Trash to Treasure

In preparation of my husband leaving for deployment in a few short weeks, I've been planning projects. So far, those projects have involved Craigslist, $50, heavy lifting and two hideous pieces of furniture with a lot of potential.

I'm not a fan of the shabby chic thing, so these need a BIG makeover

My husband, who is having trouble visualizing said potential, was aghast when I came home with these pieces. I will admit, in their current condition they are going to stay tucked away in our garage because they are, well, pretty hideous.

So I had to prove to him that with a little creativity, you can turn trash into treasure!



Had I not been so excited, I would have taken before pictures of the items used. Whoops... I'll try to remember that next time. But I found a picture online of a DIY candle holder using old vases and random candlesticks. I grabbed two vases that were collecting dust in our cabinet and Wal-Mart provided me with two candlesticks, two candles and split peas (how great is that idea?!?!) A little glue later and voila! They cost me less than $10 to make.

And hubby did not think these were hideous. Hopefully this has increased his faith in my upcoming decorating endeavors?

Cake Pop Project

Earlier this week, while looking for creative projects on the web, I stumbled onto this image.

Oh stop it. Really? Those are awesome!

However, other than the easily-recognizable chocolate chips, I had no idea what they were or how to even begin making them.

Google provided me with the following information:

They are cake pops. You mix icing and cake together and roll them into balls, put a stick in them and dip them into candy coating.

Sold.

I worked at a bakery in college and loved when a customer came in with a challenge like that. I figured out cupcake cakes (cupcakes arranged and then iced over in the design of a dinosaur or a bike or whatever) way before they started appearing in Martha Stewart, and my absolute favorite thing was making wedding cakes.

Which, by the way, made for a hilarious story at our wedding, when the cake decorator at Cinotti's Bakery got confused (after letting her know I used to do wedding cakes and the multiple meetings, pictures, sketches, phone calls and email reminders).

picture I gave them vs what showed up at the reception

So when I walked into the wedding reception and saw a BLUE cake, I almost fainted. And then I almost died laughing. I mean, really, at that point, what else do you do? (Yeah, everything at Cinotti's is delicious, but don't use them for your wedding cake.)

Okay, back to cake pops. So I figured, how hard could they be?

A few trips to the grocery store and Michaels later, project get-cake-all-over-the-kitchen was in full swing.

Step 1 -- Bake cakes, then crumble into bowl. (I also added red food coloring to the white cake mix.)

Step 2 -- For each box of cake mix you used, mix in 12 oz frosting. (Again, added the red food coloring prior to mixing.) I also added mini chocolate chips to the mixture to look like seeds!

Step 3 -- Roll out the balls.

It's entirely possible I was so excited about this that I did it at 1 a.m. after I got home from work. Haylie was keeping me company (and cleaning whatever I dropped on the floor -- good dog!).  

Step 4 -- Dip them in the coating. Put in the sticks.

This is where I started to have some trouble. If you just put the stick in and try to dip them, they fall off the stick. After staring at them for a while, in my now-2-a.m. daze, I realized the chocolate will also work as a glue. I dipped the end of each stick in the chocolate, stuck them in the balls and then put the tray in the fridge overnight to set up. It worked!

Step 5 -- Now dip them in the coating! Melt the chocolate according to directions. After burning a lot of chocolate in my bakery days, I now use this method: microwave 30 seconds, stir 15 seconds, microwave 30 seconds, stir 15 seconds, microwave 15 seconds, repeat, using 15 second intervals until melted.

Step 6 -- Let cool. I used a piece of styrofoam and it worked great!

Step 7 -- Dip again, this time in green candy coating. I found the green, pre-dyed candy coating I got from Michaels to be much easier to dip and significantly thicker.

Step 8 -- Let cool.

Step 9 -- Eat!!!