Salted Dark Chocolate Lollipops

I really love Sweet Confections by Nina Wanat. The book is stunning to look at. I've spent hours pouring over the lush photos. Making candy is definitely outside my comfort zone. I've made toffee and caramel sauce, but I wanted to try the lollipop molds I bought a few months ago.

I was really nervous around the boiling candy. There are no picutures because I was too freaked out to snap photos. My hands were literally shaking like a leaf while I gently spooned the hot candy into the molds. I could barely sprinkle the sea salt onto the molds. I was still afraid even though I was aware that I needed to be safe and made precautions (a huge bowl of ice water at the ready in the sink) in case I splashed the hot candy on my skin. Don't worry about the chocolate strings on the side of the lollies. They break off really easy.

I made 2 batches which produced 36 lollies. I own 3 lollipop molds with 6 cavities each, but I wish I owned more so that I could have made more lollies. After I filled the 3 molds, the candy was starting to harden. I took a piece of parchment paper and gently picked up the mass of leftover candy. While it was still warm, I molded the chocolate by carefully covering it with the parchment paper and rolling it between my hands which formed a chocolate log. I cut the chocolate into chocolate bits using kitchen shears. Fun!

Stellabration!

Stella turned 3 last month. I don't even want to get into the whole "how did that happen" conversation, so I'm just going to skip to her Stellabration! She wanted her party to be filled with pink butterflies. I added orange so we didn't find ourselves drowning in pink.

Stella requested a butterfly cake, vanilla cupcakes, butterfly cookies, cake pops, and candy. Sadly, I ran out of time which meant something had to give so we'll do cake pops another time. I added rice krispies treats on a stick. Next time I make them I plan to dip them in white chocolate, then wrap in cellophane to make a portable treat. I originally planned to use these mini butterfly cookies as cupcake toppers, but I used them to incorporate color into the rice krispies treat display. I also used them to make a border around the cake.

I love how these butterfly sugar cookies turned out. The pink is really bright. I used sixlets to add texture to the middle.

The butterfly sugar cookies made really cute cookie pops. The kids at the party really loved the cookie pops. I thought it would be kind of tedious to bake the cookies on a stick, but I followed these guidelines from Glorious Treats. It's hard to see, but the small square bowl is filled with butterfly gummies. I filled the large jars with pink Whoppers and tangerine sour balls. Guests were encouraged to fill the "Goodies to Go" bags with as much candy as they wanted!

I included bunting on the cake which spelled out S*T*E*L*L*A! It's kind of hard to see, but I found the bunting here by The TomKat Studio.

Where's the birthday girl? I'm hoping my husband caught better photos, but all I have is this one! Stella requested that she wear her pink "pretty" dress and pink Chuckies. I love my girlie tomboy!

Club: BAKED: Buckeyes

Have you ever wondered how they get the texture of the peanut butter filling in a Reese's? It's somehow moist yet manages to be slightly crumbly? I always thought it was magic. I do believe the BAKED boys know the answer: graham cracker crumbs and confectioners' sugar. This is my introduction to the tasty Ohio treat known as the Buckeye.

The recipe made 60 treats (!!). I didn't want giant gobs of candy, so I made the balls smaller then suggested and next time I might even make the balls smaller. I tried to rush through the chocolate coating which is never a good idea. It took several tries before I managed the coating technique. I kept imaging Grandmas scattered across Ohio making these delicious treats. What method would they use to coat the peanut butter balls? I have no idea, but I found it easy to drop the entire ball into a shallow pan of melted chocolate, then gently rock the pan back and forth until just the right amount of peanut butter was exposed to make it look like a Buckeye. I used a chocolate fork to retrieve the chocolate covered candies.

I shared these treats at our friend's party. Everyone gobbled them up as they raved about the great flavor. Next time I might add a scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt to balance the sweetness. I briefly considered using crushed gingersnaps instead of graham crackers, but maybe next time. Thanks to Karen for for hosting this week's recipe. Be sure to check out Karen's post for the recipe and the baked creations by members of Club: BAKED.

Lollipop Molds

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of these lollipop molds I bought on Amazon from a Canadian store. Tick tock. Are they here yet? No. How 'bout now?

I've eaten just about every candy available, but my candy making experience is very small. I view candy making as more chemistry-related then baking. I made this awesome Salted Chocolate Pecan Toffee last year. I cooked it a little too long which kind of made it take on a slight coffee flavor. It was not perfect, but people enjoyed it. I watched my Dad make peanut brittle every Christmas since I was old enough to eat it! I love that crunchy, peanutty candy. I've never made lollipops before. I stumbled upon a recipe for Salted Chocolate Caramel Lollipops in Sweet Confections by Nina Wanat via CakeSpy.

Seriously, can you think of anything more tempting? I love the flavor combo. The lollipop might encourage me to savor the flavor.