Happy Breakfast, Happy Birthday!

Have I told you lately, that I love... my Happy Face Pancake Pan?  You should order one too :)

It was perfect for starting my 4 year old birthday girls day off just right.  Colored pancake batter and happy faces?

Happy Breakfast, Happy Birthday!

Four The Birthday Girl

So, I bit off more than I could chew and ended up elbow deep in colored batter in the wee hours of the morning in preparation for my little one's 4th Birthday.  I had seen the beautiful Polka Dot Cakes online and wanted to try my hand at it.  I was feeling brave, confident, and really excited!

My first challenge was to make cake pop balls.  These are not the same as cake balls so I had to borrow a friend's pans.  After hearing the nightmare stories of cake pop ball failures, I studied up and had a great experience thanks to combining tips from several blogs:

adapting a cake mix for cake pops:

http://thebabycakesshop.com/tips-and-recipes/2012/10/help-using-boxed-cake-mix/

Randi | 4 November, 2012 at 7:07 pm

I really found a neat way to covert a box mix. Substitute one cup milk for any water content, use no oil add an egg. Works Great!

http://homemakerchic.com/2012/08/24/how-to-make-fool-proof-cake-pops/

first time over filled a little much and didn’t let it cool long enough.  Most of them were fine, but had to redo a few.  Had to use a butter knife to pop them out.

spray the outside of the pop pan so the overflow won’t stick… oops!

Second time filled just over the brim and cooked only 13 min.  Cooled 5 min on rack then 10 in the fridge.   Almost released on their own!

Freeze overnight.

http://www.nordicware.com/how-to-videos   cake pop video

I wish I would have used baking spray instead of greasing/ flouring.  It left a flour residue which is fine for the cake, but not as pretty for using the balls as cake pops.

I was feeling good.  Things were sailing along.  I had two days left.  I was full of anticipation for the final result!  

Once the cake balls were frozen, I thought this would be a breeze.  Just throw them in the pans cover them with batter and... VOILA!  Beautiful, pinterest worthy Polka Dot Cake by Crumpycakes.

Things started out well... but I was wrong.  The cake balls rose to the top of the batter instead of sinking down.  I had to cut the tops off the cake and ended up with half ball polka dots instead of beautiful rows of balls.  

This was the first Crumpcake Wreck in my opinion and I was devastated.  DEVASTATED.  I could have cried, but I was too tired.  I wanted to throw it away but I just trimmed and stacked and in the end... it was still fun and perfect for my girl's Candy Land party. 

The good news was... salvaged... it was still delicious and so fun!