Post Cake Pops Fever

After finishing my cake pops project just a day ago... I was still not 100% well..... And guess what the cake pops have not yet been delivered to all the friends cause of a particular lazy person... Hmm... They will reach the concerned people tomorrow, so I am still waiting to hear some feedback on them....
So, today I decided I really needed a full day of rest just to recover my health....  Spent the first half of the day watching Filmfare awards on the internet which was a lot of fun... :) Miss watching the various award shows...
And in the afternoon while I went in to get lunch, I saw the 3 big ripe bananas staring at me.... Vikram had abandoned them as he was also not feeling too well... I knew, he would toss them to the dustbin when he saw them.....
I thought I had rested enough for the day and decided I would bake up a loaf of banana bread for one of our friend's mother and boyfriend who were visiting her in State College and it would be delivered to her along with the cake pops.... So, after a few hours.... Out came a loaf of Banana Almond bread for our friend and banana cupcakes for us... Looked good.... So, I wrapped them up and they are all ready to go tomorrow....

Here a few pics:

Cake Pops!

Well, I spent the next 2 days researching about cake pops... I was all excited to try this new thing and I thought it was perfect to give it to some our friends, especially Binh the girl who sent me candies for V day...
So, I went in over drive mode and baked 2 boxes of cake mix... Chocolate & Strawberry.... While the cakes were cooling, I started burning up... I was feeling too tired and was thinking, had I bit more than I could chew??!!??? There were 4 cakes in front of me!!!!! Gosh!!!!
I pushed myself and made a batch of chocolate and vanilla frosting, so that I could retire for the day... I mushed up the cakes with the frosting and stuck them in the refrigerator.... I wanted to see them no more..... And as it turned out I did not see them for next 2 days... Cause I fell ill and was too tired to think of cake pops.... Slowly I felt better enough to finish what I started, so out cake the cakes and I took the whole day about 6 more hours to complete the job.... And yes, I had bitten more than I could chew, especially during a time when I was not very well and no one to help me.... I realized cake pop is a fun thing to do with a group, it can get a little tedious with one person trying to make a 100 cake pops... Well, but who asked me to make a 100 in the first attempt???!!!?? (Well, I thought it would be great to give all our friends something fun in 2 flavours instead of only one, yea right)

Finally the task ended and I was VERY happy with the results... there were just 3 causalities, the pops fell of their stick while candy coasting or else i would have made exactly a 100 cake pops!!!!
I let them dry for the night and packaged them the next morning....

Here are a lot of pictures...
I was against spending 15$ just for foam to stick the pops in for drying... so I have improvised to sticking them  in all the empty boxes i could find in my house including the empty pizza box.. Hehehhe... It worked...

Wilton Course 2, Class 2 & Valentine's Day

Last Tuesday was Valentine's Day and it was quite an eventful day for me, but not related to St. Valentine or the general theme of Feb 14th...
I was sick and woke up early wishing to get an appointment with a doctor.. Rang up the two hospitals in our town and found out that one did not have an appointment for the next 15 days and the other did not accept my insurance company... Was worried for sometime, then remembered a Medical Express clinic I had visited for my DL test, they were a walk in clinic... Rang them up and they said they accept my insurance... Thought of seeing a doctor itself made me feel so much better.... Went to the clinic and was seen by a very nice lady doctor... This was my first time visit to a doctor for any illness in US.... And it was such a great experience... So clean, so warm and friendly....
After this, I went and picked up Vikram from his college and we decided to go for an Indian buffet lunch... We had another couple our friends from Guatemala : Gaby & Jose join us to... The mediocre lunch experience was saved by their company...  One of Vikram's classmate a very sweet Vietnamese girl  had sent me V Day goodies bag ! How sweet... It was small red paper bag with kisses and hugs chocolate candies and some other cherry candies and 2 heart shaped plastic rings... It was SO sweet.... That was the hi light of the day....
Then in the evening I went to my cake decorating class and Theresa as promised had got us a cake pop each from her weekend extravaganza... I out it aside and went about the class....
We learnt to use the royal icing to make various flowers.... It was not very simple but the flowers were really nice when done well..... They need lot of practise!!!!! Ughh... I am always so lazy to go home and practise anything related to icing...
So, after I went home I remembered about the cake pop that was tucked away in my bag... It was a tiny little thing and I shared it with Vikram... And boy was I bowled over... I am not much of a chocolate or dessert person so this tiny little thing was just perfect for me... It was over even before I realized I was eating something sweet and chocolatey... :) That was the charm.... :)
Then began my obsession with cake pops.

Wilton Course 2 Class 1

This time around the 2nd course started on a relaxed note, no cookies or cakes to bake, no greasy buttercream to make.... Which makes us all very happy... We just had to buy the gum paste & fondant to make the flowers.... This course is all about making different real looking flowers to decorate our cakes and cup cakes...

There were only 2 students in the class, me and another girl named Catlyn, surprising her husband is also a student at Penn State, she said he was doing his PhD and she was working nearby... Perks of being in your home land... Our instructor was the same as before Theresa... We got a lot more attention than we usually do...
The class was a lot of fun since it was just making these wonderful flowers with a 'clay like' dough, seemed more like an art class... She also taught us how to make the Royal Icing, which we would be using to make other flowers... She also asked us to sweet talk ours husband's on the occasion of Valentine's Day to get Kitchen Aid's... Wish we could!

Here are the pictures of the flowers:

Starbucks Banana Walnut Bread

While I was in the kitchen making get my ingredients ready for baking the chocolate cake, I saw 3 very ripe bananas turning black in the fruit basket. Hmm, the best way to use them was to make the banana walnut bread, it had been a while since  made it... So, I looked up for a recipe and found a Starbucks recipe in a blog...
So, I made a loaf of banana bread as well.. I usually do not eat many fruits and among them banana is my least favourite fruit.... But I love eating banana bread, its a great combination with the walnuts. Its a recipe I know that I will be making a number of times in the future.....

PS: I had no problems with the recipe or the bread tin for making this loaf of bread. It rose beautifully and tasted great.

Here are a few pictures.