February 20 was my 1 year anniversary! I can’t even believe how far I have come. If you look at my first pics compared to now, wow, I have improved so much. And yet, I still have so far to go!  I want to start offering different flavors, but time for practicing has been short. It’s been such a busy year and I couldn’t be more thankful.

My time here in Alabama is winding down and soon  I will be moving to Kentucky, where I hope to open a full service cake pop store. It will be a huge jump and risk, but I don’t see myself doing anything else. I have tried my hand at many different things and this is the one I just don’t get bored with. I love making art with cake! It’s so much fun for me.

I would also love to start offering simple cake pop classes. I am not afraid of sharing secrets to my fans. Cake pops are a lot of work, but if someone wants to learn how to do it, then I will be more than happy to help.

Does everyone know how much work I put into these simple and small pleasures? I have many people who think they are too expensive and then there are some who know and tell me I don’t charge enough. Well, they are right!! I don’t charge enough. Right now I am charging $1.50 per cake pop. I start with a dozen minimum which is $18.00 Now for a simple round cake pop I can see $1.50 being a decent price. However, 95% of my work is a certain shape or character. It is very time consuming! Just to give you an idea…

1. Bake your cake – I bake 2 13×9 cakes of one flavor at a time

2. Allow your cake to cool for a couple of hours, at least

3. crumble cake with food processor  — very time consuming step– I have a 7 cup processor, so I can fit a 3rd of a cake into processor at once. So I crumble that up…add icing till I get the consistency I want. Then I dump that into another bowl. Then finish with the rest of the cakes in the same way.

4. Roll the cake into the perfect size balls– OH HOW I HATE THIS STEP!! Even more time goes here….

5. Either freeze or refrigerate the cake balls

6. If frozen, they have to sit out for awhile until they are room temperature.  YOU CANNOT DIP A CAKE POP WHEN IT IS COLD—-IT WILL CRACK!

Then sometimes they will get to soft, so back in the refrigerator to get a little firmer…It really is hard to find the right balance…just takes practice

7. If refrigerated, take out and shape them into whatever you are creating. This is my FAVORITE part. Because this is when I can use my creative side. Then they usually need to be refrigerated again to firm up.

8. Get your candy coating ready….another very hard process…I still am working on getting just the right consistency of candy coating. It’s like a science that I just can’t get!  TIP for beginners–you CAN NOT mix water with candy coating. The chocolate will seize up and ruin.

9. If your cake is ready and the right temp, it is time to dip!

10. Then there is all the little details and piping….

11. Then packing them in bags

12. Wrapping and curling ribbon

13. Get a cake box or whatever you choose and fill with paper shred and neatly put in cake pops

So there you have it, the very basic steps to making cake pops. There are so many more details to tell you, but honestly you would need a class or find a really good book OR just start practicing…BUT ANYWAY, my point to all of this is I charge very little for the time I put into these. Of course, don’t forget the cost of supplies–sticks, wrappers, ribbon, paper shred, boxes, cake supplies, candy melts, other utensils,and utilities!! I am sure I am forgetting something. But you get the idea…It’s not cheap friends. So I am sorry if you think $1.50 a pop is too expensive and I am really afraid to tell you…prices will be going up soon. LOL!

I am a stay at home mother, so my household duties don’t go away. I stay busy with the kids activities and Church and other things…so usually cake pops are done in the evening and at night. It’s not unusual for me to stay up well past midnight finishing up those orders. BUT even then, I still love it! I have my days where I am exhausted but when I see how happy my customer is when I hand my hard work and artistic creations over…it makes it all worthwhile!!

Usually when I have an order, I wait till the day before. Hopefully though I have a stash of frozen cake balls in my freezer. That makes life a little easier when all I have to do is shape and dip. And I am always getting last minute orders and the only reason I can fulfill those orders is because I have frozen cake ready to be thawed!

Last night I made mushrooms for the first time. A mom was celebrating her daughter’s 2nd birthday and the theme was Fairies..so she wanted cute little mushrooms. I am really happy with how they turned out!

I am telling you this because she sent me a text later in the day after the party and it made me feel so good! A little feedback goes far with me! And it’s appreciated!! She said, “Your cake pops were absolutely amazing!!! They looked awesome and tasted great too. Everyone was asking who made them so I hope we were able to get u some future business.” Things like this just confirm I am where I need to be! So thank you to all of my supporters for helping me get through this first year and keeping me popping!!!  I couldn’t have done it without you!! And to my biggest supporter, Mom, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! You have believed in me from day 1 when others did not and when others laughed. Your always the first to comment or call me and tell me how great something is. You are always pushing me to go farther! I just couldn’t do this without you and wouldn’t be doing this if you hadn’t supported me a year ago when I started this. I can remember sitting on my front porch going over all the possibilities and I remember how excited you were. =) Some people think I am crazy –I have a fancy education and a college degree, but I am choosing to do something completely different. But you have to follow your dreams folks! Life is too short to live every day doing something you hate. It may take awhile, but find something you love to do and make it happen!! And don’t listen to the naysayers! I have plenty of them and sometimes I find myself letting them in my head…but you can’t!

Okay, it’s not that big of a deal because it’s just a little blurb, but I am still beyond excited.

So my mom is a director/nurse at Vanderbilt Children’t hospital in Nashville, TN. She gets a lot of big time people through the doors taking tours or speaking. Well, yesterday Lelan Statom (News Channel 5 weather man) came to speak to a group of retired nurses. She knew a couple of weeks ago she wanted to give him something special so she told me to make a sampling of Thanksgiving pops to give to him. I said, “ok, I’ll try!” Shipping cake pops always makes me a NERVOUS wreck. And to make matters worse, some of these cake pops were extremely fragile. When I started to pack them my turkeys were already coming apart–nose, legs, etc. I fixed them and put them back in the box and wrapped them as good as I could. My other fear was they would melt. I shipped once with dry ice, but it gets really expensive. Since the weather has cooled down I chose to ship without dry ice. I was counting on them showing up melted and crumbled. I told my mom to have a back up plan!! lol!

But they arrived almost perfect!!  I was so happy. So yesterday when after Lelan gave him time to this group he received a basket of my lovely cake pops. And guess what? He had them on the counter with him this morning on TV!!

My sister texted me at 6:30. She had recorded the video from her phone and sent it to me. What a way to be woken up!!  =)

He mentioned my mom’s name and “KatiePops”

The video is poor quality because she was recording her TV. But at least I got to see it! Thanks Jenni!!!

A local school was having a transportation themed week, so I was asked to make a few different cake pops….any type of transportation…

So I chose cars, blimps, hot air balloons, airplanes, and boats. All of them were challenging, but I did it! They could all use some work, but for the first time I am pleased.

Halloween was fun! But it was a super busy and stressful time….and I am glad it’s over. Plus I am looking forward to all the other holidays to try new cake pops.

I just finished my Thanksgiving cake pops and I must say I am loving my turkeys! I haven’t seen anything out there like it. I like to make my own version whenever possible and not do the same ones most people do. Sometimes I just can’t get the creative juices going, but I did this time!!

Take a look…aren’t they adorable?!?

My other favorite is the cornucopias. Hope you like them!

Halloween is just 8 days away. I LOVE Halloween! It’s just a fun holiday. We always decorate the outside of the house spooky and make fun treats. In fact, 2 years ago is when I made my very first cake pop. They were pumpkins. Let’s just say I have come a long way since then!

First cake pops ever….

And today:

I was so excited to try so many different cake pops for this scary holiday. I finally did it a few days ago and I just LOVE how they turned out. Aren’t they cute!?!

Last night I cooked one of my best meals ever! We love italian food in this house. I found a recipe on Cooking with Sugar (love her stuff) for chicken parmigiana. Go here for the recipe and it even has a video to show you just want to do. http://www.cookingwithsugar.com/italian-chicken-parmesan-recipe-with-spaghetti-and-red-marinara-sauce/

I have tried making this before, but it just never turns out good. I’m a pretty good cook too! Just ask my husband. And to be honest, he’s always said he doesn’t like chicken parmigiana. So I was hesitant to try it, but I figured he could just eat the noodles and sauce if he didn’t like it. Good news– he loved it!!

I even made my own homemade marinara sauce for the first time ever (also Sugar’s recipe). I am very picky with my sauces. I’ve always used Bertolli or Classico for my italian dishes. But this was AWESOME!! I made a big batch and froze what I didn’t use.

So if you love italian food and love chicken parmigiana–check it out! Here are my pics.

Ohhh…and I shredded my own mozzarella cheese…big difference! Way fresher!

And a big thank you to Sugar for a great recipe!

i see so many people write blogs and write every day. How do they keep up with it!?!  I just can’t do it! But I will try to get better at it. But with everything going on, kids, husband, baking, etc…i just find it hard to sit down at my computer and actually write. But today was a computer day!

So what’s been going on with Katie Pops? Well, summer was a little slower, but it’s picked up here lately. I’ve done baby shower cake pops, Mickey and Minnie Mouse pops, Dinosaur pops, and just some pretty ones.

So that was most of my summer work.

Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions and I will do my best to get back to you!!

Lightning McQueen that is! I just did these little guys this morning. But wow, it took a LONG time to get it just right. I threw a couple away and almost gave up…but I got it!!!  And I think maybe these just took my favorite spot.

Okay, I know, I am sorry, it’s been over a month since I have updated. I am so much better at face-booking, than blogging. So if you would like to see constant updates…=) go to www.facebook.com/katiespops

So since my last post, I have been very busy making lots of different cake pops. And it’s graduation time, so last week and this week I have been working on graduation pops and summer pops.

Week before that I made teacher appreciation cake pops. I love these!!

And here are some more I did since last update:

This is the first day in awhile I have some time to write a new post and update things a bit. Easter is just a few days away and I have been so busy making lots of easter bunnies and easter chicks.

I held my first contest on Facebook. Once I got to 100 “Likes”  I used the order in which people joined and random.org to pick 2 winners. My winners received a dozen free cake pops (3rd pic above). They were super excited and I was super excited!  And now I have close to 200 “Likes”!!! YAY!!

Last weekend I was a sponsor for the Heart of BBQ pageant. There were 8 different age groups, and the winner of each received a cup of 3 katie pops. This was the first year for this particular pageant and Amy Oyler from Candy Bouquet of Dothan was the wonderful lady who put this on and I think she did a wonderful job!! I had so much fun watching my very first pageant and look forward to next year.

Next weekend come on out to the Tri-State BBQ Festival in Dothan. I will have a booth set up and you can purchase some of my cake pops. The festival will be a very fun time! Music, food, family entertainment, car shows….you don’t want to miss this. It is April 13-14 at the Houston County Farm Center. www.tristatebbq.com

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!!