A Friend Is Having A Baby! And I Am Making Chocolate Covered Marshmallows!

My friend Melissa is having a baby! We have been talking about treats for baby showers and I was compelled to make something for her.

I purchased a bag of marshmallows around Christmas time. Marshmallows are hard to find in Honduras and when you can find them they are usually melted together or smashed from transport or careless handling. That really doesn’t matter if you are making a yam casserole, but for other things it is nice to have them round and pretty. Besides all that they are $3.00 or $4.00 per bag here in Tegucigalpa. I was going to make Marshmallow Fudge but never got it done, so I wanted to use the marshmallows before they went bad.

Marshmallow Pop Ingredients

A bag of large marshmallows, preferably not smashed but in nice round condition
A bag of Chocolate Chips or a pound of Chocolate
A little bit of vegetable oil
A package of lollipop sticks
Wax paper
A package of Sprinkles any color
Cello bags
Curling Ribbon
Decorations *Small Wreaths for Christmas *Baby Binkies for a baby shower *Wedding Rings or Doves for a bridal shower *Birthday Candles for a birthday

Place Marshmallows flat side down on a hard clean surface and push lollipop sticks into the marshmallow as centered and a straight as possible.

Place all “stuck” marshmallows with sticks into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Heat chocolate to melt. I use my Wilton Chocolate Warmer that my friend Dede Reed from Aurora, Illinois bought for me. If you don’t have a chocolate warmer, BUY ONE or use a Baño Maria, which I don’t know how to say in English. It is where you place water in a double boiler and heat the chocolate in the top part. NEVER EVER LET THE WATER SPLATTERS GET INTO THE CHOCOLATE! And if your chocolate gets too think, thin with a little vegetable oil, NOT WITH WATER!

When the chocolate is melted, take the marshmallows out of the freezer and dip them one at a time. Make sure to cover the entire marshmallow, but don’t let them sit in the chocolate or they will melt too. I shake the excess chocolate off the pops by lightly tapping on the side of the pan.

Then while the chocolate is still wet, I sprinkle the sprinkles (non-pareils) lightly around the rounded sides of the marshmallows and finally I dip the flat side of the marshmallow in the sprinkles. By dipping the top, this insures that when I place the marshmallow on the wax paper it doesn’t form puddle of chocolate and the top is completely covered so it looks nice when bagged.

I place all of the pops on wax paper then I place them in the freezer for 5 minutes. This is enough time to set the chocolate, but not enough time to freeze them. Set your timer, frozen chocolate is not pretty!

Place the pops in individual Cello bags. Tie with curling ribbon.

Add any cute plastic design to the ribbon. I used diaper pins, baby bibs and mini plastic binkies.

Curl ribbon with your scissors.

These are fun to make with grandkids, IF you have the chocolate melting pot. I would not recommend doing this with little ones with the Baño Maria.

A Wedding Cake At The Prison!

After two 2 week courses the final exam was a wedding cake. Since it was the 18th Street Gang, it had to be 18 tiers. And what a cake it turned out to be!



To the right is the top tier. We had the "cake from hell" experience as the weather changed from warm to cool and rainy to hot and humid again and all of the fondant icing decided to wilt. The cake was not very even on the side, due to the climate changes, but it was beautiful.



The guys learned about Royal Icing and Buttercream Icing in the first 2 weeks of classes and then they learned about Fondant and Gumpaste in the 2nd two weeks of classes.

They learned step by step how to make gumpaste flowers, starting with roses and then calle lilys. You can see some of these hand made flowers in the first photo.



In the first cake decorating classes they had learned how to make borders by piping royal or buttercream icing. They also learned how to make the leaves, which they piped onto the cake after the flowers were in place.

The cake all 18 tiers of it tasted wonderful! The background at the prison was not so beautiful and really doesn't do justice to the cake, but the cake turned out to be a masterpiece.

The center of the cake had 6 tiers which were then connected by bridges to 4 more towers of 3 tiers each.

Several of the guys had to get up on the heavy duty table to place the tiers in the correct positions. I am not sure what the final cake weighed, but I know it was over 100 pounds of cake.

First they all made flowers and flowers and more flowers. Each day the ladies showed them how to make different flowers. For two weeks, everyone in the classes made flowers and the flowers which were not eaten, were saved to go on the cake.

Then the ladies and I and Erlinda baked all of the cakes at my house, as the oven that was donated to the prison was not yet in operation. Claudia Hurt, Lisa Summerlin, Dede Reed and Tracy Wirta iced and iced and iced with buttercream until all of the cakes were iced. Then we took them to the prison. That was a trick. Each tier was 2 layers of cake with filling in between and some of them were so big that they had to set across two people's legs. The bumpy roads in Honduras were not cooperating and so when we arrived at Tamara Prison 40 miles away, with cakes intact it was a miracle.

The guys were really, really proud of themselves. First they shimmer dusted a design on the sides of the iced cake, then they strategically assembled the center column of 6 tiers. As they began to decorate the center tier, they began to get more and more enthused, finally all of the hard work was coming together. After putting the border around all of the tiers, it was time to start placing the flowers. As soon as all of the flowers were placed they had to fill in with the green leaves.

Then it was time to place the other four towers of three tiers each and each had to be decorated the same as the center tower. With 24 boys taking turns it took 4 hours to complete the assembly of the cake and the

placement of the flowers and the final touches.

But the wait was worth it. Two weeks and 800 flowers later, the cake was complete. The guys were so proud of the cake and I was proud of them.

It was incredible how well it turned out!

I am thinking of having another Cake Missionary Team come to Honduras in early spring, to teach women in southern Honduras. I have identified a large number of women who live in adobe huts with dirt floors, who need jobs to help them make ends meet and to feed their children. I am hoping to go to these people and teach them how to make flowers where they can sell them in Tegucigalpa to help their families.

Do you know a cake decorator with an adventurous heart?

Do you have decorating supplies that are sitting in your cabinet unused that you might like to donate?

It's Just About Time For Another Cake Mission!

A what? What in the world is a cake mission? Who in the world would go on a cake mission?


I have heard of cake walks, but cake missions?


Well, several years ago when I was actively working in the prison outside of Tegucigalpa, I found a group of young men, who were very artistically talented and who needed a way to spend their time.


So I invited a team of ladies to come to Honduras and teach cake decorating. The results are still coming into fruition.

Tomorrow I will show you a photo of the wedding cake, 18 tiers which the guys made as their final exam for the 2nd round of Cake Classes. It is incredible. Over 800 gum paste flowers were part of the design.

To the right are photos of some of the young men in the cake classes, with their final exam cake.


You can read about Joanne Balkey's trip at: http://www.yourfoxchapel.com/herald/article/ohara-woman-teaches-prisoners-make-cake


and you can read about Tracy Wirta of San Francisco's trip:

http://www.contracostacakeclub.org/files/September_202007_20newsletter.pdf

Tracy pulled together both the first and the second trips. She is a trooper.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29536785_ITM?email=teresa.searcy@smartteams.org&library=Louisburg%20Library%20Miami%20County


Mary Beth Enderson of Virginia was another of the Cake Missionaries. I caannot find any cake things on the internet about her.

Lisa Summerlin of San Francisco's web page. She was a delight to have on the trip! She is a perfectionist and everything she did was beautiful.

http://community.webshots.com/user/cakecreationsbylisa


Deloris "Dede" Reed of Illinois was yet another volunteer. She does translation work for Wilton and is a Spanish teacher.

The Final Cake Exam, before the diplomas, from the first course was stunning. There were several excellent examples using the different techniques which the ladies taught them.






Jose's Birthday is today, so I guess I have cake on my mind.