Football Cake Pops

In addition to the other Superbowl activities we've done (please see my previous blog post!), Molly (4 ) and I also made cake pops for everyone! We have a Bella Cake Pop and Donut Hole Maker so that makes it quick and easy! You can also find a recipe online to make them without a maker - it involves baking a cake, cooling it, crumbling it, mixing it with frosting (yum!), and rolling it into balls. Ok, now we're at the same spot!

Now, melt some almond bark or candy coating in a microwave safe mug; the deeper the better. First dip your sticks into the melted almond bark before poking them into your cake pops. This s a good (and clean) job for your little ones! Once they are hardened a bit, dip the whole cake pop into the mug of almond bark to completely cover it. We used chocolate flavored for this part, so it would be the color brown ... and delicious. After all our cake pops were covered, I melted a small amount of vanilla flavored almond bark and put it in a plastic baggie. Snip one end and use this as a frosting bag to pipe football laces onto each cake pop.

Hey! If you made your own cake pops, instead of shaping them into spheres you can make them shaped like little footballs! And the stroke of genius amazes me. (Dripping with sarcasm...) hehe

Meanwhile, to display our cake pops and serve them at a party, Molly and I like to poke them into a green foam block for flower arrangements. You can find them really inexpensive at Walmart. First, though, we cover it with aluminum foil so it looks nice, and you can also decorate the foil with stickers or permanent markers.

Also try making these cake pops at a sports theme birthday party, end of the season party for your kids' team, or even homecoming. TOUCHDOWN!

Superbowl Snack, Craft, and Activity

The Superbowl is practically a holiday for most people: the food, the game... the commercials!! Here are a few fun ideas for you and your kids for the big day tomorrow.

Naturally I have a football shaped cookie cutter that I had to put to use this year. If you don't have a football shaped cookie cutter, you can always draw your own template on some cardboard to cut out. Simply place your football shape on the food of choice and use a sharp knife to carefully cut around it. Now... what to cut? You can make mini football sandwiches, football shaped garlic bread, football shaped pieces of pizza, football shaped sugar cookies... the list is endless. I've chosen to make football shaped slices of watermelon and try to add a touch of "healthy" to our buffet of traditional treats!

No matter what snack you serve, you can always serve it with toothpicks! Here's a quick and easy way to turn your toothpicks into mini flags to cheer on your team. Cut out two different sizes of diamonds in the team colors. Each miniature flag needs one larger diamond, about 1.5" tall at the shortest side and one smaller one, about 1" tall at the shortest side. Glue the smaller diamond onto the middle of your big one - each a different team color - and fold them in half. Fill the middle with some glue and stick in the tip of a toothpick, then let it dry. Your mini flags will look great stuck in cupcakes, cheese cubes, sandwiches or even your drinks!



Thanks to my Amazon Kindle, I found a great app for the kids to play during the boring parts of the game tomorrow: "Flick Kick Field Goal", available for Android devices for $.99. Of course you can also make your own "flick kick" game by cutting out a football from cardboard and flicking it with your fingers into your opponents' waiting "field goal" (made by holding two "L" hands together at the thumb). Enjoy the game!