Caramel and Rainbow Flavours

Since I won't be attending the July Farmers Market I've decided to spend my break doing some testing.

Firstly a new caramel flavour.  I made a caramel mud cake that I mixed some buttercream into but I wasn't entirely sure the flavour was "caramelly" (!) enough.  I then put my thinking cap on - I could add some ready-made caramel but then I didn't want to have to eat the leftover caramel as I'm sure it can't be frozen.  I could make some caramel by boiling a small amount of condensed milk; but, again, I didn't want to have to eat the leftover condensed milk.  I searched a few recipes for ideas and came up with a caramel I could make on a small scale to add to the buttercream.  I am happy to say that it did the trick and I now have an all new flavour - Caramel Mud Cake with Caramel Buttercream - yum!!

Rainbow cake pops have been floating around my head now for some time.  I've seen a few variations on the internet so I had a couple of ideas on how I would like mine to look.  I decided to try out another flavour for these, white chocolate mud.  I mixed the batter and divided it up, put the colour in and then baked them in these fantastic mini cake tins I have.  It worked beautifully.  I then had to decide how to get six different "dough" mixes to resemble a rainbow.

I tried the "bullseye" style first - to anyone that has successfully achieved this effect, I congratulate you!  My first attempt had just three colours and I was already at the size of my usual cake pop - my three year old got to eat that one!  In the end I realised that to get the effect, and stick to my standard sizing, I would need to roll some dough out and then cut circles out of it - I made a total of two in the end.  I've decided that the "bullseye" style is not for me!!  It looks amazing, but it's just too time consuming for me!

Rainbow Cake Pop - Bullseye

My final two ideas were a "layered" look and a "blocked" look.  Happily, these were much less time consuming than the previous ones!  I love the look, especially when you are greeted by a white coating and have no idea what is underneath.  I gave a couple out to people and got a resounding "wow" from all.

Rainbow Cake Pop - Layered

Rainbow Cake Pop - Blocked

I am now moving on to some more character cake pops.  I hope to do some experiments with Yo Gabba Gabba; Cars; Star Wars and The Muppets.  Wish me luck!!