MCT 12 Days of Christmas: On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!

Come check out these Reindeer Cake Pops that I'm fixin'!

They're just so YUMMY and best of all...

They're easy to make! In love you will fall.

Welcome, welcome to the fourth day of My Creative Time's 12 Days of Christmas! These twelve days are flying by so fast, Christmas will be here before you know it! If you've landed here from Trell's blog, you're on the right path! If not, take a trip to Emma's blog to start the hop from the very beginning.

Cake Pops seem to be the latest craze in baking and I just had to jump on the bandwagon! First of all, they're absolutely adorable. And second... umm... they're DELISH!

Imagine with me...Cake...mixed with frosting...dipped in chocolate. Are you KIDDING me?

Now, I'm a cupcake kind of girl. They're cute, they're yummy, and they're a small canvas to decorate. You can't really go wrong with squirting some frosting on top of a cupcake and calling it a day. But when you go to eat that cupcake... it can be difficult. It's hard to get the perfect bite that has the right cake/frosting ratio, isn't it? And what a mess! The only way for me to eat a cupcake without getting crumbs all over my shirt and frosting all over my face is to shove it in my mouth whole. And that's not very becoming for a lady, is it? With Cake Pops - problem solved!

I wanted to make some Reindeer Cake Pops to send in to my husband's work (gotta keep those Developers happy!). While browsing Pinterest, I found this adorable reindeer. PERFECT! I gathered my supplies and got to work!

One Betty Crocker French Vanilla boxed cake made 40 cake pops. I sent 25 into work with the Hubs and they were a big hit! The VP of his company even asked for the recipe so he could make them with his kids (insructions at the end of this post)! We kept 6 reindeer to share with friends (yum!) and brought 9 to our next door neighbors (a full team of reindeer, if you will. Each one was accounted for - including Rudolph!).

To dress up the treats for next door, I put them in a tissue paper lined basket, wrapped it in cellophane and added a simple, but festive tag. The base of the tag was cut out using MCT's XL Label Die (hmm...where did I get so many red XL Label Dies from? I LOVE recycling!). I stamped the snowflake border (MCT's XL Label Borders) in Versamark and embossed it in white. After adhering the blue striped paper to the base, I popped up my green Stitched Circle and added the Fancy Frame on top of that (also popped up). The sentiment is from You Had Me At Chocolate and was so fitting for this gift of goodies! I added a silver eyelet to the tag and tied it to the package using my favorite green ribbon (which I am now completely out of) and linen thread.

When I dropped off the basket of Cake Pops, their youngest son took the basket right out of his Mom's hands - ready to enjoy a Pop! But his Mom said he'd have to wait: chocolate cookies had just come out of the oven. Guess who got to bring some home? This girl! The Hubs was very happy to accept a fresh, warm cookie when I walked back in the house. Oh the joy of having awesome neighbors!


***12 Days of Christmas Give Away Alert***

To qualify for ALL the AMAZING giveaways for the next 12 days, you must comment on every blog in this hop! You will have until Tuesday, December 13th @ midnight to have all of your comments in! VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE LEAVE A WAY FOR US TO CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE WINNERS! There are some AMAZING giveaways for this special 12 day event and some SURPRISES to help celebrate My Creative Time's One Year Anniversary! Yep, Emma released her FIRST set of stamps one year ago! So make sure you are tuned in because this is ONE hop you do NOT want to miss!

Reindeer Cake Pop Recipe

What You'll Need

• One boxed cake and all the ingredients needed to prepare/bake it
• Frosting - homemade or packaged
• Lollipop Sticks
• Candy Melts
• Red/Brown Candies for noses hint: the Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate "Pieces" have only light brown, dark brown, and red - more bang for your buck than a pack of M&Ms!
• White Sugar Pearls (for eyes)
• Brown "Chenille Stems" (for antlers)
• Clear Candy/Treat Bags
• Foam Brick (to stick drying cake pops in)
• Optional: Tweezers and Toothpicks

Directions

1. Bake cake according to package (use directions for 13 x 9 cake). Let cool.
2. Crumble cooled cake into large bowl.
3. Mix in enough frosting to make a cookie dough-type consistency. (if using packaged frosting, one can should be more than enough)
4. Roll cake/frosting mixture into 1 inch cake balls. Place on waxed-lined cookie sheets.
5. Place cake balls in freezer for 15 minutes. You DO NOT want them to freeze! After the 15 minutes, you can move them to the refrigerator to keep chilled while you're melting the chocolate candy melts.
6. Melt candy melts according to directions on package. (I used the Microwave Method)
7. Stick lollipop stick about 1/2" deep into melted chocolate.
8. Insert lollipop stick about half way into a cake ball.
9. Submerge cake ball into melted chocolate. DO NOT stir the cake ball in the chocolate. You may tilt the stick and/or bowl to cover the entire cake ball, but moving the cake ball too much in the chocolate may cause excess chocolate to 'adhere' to the ball and cause a mess.
10. Lift lollipop stick straight up and out of chocolate. You now have a 'cake pop'! Allow excess chocolate to drip from cake pop (turning cake pop in your hand for an even drip). Tap stick LIGHTLY on side of bowl if necessary.
11. Decorate cake pop as needed (adding 'eyes' and 'nose'). Tweezers make adding tiny eyes much easier. I dipped a toothpick into the chocolate and 'dotted' the eyes for pupils.
12. Stick cake pop into foam brick to dry.
13. Once completely dry, put cake pop in treat bag.
14. Cut chenille stems in half and twist two halves together (leaving ends un-twisted for the antlers). Twist around treat bags to secure them shut.

I'm so glad you joined us for today's hop! Be sure to come back tomorrow for more Christmas ideas! I hope you were inspired!

-Veronica