A Month in a Mommy Minute

Where do I begin?... I have neglected my blog this month, and to make matters worse, it's been a very eventful, blog-worthy month! We left off at Halloween. (I know, it seems like forever ago.)  But first, on October 28, Brayden turned 11 months!

Three days later, we celebrated Brayden's first Halloween!

Watching daddy carve our pumpkins.

Our little pumpkin sitting "pretty" with the lovely Chloe
at their first-ever Halloween party!

The pumpkin costume was a hand-me-down from his cousin Alexei!
Brayden had a great time trick or treating with our neighbours.

Enter November.  We kicked off the month by heading north to Haliburton for a Laurier girls (and our families) reunion at Sarah's gorgeous family cottage.  I always look forward to our get-togethers but this one was extra special.  Lisa, who was expecting her first baby, was just 5 weeks away from her due date so we decided to throw her a surprise baby shower!  Having our hubbies up there with us worked out really well, actually.  They took the kids outside to explore on the Argo while we ladies enjoyed some peaceful girl time.

The beautiful and very pregnant, Lisa!

All the kids!
(L-R: Brayden, Mariah, Avery and Caden is behind the couch)

(Follow up note: Lisa and Tim ended up welcoming a baby boy into their family on November 21.  Baby Jakob arrived 3 weeks early!)

November has also been a month for home improvements!  The most notable has been our fireplace.  It's been a little over one year since moving into our home and we finally got the mess of a fireplace replaced.  Yahoo!  Our new Napoleon gas fireplace and custom mantel make such a big difference in our family room.

Before

After

This takes us to the end of the month.  As many of you know, November 28th marks a very momentous occasion for our family.  It's Brayden's birthday! (I experience a mixed bag of emotions at just the thought of my baby turning one.) Stay tuned for a follow-up post dedicated specifically to Brayden's 1st birthday!

Halloween Cake Pops

Cake pops have become so popular lately.  I first saw them at Starbucks about a year or so ago and ever since they've been popping up everywhere!  I've yet to taste a cake pop but their cute decoration and sheer unique presentation finally got the best of my curiosity prompting my next kitchen challenge.  I'm going to make cake pops!  I figured Halloween would be a good time to test my abilities -- Not only because it's scary that I'm undertaking such an ambitious task but also because I thought pumpkin cake pops would be relatively easy to decorate.  (I didn't want to take on too big of a challenge with an overwhelming decoration element.)
So, here's what I did and how it all turned out.

I started with a standard cake mix and baked the cake as the package directed.
(I went vanilla because I figured chocolate would be too dark thus too difficult to cover in orange later on.)

Next, I mashed up the beautifully baked cake. This felt so wrong but was so much fun!

Then, I added vanilla frosting to the cake morsels, making a perfectly mouldable dough. (I used about 3/4 of the icing can.)

After chilling the mixture for at least an hour in the fridge it was time to get my hands dirty.  I rolled about a tablespoon of dough in the palm of my hand to create a nice round ball.

One package of cake mix yielded 30 healthy-sized cake pop balls.

Next, it was time to put the sticks in. In order to help the pop stay on the stick better, I melted some chocolate and dipped the tip of the stick into it before inserting in the cake ball.

Then, I let them set in the fridge for about an hour.
This step is very important.  I learned this the hard way...  If the sticks aren't secured into the centre of the cake pop well enough, then they can't hold the weight of the chocolate when dipped!

Next comes the decorating part. (My weakest point.)  "Simply" dip each cake pop into melted chocolate (you can use chocolate Merckens discs which are available in a variety of colours and are readily available at Bulk Barn!) In order to get a pumpkin look, I used orange Merckens on some pops and milk chocolate on the others, adding some edible orange glitter and green Jelly Belly's to top it all off.

I can't say I'm overly impressed with my final product but I am happy I gave it a go and have satisfied my curiosity of wondering how these are made. 

For anyone interested in making your own cake pops, here's what you'll need:
1 package of cake mix (and everything needed to make it)
1 can of frosting
Lollipop sticks
Coloured chocolate discs
Styrofoam
Anything else you want to use for decoration