the cake pop escapade

so i'm not sure if i can really call this an "escapade," but according to the free dictionary online an escapade is - "An adventurous, unconventional act or undertaking."

and i would say cake pops are definitely an adventurous undertaking.

disclaimer: this post is about cake pops, but includes other (food) pics from my niece's party!


anyway, for my niece's first birthday, my sister decided to do some cake pops, kind of as favors and decorations. we had plenty of food and delicious cake, but we really wanted to try these cake pops.

rachel borrowed the cake pop book by bakerella that i got from a friend for Christmas. she did the baking by herself and the crumbling, frosting-adding and ball-rolling with her friend danielle. they also wrapped the Styrofoam in wrapping paper and punched all the holes for the sticks. rach and i dipped and decorated the cake pops the day before the party.

a few words of advice:

• when bakerella says don't use "moist" cake mix - DON'T USE MOIST CAKE MIX. we aren't actually sure if rachel did, but the cake was kind of moist which made for difficulty in dipping. don't get me wrong - these cake pops still tasted AWESOME, plus she followed all the directions and even used less frosting to try to make it less moist. we kept alternating which tray was in the fridge/freezer to keep them hard so they didn't slip off the lollipop sticks, and that worked!

actually, i think that is my only word of advice. rach did the majority of the hard work, but these were still fun and tasted yummy! i want to attempt making them again, maybe for Josh's birthday next month.

cake balls - rolled w/ frosting, pre-dipped

dipping with sissy

(pic by Rach)

amazing cake by Betty's Cookie Korrell

rach did these super cute and quick cards for all the food

gotta love Mum's Magic Cookie Bars!

cute PB&J's made by Rach for the kiddos

Captain Bill (aka my dad) entertains the kids and the adults. Dad used to play at all our birthday parties (when we were younger). this brought back so many fun memories!

[weekend]

[chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting inside]


[added melted unsweetened chocolate & cocoa powder to marshmallow frosting to for the top]

[used melted white chocolate and blue & green food coloring to add the polka dots]
[the baby's colors are teal & brown]


baby mckenzie




its a boy! well, courtney and dan's baby is a boy!

[last 4 pics thanks to rachers]

and i thought it totes approps to add some snowy pics...

[view from my window]




[outside the office. not. plowed. my little two-door civic wasn't happy about all this this morning. i got stuck in my spot in the parking lot at the apartment. so irritating. and i'm pretty sure my car is stuck where it's parked now.]

• kristen and i watched two movies on tv this weekend. it sucks only because it means you commit over 3 hours of your time because of all the stupid commercials
• i did laundry at the laundromat at our townhouses yesterday. the thing that sucked was all my clothes didnt dry in the dryer and i didn't have enough money to put them round again. plus, i didn't need the whole $1's worth of 45 min...oh well.
• ALMOST went to hibachi on saturday. unfortunately, we didnt call ahead soon enough so we ended up at Damons. it was still a fun time with Josh's brother & sister-in-law.
• the pics above are from a friend's surprise baby shower. yay!
  

The Joys of Chicago

Can i just say i LOVE Chicago? it is by far my favorite big city [ok, i've only been to Washington D.C., Baltimore, Toronto [but only saw the airport], and Pittsburgh...if those are even considered "big cities"].

Our Sunday flights from Erie to Detroit to Chicago went without a hitch. We got into Chicago about 10 i believe [that'd be 11am Erie/Pitts time]. We got to our amazing hotel, i took a short nap, and we went to an absolutely insanely awesome place around the corner for lunch owned by The Cheesecake Factory - Grand Lux Café. The decor was awesome, let alone the delicious food. We had two appetizers, AJ got soup, and Dory & I had awesome entrées. We split the New Orleans Beignets for dessert...absolutely amazing. When we left the café, it starting pouring insanely, so we waited it out. I guess a bunch of flights were grounded going to Chicago, so we heard a lot of horror stories about waiting for flights and delays and missing luggage. We were so lucky to have left earlier!!!

Sunday afternoon we changed and went to the Merchandise Mart for a dealers-only showing of the Knoll Showroom. They had expanded from last year, and it was awesome! I took way too many pictures.

Sunday night we had a party at Shaw's Crab House for Spec Furniture, then went over to Hotel 71 for a party for Versteel in the Penthouse.

Monday morning was the Knoll Dealers' breakfast, where they unveiled some new things and gave us an overview of what's going on with the company. Then we headed back to the mart to visit some more showrooms [Nucraft, OFS/First Office/Carolina, Sit on It and Inscape].

Monday night we went to Fulton's On The River for a Sit On It party, then to Carmine's for dinner. It was soooo tasty, but i could barely eat all my food.

Tuesday morning our flight left at 10:10 from Chicago. Our Detroit-to-Erie flight was a little irritating...overbooked...boarding late...they filled up the fuel tanks too much for the Erie airport so we had to sit off to the side on the runway for about 45 minutes...turbulance sucked, i was at the back of the plane, i was tired & nauseas...but we got back to Erie at 315, safe and sound and tired...

I have a bazillion pictures, and you can check out my favorite...300...here. but here are some of my best of the best:

Grand Lux Café

Limencello Lemonade & White Sangria - Grand Lux Café

New Knoll Fabrics - Luxe Collection

More Knoll Fabrics

Knoll Showroom - Graham Collection

Knoll Stools

New Loewenstein Collection

Inscape Showroom - Conference Room

Knoll Fabrics & Ottomans

Chicago!

Nucraft - Neos Collection

pics and posts

i have way too many pictures from this weekend and am way too tired to talk about it...

i should be in bed now actually...

so, i've got all the pics on the slideshow below... 

hopefully that will suffice!

[i think every time you refresh the page a new set of pics comes up...there's probably almost 150 here...]

CHiCAGO

the days until NEOCON in Chicago are winding down...and preparations are being made! one preparation on my end was the purchase of this new camera. it wasn't just for Neocon, of course, also for my personal enjoyment and ability to take great pictures of my new found cupcake-making joy...

here are some samples i took after i bought it:

other preparations for Chicago include hotel & flight reservations and RSVP'ing to lots of events...here's what our schedule looks like so far:

Sunday:

• EARLY morning departure from Erie, layover somewhere, arrive in Chicago b/w 900am-10am
• Get settled, do some sight seeing, hopefully napping, having an awesome lunch somewhere, and getting ready for
• Knoll Dealers private showroom tour [my guess is this is a 430pm start time]
• Versteel cocktail party [in some hotel penthouse!] 530pm-700pm
  
• SPEC party - 700pm-900pm
  

Monday:

• Knoll Dealer breakfast [ugh, like 730am]
• 1100am Showroom tours w/ our KMA Reps
• Wander the Merchandise Mart
• Loewenstein cocktail party - 330pm [giving away iphones and nano's!]
  
• OFS / First Office / Carolina Showroom Grand Opening / cocktail party - 400pm
• Versteel cocktail party [yeah, another one...] - 400pm
• Sit On It cocktail party - 430pm @ Fulton's On the River
• Office Specialty cocktail party - 500pm [giving away macbook air's!]
• Nice dinner somewhere and hopefully hanging out with more of the KMA Reps

Tuesday:

• leave. at some point. get home around 300pm.
  

...lots of fun! i'm so excited :)