Sticky Date on a Stick Cake Pops and Owl Cookies!! What a Hoot!

Yes l have been back in the kitchen and just begging for my new oven and dishwasher and new kitchen cupboards!!  I am forcing myself not to go outside to the garage where my new kitchen is just waiting for me ... calling me like a siren to look into it's beautiful reflection and then with a sudden jolt of strickening pain l stumble into one of the bench tops with a oh my **** golly goodness me l am struck back to reality with a no you can not use me yet!! ahrgghhh the pain!!!  But seriously a good thing l am staying in the kitchen where it is nice and warm and my creativity can flow!!  Because outside it is FREEZING!!!

  So this week l set myself the challenge of overcoming my fear of cookie decorating and to expand my repertoire from cupcake and cake master to royal icing cookie master!!  (well l am no master but hey everyone needs a bit of a self esteem boost)  Yes l did it!! I have to say l think they are pretty darn good for a first attempt and l just may have found a new love .... the art of the decorated cookie!!  There is something about piping an outline on a biscuit and then adding details and seeing it come to life!!  It is time consuming yes!!  It is wonderfully fulfilling and relaxing yes!!! And the cookies are delicious and seem much more appealing well hell yes!!!  I do have to admit though l did have to have a little help from an Amazing Blogger who provide me with the perfect tutorial to go into my kitchen with my number 2 nozzle and whip up that batch of royal icing with my dough hooks which is the best tip ever and produce cookies which with a bit more practice will be SENSATIONAL!!  So who provided me with such devine inspiration well it was ..... drumroll...... Louise from Cake Journal!!  She is the tutorial QUEEN and l salute thee!!  Here is a link to her wonderful tutorial and her site is just full of useful information that will have you baking like a pro!! http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-flood-cookies-with-royal-icing

Piped outline and flooded with chocolate royal icing

A masterpiece in progress

So think l can pretty close to the owl but didn't have right shape cookie cutter!!  Oh Well!

  A Great tip was to also use pasteurized egg whites for your royal icing as a precaution to not give anyone salmonella as the egg whites are not cooked.  So l went on the hunt to find some and apparently Farm Pride make a 950g bag of egg whites called Cutting Edge and it is in the freezer section of Coles so now l won't need to think of what to do with all my yolks when l make macarons or Pavlovas or meringues!  Perfect!!

  And in the same day l decided to conquer the cake pop!  Yes l went to my milkbar and bought myself some copha so l could get my chocolate to a candy melt consistency as for the life of me l have not found anyone here locally stocking them and with a bit of help from my facebook friends l figured out that copha and chocolate would do the trick for coating my delicious sticky date balls!  So into the kitchen l went with my left over sticky date pudding from the weekend and my left over butterscotch sauce and yes l got in there with my hands and crumbled my cake and mixed in my sauce and l felt just like a little kid again playing with my food as l felt the mixture ooze through my hands and gosh it felt good!!!  I will make cake pops more often and get the kids in there next time as it is most therapeutic!! They are really simple to make and great for left over cake or cake that has fallen apart when you have taken it out of the tin!  I used to just make mine into a cake tiramisu but now l can fashion my cake into a little ball and insert a stick, dip it in some chocolate and then l have a fancy bite size cake that everyone will enjoy!  Big and little kids!  I am inspired to have a bit more of a play with these and grab a copy of Bakerella's book Cake Pops as she is the queen in this domain!  She did have some cute owl ones that she makes but the hard thing is displaying the pops and so far l don't like the stands they use to sit them upright so l will stay on the look out until l find one or something l like but for now they will sit inside the ceramic egg crates which fit the cake pops perfectly!

Sticky Date on a stick and getting chocolate with butterscotch flavouring ready to coat

My finished pops with chocolate sprinkles but look a bit boring so will pimp them for the party

  Well l am going back to the kitchen to bake me a chocolate butterscotch tart and chocolate mousse quenelles  ..... is your mouth watering yet???