the sugar cube.   2. Stick a heart sprinkle on the honey. Press lightly.  3. Leave alone for 1 minute  ( I am extra cautious). Done!

To help our guests with how it works, we made steps: 1. Pick a flavor...                          2. Brew it!                         3. TOP IT OFF!

Thanks JY for taking photos of my beloved sweat and tears! These are SERIOUSLY THE ONLY PHOTOS I HAVE of the Beverage Bar. So sad but very grateful!

Because I love making signage so much, I made a toppings sign.

.. and that is how our KickAss Hot Beverage Bar came to be. 

TIP: When thinking of ideas for your wedding, it doesn't matter what you do as long as it makes you happy!!!! You are the bride, do what YOU WANT! Who cares about theme or colors. If you want a dessert bar, DO IT. If you don't care for it, then DON'T.   For me, I didn't care if it stuck to a theme or not, all I cared about is 'does this represent a part of us'.  Include items/things you want but don't do something just because it is the thing to do.  Happy Planning! 

HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is our first V-DAY as husband and wife and I am so ecstatic to have him here with me. He came to VT this week for work and it was soooo hard to study with him around! All I wanted to do was ...DON'T PUKE.. cuddle but after a few days of getting use to him around, I was able to buckle down and study for my exam this week.   Since his visit was a bit last minute we have no plans tonight so we are just going to wing it.  In keeping with this lovely day, I thought HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS!!!!  They are perfect for sharing with friends or your sweetie. 

Whether as an eat alone (no judgement here) or served on top of Hot Cocoa.

What you need:  Miniature heart shape cookie cutters(~0.89 cents) Jumbo sized Marshmallows ($3.26 each found year round at Target) Powdered confectioners sugar Make sure to get the JUMBO SIZE! The regular size marshmallows were too small for my mini cookie cutter. 

I apologize for not taking clearer photos but I hope my directions are clear.  1. Prep the surface you are working on with powdered sugar and pat your hands together with powdered sugar so the marshmallows won't get stuck to you.  2. With the JUMBO Marshmallow - slice it into 4 circles. Pat the sticky ends with the sugar.  3. Using your mini cookie cutter, make the hearts. Again pat the sticky ends with sugar.  4. Eat your masterpiece!

http://www.marthastewart.com

TIPS: If you can't eat all of it at once, store in a large gallon size Ziploc bag with powdered sugar. For Hot Chocolate, add some whipped cream, cinnamon, or peppermint sticks for favor if you like. For the adult version, add peppermint schnapps. Enjoy! 

Our Wedding: Invitations

The process of my invitations is a bit too long for one blog post so I will have to separate it into different posts! Not sure how many but follow me if you would love to learn more! ***

I love the vintage letterpress embossed look but after checking online for pricing, it wasn't worth the cost for me. 

I'm not a perfectionist but it took me a longggggggg time to figure out the design of the invite but once everything came together, I was very happy with the end result. THANK YOU PAINT!

The Easy:
- Theme color is plum and silver so I made the font that color.
- I was going for the bare branch look for my wedding so I added that as a backdrop to my invitation.
The Hard:
- I didn't know the right words to say.
- I didn't know if it would look better centered or if the words looked better there or here.
- I had so many drafts!!!! Sometimes I wish I was more creative or even have the Photoshop program to learn how to do these things better.

When it came down to printing at staples, it was bad.
I had to drive back and forth from home to staples 3 TIMES.

The first time, I didn't save my document on PDF so when they opened my invite, it didn't look like how it was suppose to. WHAT A WASTE OF GAS! ARGH! Still annoys me to this day.

Lesson Learned:
Whenever I go to Staples for a print job, carry laptop with me....Just in case.

and
always save your document on PDF.

I stayed too long at Staples and the reason being, I could NOT for the life of me make up my mind on what type of paper to print on.

 Silver, ivory, or velum,???

Seriously, I just wanted to slap myself silly with these minute decisions. I had to print out samples and contrast them against my envelopes before making a final decision.  
As I think back on it, I don't know how these little things got to me. 
BUT I WAS CRAZY.

Thanks babe. I think we got it. 

In the end the silver made my purple font pop out more to the color I desired and it happily matched my color theme! 

Project costs: Staples Pearlized Cardstock 1.39 each. 50 sheets (100 invites) for $70.66 w/tax

and the cutting continues...

Back to the grind

If you look closely at the photo, you can see what else I was working on for invitations.
In a future post coming to you!

TIPS:
For more ideas on how to make your invitations creative, scour all the wedding blogs! MY favorite invitation website to be inspired from is ohsobeautifulpaper.com. There are so many pretty stationary projects/DIY on there.

Microsoft paint/word skills: Saves the Dates Magnets

After receiving our engagement photos from the talented Ms.Shang Chen (more photos HERE!), we wanted to personalize our Save the Dates with them. Since I am not a pro whatsoever in Photoshop my go to is paint and Microsoft word. My favorite functions is Ctrl-c and Ctrl-v!

After living with the Mister he throws away anything that isn't of use whereas I love to hold on -slash- HOARD memories. Which led to -> if you can have another use for it, you keep it around longer, and

TA DA

Save the Dates Magnets

!!!

Our save the dates were very simple in terms of design but clear in terms of message: Here's our website and code for more information about our wedding. No invitation needed. RSVP Online!

Side note: We highly recommend Appycouple as a wedding website! It was very easy to use and a cool feature it offered was the downloadable app so all the information would be easy to get right off your phone as your driving to the event. (Get it? APP-y Couple!!!!)

***

We bought the adhesive magnet sheets from Micheal's and printed my design on photo sheets using our home printer.

1. We printed 9 magnets per 8 x 11 sheet and had to cut the sheet into thirds for easier cutting and less damage on your photo. (3 x 2.5 dimensions for 1 magnet)

2. Carefully place the photo on the adhesive and once it touches, it won't be able to get off. THIS ADHESIVE IS NO JOKE- IT WAS VERY STRONG!

3. I have read on other DIY sites to use an exacto knife but we found that really hard to cut through the photo AND thick magnet roll so we just used scissors and just tried to cut it as straight as possible using a ruler. I would also suggest buying a strong paper cutter because it is also useful for future projects AKA invitations! 

4. ....and a mess later.... YOU'RE DONE!

Project costs: Magnetic Roll $9.99 ( with Coupon paid $4.99). I had supplies for everything else lying around the house so it didn't cost much at all.

TIPS:

For arts and crafts, use AC Moore and Michael's 50% coupon.

I highly recommend getting the Magnet roll from arts/crafts store! They are pretty strong and are still standing on my fridge after 6+ months. I have read up on issues with the Avery printable magnets sheets from printing problems to the magnet not sticking strong enough on the wall, etc.