Cake Pops Recipe

In recent weeks I've made two cakes that involved carving bits off a square cake to make its shape. Not wanting to waste these bits I froze them to make into cake pops at a later date. If you've got any leftover cake you don't know what to do with here's how I made mine:

Ingredients

Leftover cake

Chocolate equalling half the weight of the leftover cake 

Wilton's candy melts

Sprinkles

cake pop sticks

Something to stand them up in until they dry (polystyrene/oasis)

Put the cake (now defrosted) into a blender and turn it to crumbs

Melt the chocolate and mix with the crumbs

Form the mixture into balls with your hands and place in the fridge for 10 minutes

Melt the candy melts, dip the end of a stick in the candy melts and push this into a cake ball (not too far or the ball will break)

Next submerge the cake pop in the candy melts to cover it, spin it as you remove it and stand in some oasis or polystyrene. Sprinkle over your choice of decorations.

I found the Candy melts easy to use, but I need to have some more attempts at this before I get a smooth finish. The candy melts can be thinned by adding some vegetable oil - but I didn't want to thin them too much and find they didn't stick to the cake as I only had one packet!

I'm going to BritMums Live

Discussing this at the school gate, one of the Dads misheard me when I said I was going to a blogging conference and now thinks I'm going to "a Blondie conference". Why on earth anyone would be holding a conference around Deborah Harry beats me. Maybe he got it wrong, maybe its a conference on white chocolate brownies? (Fingers crossed)

I think there will be less rock'n'roll and probably a similar amount of cake to these two suggested conferences at BritMums Live (where I am actually going). So I'd better introduce myself to my fellow delegates:

Name: Kath

Blog: Knitty Mummy (but you knew that, I think the knitted letters at the top of the page might have been a hint!)

Twitter ID: @knittymummy

Height: 5' 11" (so if anyone needs anything off a high shelf, just ask)

Hair: Brown and depending on the weather it will look either lovely and smooth or insanely frizzy!

Eyes: Er, Hazel I think - it depends on the light

Is this your first blogging conference? Yes. I didn't really know about it until it was happening last year and then I spent the whole weekend being jealous on twitter.

Are you attending both days? Yes

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013? Spending the weekend with good friends and meeting people in real life.

What are you wearing? I'm going to be wearing something homemade, I'm sure my Frida Kahlo skirt will be making an appearance.

What do you hope to gain from Britmums Live 2013? I want to learn stuff about blogging, but I don't know what I need to learn (there isn't a National Curriculum of blogging, so I'm not sure what I don't know). I'm just going to throw myself in and see what sticks!

Tell us one thing about you not everyone knows: I applied with a design for this year's Gromit Unleashed trail in Bristol. I didn't get one, but I'm glad I tried (and with a little camera trickery I'm going to make it look like I did!)

Want to see who else is going? Click here

National Blood Week - Could You Be a Donor?

I've been donating blood since I was 18 and a lot of things have changed in that time to make it a more pleasurable experience. The biggest change has to be the appointment system, which means a lot less waiting around. It used to be a painfully long wait, but not any more. It also means that giving blood around your other commitments is much easier - I can book an appointment whilst my son is at preschool and I know I'll be done in plenty of time to pick him up.

Recently I've seen the introduction of some very comfy chairs that swing backwards whilst the donation is being taken and the best change of all - CHOCOLATE BISCUITS! I'm not just talking chocolate digestives; I mean proper chocolate biscuits - Penguins and Clubs.

As part of National Blood Week I hope I can encourage someone else to become a donor. I'm sure you would be nervous first time, but believe me although it does hurt a bit it lasts just a moment and then its fine. I find the worst part is trying to pull the plaster off afterwards - so it can't be that bad can it!

Still unconvinced? Would the fact that each unit of blood donated is split into its constituent parts and could save up to three lives persuade you? Or what about the fact that the number of regular donors has fallen by 23% in the past 10 years? Don't think that the blood service has all the donors they need, they always need more.

Please go, you'll get a biscuit!

If you are interested you can find a donation session here blood.co.uk