Caramel Cake balls

I always stock up on cake mixes when they go on sale. For some reason, I bought a lemon one. While staring at it trying to figure out what to do with it, I thought, why not make cake  balls with caramel instead of frosting.

I copied my lemon lavender caramels. They came out pretty yummy. My boyfriend thinks they are as yummy as the actual caramels.

I can't wait to try more flavors. :) I am going to do an eggnog one next.

I also made marshmallow fluff. I am trying it in Cinnamon rolls and on ice cream later tonight. I will let you all know how it turns out.

thats all for now.

Experiments in Candy

So, I have another Holiday show coming up and I have been playing around with things to expand my variety.

I have come up with a yummy rice cereal bar, all kinds of yummy things in it. I have also created a caramel blondie style bar. I am excited to see how these do. There will be another caramel style booth there that day.

I have also been considering jumping on the pie bandwagon with mini caramel/marshmallow pies. I am working on staying true to my basic theme, at least until I get my own shop. :)

My pie experiment was an Apple Chocolate Caramel En Croute. I also did a caramel pear. I have not yet tried them, but will later today. The crust didn't stay on very well, next time I will have to fix that.

I have at least 2 new things to add to my booth. I am still deciding which candies to take. I am not planning on taking as many flavors this time. I came back with quite a bit. I am making more chocolate covered items though. Those sold out quickly last time. :)

Stayed tuned....

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!!

October

So, October is a busy month for me. Alot of birthday and now Halloween. This year my son was very much into the holiday.

I made candy apples for my nephew's birthday.

I also tried making chocolate brains for his party. It was extremely difficult to find a chocolate mold for brains.

I also started getting ready for the holiday bazaar I am participating in. Getting supplies and this week I am starting to make the candy for it.

My display stands:

I will post more pictures after Saturday.

Disappointed

A few months ago, I was contacted by a blogger who asked me to donate some marshmallows for a baby shower she was hosting. She had a lot of other Etsy shops donate as well. In return she would blog about my candy.

She blogged about a few of the items that were donated, the cake and some cookies and nothing else. The shower was over 2 months. I am very disappointed as I worked hard to make enough candy and decorate them for a shower. Granted, the decorating wasn't perfect. It was my first time. But I felt they came out pretty good.

I think I am done with donating for reviewing.

chocolate

Now that summer is over, I am getting into chocolate. I am working on my wedding favors and some baby shower favors. I also get to make chocolate brains for my awesome nephews birthday party. I am SO excited to do those! I will definately post pictures.

I am also getting myself organized for a holiday bazaar! I am SO nervous and excited. If you live in the Maple Valley, WA area, come check it out on Nov. 5th. I will leave details soon!

Night all - I just wanted to update you all.

My little helper

I love that my son likes to help me with our business. :)

Garden pictures

my garden

As fall creeps in, my garden showing the fruits, or should I say veggies of my labor. :) This has been the best year for my garden yet. My son and I have had a wonderful time picking veggies for dinner and snacking. We even got squash this year, which is pretty exciting. I love squash. There are also cucumbers, which I will be making pickles out of! I hope they come out. I did loose my Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. I am SO SO bummed about the Brussels sprouts. Stupid mice in the wood pile!

We planted a rosemary hedge for the 3rd year. They are doing fantastic so far. They have grown quite a bit. I am also prepared for winter. I am determined to not loose them to the snow and ice! The hedge smells wonderful! I am excited for it to get large.

I also planted a shade garden with came out nicely as well. The yard has been really nice and beautiful this year! I will post pictures later!

September Post

I just noticed it's been a long time since i have posted. Alot has been going on.

My son started pre school. He and I both love it. It was a little hard the first week, but now, we relish the time apart. It is only a few hours after all.

I have committed to a bazaar and decided to do 2 this season to see how it goes. There is SO much I didn't consider. I didn't even think of bags and change. Thank heavens for my etsy team. They have given me alot of helpful tips.

I am also working on more flavors for the holiday. I am still trying to work chocolate into my shop and my treats. I have decided to attempt to make some new candies bark style. I think it will be easy and yummy!!!! I am going to premier them at the bazaar. Of course, I am testing them on my family. :)

I am also doing caramel apples for a birthday party. I am excited for that as well.

The holidays are upon us and I am hoping to build my business this season!

Stuck in the sun

Well, I have not been very productive in my shop the last month or so. I have worked on some changes to my shops look but I have not yet spruced it up for fall and the upcoming holiday season. :) I have been out in the sun playing. We don't have much of a summer here in the greater Seattle area and we have to enjoy it while we can.

My garden is doing great though. I planted a rosemary hedge and it's grown considerably. I hope it makes it through the winter. The last 2 attempts have failed. I am prepared with covers for the plants this year though. The rosemary are blooming and smell so pretty.

My butterfly bush that I thought I had killed by moving it has grown to over 6ft tall. The only color that survived was white. I am a little sad about that.

My veggies and my herbs are doing great! I am pretty happy about that, as the last 2 years were kinda a bust. I have gotten ripe tomatoes this year! They are SO good. Here are some pictures of my garden.

the weather seems to be changing, so hopefully I will get back to my shop. :) I have alot of work to do. LOL

A Snarky Comment

I had my 300 facebook fan giveaway over this past weekend. I used a google document that I have seen others use. I actually really liked doing it this way. Everything was in one place and it was so much easier!

Apparently, someones computer software wouldn't allow her to access my sign up sheet. She left a comment about it. I wasn't sure what to say to that. I have NO clue how to make McAfee allow her to access my sign up. I tried to leave a nice comment to let her know I heard her and all that. When the contest had ended she left a snarky comment saying it was time to unlike my page. OK fine. Over a giveaway??? Really??? She also said "good luck with "potential" customers" I must be really slow and dim because I have no idea what she is implying by putting potential in quotes.

My reaction to her was to ignore it and delete her comment. I wasn't sure if I should validate her by trying to unruffle her feathers, as I had no prior contact with her.

Hopefully, it was the right/best thing to do.

Mid Summer

We are finally getting some sun here in the great NW. Makes it hard to focus on promoting my candy! I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to finally do some favors for a baby shower.

I also did some different shaped favors for an out of staate shop who is selling my candies!

I will be adding these items to my shop soon. They were alot of fun to do. I liked being creative with the baby shower favors. I can't wait for the feedback to see how they liked them!

One of the other marshmallow shops listed watermelon marshmallows that I had been thinking about doing. I was a little bummed. They are super cute! I am a little jealous I didn't do it first. :)

Off to finish dinner and take care of the little one. :)

winners chosen and will be contacted via email!!!!

Thank you everyone who commented! You all are the COOLEST!!!

250 facebook fan giveaway!

the last few weeks have been busy! Business picked up a bit and my facebook page reached 250 fans!

That means a giveaway!

Post a number between 1 and 250 either here or on my facebook comment announcement. My son will pick 3numbers Saturday evening (pacific time) about 8ish. I will post the winner here as I don't want to break any Facebook rules! :) Happy  number picking!!!

The prize will be a caramel grab bag consisting of a few of the following
Blackberry Truffle
Lemon Lavender
German Chocolate Cake
Chocolate chili
Chocolate Bacon
Raspberry Habenero
Blackberry Basil

There is alittle over 1lb.

Happy number guessing!!

Looking ahead to the future!

My boyfriend has gone back to work! YAY!!! He had been out of work for a long time. So, I am home now keeping busy with the house and little one. With the semi decent weather we have had I haven't been doing much.

I am looking ahead to the fall when all of the craft fairs. I am getting a table this weekend for the fairs. I am excited and nervous about doing the fairs. It will be fun to meet all kinds of great new people while boosting business.

There are so many details to work out. Who will work with me? What holiday flavors can I come up with???How can I decorate? This first year will be alot of work. :) Will it be worth the money to do it. I think I am going to start out doing 3 or 4 craft fairs. If nothing else, It will be a good experience over all!

Candy and then some.

My step son has completed his season in regular league. The end of the season BBQ was very fun. I made a TON of caramels and marshmallows for the BBQ. They seemed to be a big hit! I also made some special marshmallows just for the kids on the team. :)

I also tried my hand at cakeballs again. They came out a little better this time. I think I" am using too much icing to mix the cake with. They came out ALOT" better then last time.

I also sold an order of cupcakes. I was finally able to test out my icing kit. It was way easier then the last time I attempted to pipe frosting.

My herb garden is doing quite well. I should be able to make some fresh herb caramels soon. I am looking forward to that. I have several types of mint I am anxious to use. I would also like to use fresh rosemary and lavender. The garden is doing very well this year. Far better then the past 2 years. I have already gotten some radishes.

I was given a Popsicle maker. The kids and I have been playing around with making different Popsicles flavors. We made chocolate brownie, strawberry banana, and chocolate strawberry! They are yummy and easy to make.

Off to get some work done. Until next time!!

license and experiments

I am an official Washington State business owner. I will get my city license next week! I am pretty excited about that. I even have a few leads on farmers markets to pursue. WOOT WOOT

I have decided to get a website going, within a few weeks to promote wedding/shower favors. I have been playing around with chocolate molding and marshmallows for this. Trying to make use of all my knowledge gained in classes. :)

As you can see, they are a work in progress. I have gotten it almost down though. I have actual wedding molds. It's really kinda fun. My son has a blast helping me. He has his own molds to color in with chocolate.

Off to play in the garden. We actually have sun today!

Facebook giveaway winner!

Hi all! I can't post a comment on my own blog, so here is the winning announcement! The number my son picked was 209!

Thank you all for playing!!

On a side note.....made mojito flavored caramels tonight. Will see how they turned out in the morning! Can't wait. Used fresh mint from my garden!!

Night all!

Facebook fan giveaway!

Ok everyone - I reached 200 fans on facebook so it's giveaway time! The prize is the yummy sampler pictured. At 12 o'clock is chocolate chili-moving clockwise, Raspberry habanero, caramel brownie, blackberry basil, strawberry shortcake.
Post a number between 1 and 211 (my current fan count) and on Tuesday my step son will pick a number around 8pm pacific time. You can post you number here or on my facebook wall.  :)
All flavors were tested and approved. :)

Happy number picking!!

Sun yesterday rain today

Since it was so nice yesterday, I spent all day outside playing.
The rain came back today and so I spent alot of time in the kitchen having fun making caramel. I made 5 new flavors. I am SO excited for the SamplerVillage boxes next month! I also have a baseball party I am making candy for as well. I am having fun doing new flavors and soon I am going to start experiment with the Marshmallows!!

Tomorrow I will post the facebook fan giveaway!!!! YAY!

keep moving forward

So, while I have been frustrated with the lack of orders, I have been busy thinking of new ways to improve and gain orders.

I have obtained my business license and am looking forward to selling at craft fairs and perhaps farmers markets. The farmers markets are hard to get into around here. One city has you go bfore a jury or something like it. CRAZY!!!

I will be spending the weekend making new flavors and working on party favors. I am excited about using a lot of the new techniques I have learned. I will post pictures as they are ready.

Good night all.

stuck

I have been feeling alittle frustrated this week. I thought I would be doing better with my candy store. I have fun flavors, along with all the expected ones. But my sales have just stopped. I have been doing facebook, tweeting, and sampler teams. I am getting the name out there, but just not much happening sale wise.

I have applied for a business license and plan on starting a website for wedding favors. I have some great ideas. That is in the works though. I would like to get the Etsy store going more.

I missed alot of the summer festivals. I was not aware you needed to apply a year in advance, plus, I am just getting a license. :) hopefully I can catch the Christmas season ones.

Not sure what to do next........blah.

candy class part 2

I have been a little slow in blogging lately.  We got a new puppy and with classes I have been alittle preoccupied.

This past candy class was fun! The first night we made fondant and taffy. The fondant turned out to be way easier then I thought. The kind you cook was more complicated, but still pretty easy. Fondant is pretty versatile. I am anxious to make flavored fondant for chocolate creams.

The taffy was a whole other thing. (picture above) I did something wrong to it. I added too much color and didn't cook it long enough. It didn't turn to taffy. I pulled for 30 minutes. My cooking partners pulled for longer. It tasted good though! I did learn that if I want a bright color, I need to cook it longer.

The next class, I taught. I taught how to make marshmallows. I was nervous, but it went well. Everyone had fun making them and they turned out YUMMY!!! We dipped them in chocolate at the last class.

We also did seafoam and marzipan. I am not a fan of the seafoam but I do like marzipan. It can be used like fondant and is popular for baking.

All in all a good experience. I am glad I took both classes.

Chocolate class

In hopes of expanding my candy store listings, I signed up for a week long chocolate candy class at the local college. I was very excited for it. The head candy maker at a very popular and local chocolate company taught the class.

The first night, we learned about all the different chocolates. I was a little surprised to learn white chocolate isn't really chocolate, but mostly cocoa butter.

I also learned how to temper chocolate properly, something I was doing terribly wrong. That became more and more apparently as the class went on.

Monte taught us how to flavor chocolate to make counter truffles, which we did not try. We also used out tempered chocolate to make clusters.

The 2nd night we did ganaches. That was an eye opener as well. I had the general idea, but my execution was lacking when I had tried on my own. we also got to try our hands at dipping truffles a little bit. I was so happy that I took this class. I learned what my previous mistakes were and how to correct them. The last night we dipped truffles and worked on molding, something I have done previously. (Thank you groupon)

My first attempt at cake balls

So, I finished my chocolate class and was feeling pretty confident. I thought I would try my hand at making cake balls for Easter. My cousin brought some for my sons birthday and everyone loved them.

Unfortunately, the recipe I looked at left out on important step......FREEZE the balls. :) Needless to say my cake balls turned out to be cake blobs. :)

I will try again, now that I know what I missed. :)

inspiration in odd places

My son will be 3 in a few days and we are having his party tomorrow. I am smoking some beef and pork for sandwiches for the party. I am excited to try the homemade smoker I have created. I love the Internet. :)

I browsed several recipes for the actual rub. I had a great time spinning my spice wheel and adding this and that to my own version of all the recipes I looked through.

While throwing this together, almost literally. :) (I get carried away now and then with spices.) I started thinking about how I could make savory caramels using the rub. Most of the rub recipes used sugar, so why not transfer the flavor into a caramel? I then started thinking about all the wonderful savory flavors on my spice wheel and lets just say, my wheels are turning.

Rain break! Woo Hoo

We finally got a 2 day break from the rain. Although, there was some snow and thunder and lightening thrown in there as well. April is turning into crazy weather month.

I was able to get out and do some yard work, thankfully. One of the very few benefits of being a out of work mom. My son and I were able to get the flower beds and garden cleaned up and ready to plant. We also did some work for my parents.

After all the weeding, moving dirt, spreading dirt, adding manure etc, we were ready for the plants and seeds. Eric was a great helper digging holes for our tomato's and peppers. I am determined these do well this year, as I want to use them in my candies and make salsa. I am so proud that he is interested in working in the garden and learning about growing our own food. Of course certain things don't make it too far, IE the raspberries.

We also planted a bunch of seeds. Watching the sprout and grow is so much fun for us.

Since our garden is so full, we moved our sunflower garden to a new spot this year. We took a overgrown and unkempt flower bed and fixed it all up.

We also planted a bunch of wild flowers to add color and variety. All we need now is for the rain to take a long enough break and some sun to get these bad boys growing!