The Bee's Knees

Aren't these cake pops just the cutest things you've ever seen?! But before you go getting any idea's, No, I didn't make them (Bakerella, queen of cake pops did) - But I plan on it.

Next Friday at work we are having a Bake-Off for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. I haven't been with the company long enough to have experienced one of these bake offs yet, but apparently they mean serious business!

There are 4 awards: Most Decorative, Most delicious, Most delightful (taste & presentation) and the Encouragement Award.

Of course I'm aiming for the Most Delightful award, But seeing as this will be my first attempt at making cake pops there is a chance that instead they may look a little less like Bakerellas delightful bumble bee's, and a little more like these guys -

Sorry to whoever's cake pops these are (winner of the Encouragement award I'm sure), I admire your attempt!

The cake pop is a relatively new idea to me, and judging by the blank faces that look back at me when I talk about them, they seem to be a relatively new idea to Australia! Or am a living in a cake pop-less bubble world?
A quick google search will tell you that the rest of the world is onto this trend, and for good reasons. For those who, like me a week ago, don't know what a cake pop is, its a small bite of moist cake goodness on a stick. You take a cake, crumble it up, mix it with some frosting (YUM!), roll it into balls, stick it on a stick and dip it in either melted chocolate or candy melts.

How have I missed out on this so far? Have you ever made/eaten a cake pop? Is it difficult?

I have broken down the cake pop creation session into three parts. Wednesday night I plan on baking, crumbling, mixing, rolling and refrigerating. I assume the pops will be easier to dip if they are as solid as possible? Thursday night I plan on dipping and decorating. Friday I plan on transporting the pops to work..... (mental picture of me squishing my delightful pops on the bus, HORROR!)... I think I will take a cab.

In other news, I start my dressmaking class this Sunday and I am SUPER excited! The last sewing class I took was in high school and that was nearly 6 years ago. I enrolled in a five week intermediate class at Sydney Community College, with a focus on fit. We've been asked to bring in a pattern for something we would like to sew and the material and we will be shown how to correctly fit the pattern to ourselves etc.

I wanted to work on something that was entirely new to me to make sure I get as much out of these classes as possible. So I plan on making Option I, from this 1940's Dubarry Pattern -

Isn't it to die for!? and I'm going to make it in just those colours too. I have the perfect soft wool for the jacket in a lush red that I've been saving for such an occasion.

I've noticed that the pattern says Easily Made on the front, but I've never make a jacket, or lined anything, So I'm not convinced!

None the less I am very excited to start on it and I will keep you up to date with its progress and any amazing tips and tricks I learn along the way.

That's all from me today - Have a lovely weekend, and for those in Australia, have a lovely long weekend, yippee!