Category Archives: General

How to Make Disney Princess Cake Pops

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Cake pops are the “in thing” at the moment, and are very popular for birthdays, baby showers, and gifts in general. Here are some I made recently for my daughter’s Disney princess themed birthday party.

Disney princess cake pops

For the cake ball mixture I followed Bakerella’s recipe, which is for 48 cake pops, but halved the ingredient quantities to just make 24 pops.

I baked a 6″ round cake and used most of it. Plus about 7 oz frosting (buttercream). You can find the recipe for 48 pops by doing a simple Google search for “Bakerella cake pop recipe.”

Crumble the cake, using a food processor or by hand. Then mix well with the frosting.

Roll the mixture into balls, I did mine a bit less than 1 inch in diameter, and place on a baking sheet covered with wax paper.

Place the balls into the freezer for no more than 15 minutes, then put them in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use them.

For the crowns, I rolled out some pink rolled fondant (sugarpaste) and cut it into a crown shape. Roll it round into a crown, then leave it to harden. Once it’s dry, you can stick some edible glitter on using sugar glue or melted candy melts.

To cover the cake pops you’ll need candy melts, which come in a variety of different colors. I used white candy melts and mixed in pink coloring, adding more to make deeper shades of pink as I went along. You’ll need approximately 1 oz of melts for each cake pop you’re going to make.

Follow the instructions on the candy melts packaging to melt them. Use a deep a bowl as possible to make it easier for dipping.

Just take a couple of cake balls out of the refrigerator at a time so that they don’t get too warm.

Get a lollipop stick and dip the end into the melted candy melts, then insert it into a cake ball, about half way.

Dip the entire cake pop into the bowl of candy coating, and remove in one go, without stirring if possible. The whole of the ball needs to be covered. If the coating is too thick, add a few drops of vegetable oil or shortening. Let any excess coating fall off into the bowl. Make sure that the coating has reached the lollipop stick so that the cake ball is secure.

Place each cake pop stick into a styrofoam (polystyrene) block to dry.

Now it’s time to decorate!

For the princess pops I colored some candy melt mixture a deeper shade of pink and put it into a piping bag. I then piped the word “princess” around the cake ball, and stuck one of the crowns I’d made earlier on top.

For the sparkly hearts, I made the cake balls into heart shapes. After rolling the mixture into a ball, I pushed it into a heart shaped cutter, then placed in the freezer/refrigerator as before. Straight after dipping in the melted candy I dipped into a plate of sprinkles (you need to work very quick here!)

For the swirly cake pops I colored some candy melt mixture a deeper shade of pink and piped it onto each cake pop. On some I stuck little sugar flower shapes as I went along, before the swirls dried.

Now for the Cinderella’s coach cake pops!

The wheels need to be done at least a day in advance. Using modeling paste (rolled fondant mixed with CMC powder or gum tragacanth), or Mexican paste / flower paste, you need to roll out a long thin sausage of paste. Shape it round into wheel shapes and leave to dry.

You also need to roll out a curved line of paste to act as the part that holds the wheels together.

Once completely dry, stick the wheel support onto the back of each wheel so it holds them together (use sugar glue, royal icing or melted candy melts). Allow that to dry.

The trickiest bit  is to get the wheels stuck onto the cake pop! I found royal icing worked best, although you can use melted candy melts too. You’ll need to support the wheels against the cake pop until it’s dried completely.

Then, using a piping bag, pipe candy melt mixture on to make the coach door and top.

To display them, I used a square cake pan, placed styrofoam blocks in the bottom, filled with shredded tissue paper and pushed the sticks into the styrofoam blocks.

The candy melts went down a storm at my daughter’s party and were a huge hit. It was my first attempt at making them, and although not perfect, I don’t think anyone noticed!

If you’re interested in learning more on how to make cake pops, get tips and see lots of designs, I’d highly recommend the Bakerella book-

Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More Than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats (US)
(UK link)

© Sweet Celebrations by Jo

Disney – Transforming Imagination to Reality

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By Guest Blogger Kathleen Hubert.

Many can list Walt Disney’s accomplishments as easily as they might list items on a grocery list. Disney created Mickey Mouse. He produced the first full-length animated movie. His amusement park, Disneyland, became the first theme park. Disney formed the first multimedia corporation. Disney’s achievements are truly impressive, but more impressive still may be the impact that he and his company have made upon the world and world culture.

Mickey Mouse, Disney’s first unqualified success, appeared at a time when the world was in the first throes of the Great Depression. Mickey’s indomitable spirit, as well as the technological advances that Disney displayed in those first cartoons, struck a chord with movie-going audiences seeking signs that neither the human spirit, nor humanity’s ability to progress into the future, had been irreparably damaged by hard times. People became invested in Mickey Mouse. In rooting for Mickey, audiences were cheering on their own success as well.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, was the first full-length animated film produced in full color. If Mickey Mouse had symbolized a hope that the human spirit could overcome obstacles, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs seemed to prove it. The message that good could prevail against evil, without sacrificing qualities like innocence, loyalty and friendship, was a message sorely needed on the eve of World War II.

The Snow White movie was based on a fairytale published by the Brothers Grimm, two sibling German academics who collected folklore. These fairytales were the myths of Germanic culture, and as myths, were ripe with symbolic meaning. Disney, whose talents lay more in technological artistry than in narrative, would turn again and again to fairytales for ready-made stories, often stripping away the sometimes dark and violent aspects of the original tale for his family-oriented audiences.

For generations, parents had repeated folkloric tales to their children as a family tradition. After Disney, stories told to children would undergo a dramatic change. Today, fairytales are more likely to reflect Disney’s modern sensibilities. This came about, in part, from Disney’s business acuity. Disney was savvy enough capitalize on relatively-new genre of family films. While Disney is sometimes considered a champion of mainstream values, his personal interests always lay more with technology and innovation.

Nothing illustrates Disney’s fascination with technology as does his movie, Fantasia. A life-long music aficionado, Disney pushed forward technology to enable Fantasia become the first commercial film screened in stereophonic sound. The extent to which Disney established a high standard for technical achievement in the film industry – and in the entertainment industry as a whole – cannot be underestimated. This standard of excellence affected higher education as well, establishing new curriculums in colleges and universities. Disney himself founded the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, not only contributing substantial funds to the college during his lifetime, but leaving one fourth of his estate to the institution when he died.

Throughout his life, Disney remained committed to family entertainment. Disney embraced television early on, using the medium to build his multimedia conglomerate. In the early Fifties, Disney began to envision an amusement park that would provide families with a safe and clean alternative to midway and country fairs. He purchased 160 acres of land in Anaheim, California, and with a fresh palette before him, focused as much on urban planning as he did on the individual attractions.

Disneyland illustrates many aspects of Disney’s personality. The park opens on an idealized “Main Street,” a portrayal of small town America that evokes images from American cinema as much as it does reality. That Disney was partial to Main Street cannot be denied – he kept offices in the park overlooking it – yet only a few steps away from Main Street is “Tomorrowland,” representing Disney’s enduring fascination with technology. Disney’s commitment to family and to the future has surely impacted all of our lives.