cake pop win

I have made cake pops but once before because it was on my list of things to do before I'm 30.  And you can read about it here and discover that it was a total fail. However, I am a year older now and not a jot wiser, and some lovely friends gave a cake-pop mold to help me, along with proper sticks (noticeably missing from the failed attempt) and little bags with silver ties to put them in. I received this gift back in October and this weekend I felt that I was finally able to put the pain behind me and give cake pops another chance. And here they are! I will be the first to admit that the lurid pink food colouring got away from me somewhat, but the taste was a big improvement even if the design edges towards the tastelessly twee. I made a ginger sponge, coated them in white chocolate (spread on with the back of a spoon as dipping turned out to be impossible) and topped with little pieces of honeycomb.

The reason for this sudden baking spurt was that I was due to attend the annual birthday party of my good friend Tori.  I thought they might make a nice gift.  Tori-fest happens each year at the lovely home of Tori's parents and it's always wonderful with great friends, chance to catch up and have a sleepover, lots of food and valuable swimming pool time.  Tori is currently living in Spain so I love this regular chance to get together (although she will be moving back to London soon - yay!)

Cake pops were unwrapped and consumed, and they made amusing photo props.  They are also perfectly appropriate for a post-party morning swim and help very much to distract attention from that fact that your swimming costume is still cold and wet from the previous evening's Swim-with-Pimm's.  Although even a cake pop can prove challenging when you're trying to balance on an inflatable sting-ray.

Anyway, it was a brilliant weekend (although I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would: too much swimming fun) and I can't wait to spend more time with Tori when she returns to the big smoke.

Kisses xxx

P.S. That's 9 more pictures to add to the ever-increasing-and-not-at-all-worrying #500snapsofsummer total bringing it up to 274 with 226 still to snap.  In slightly less than a fortnight.