Silly Cake Pops (Including Response to Intervention Triangles)

Response to Intervention cake pop.

Randomness!

Basically, some of my classmates/friends and I made a bunch of very random cake pops for our brown bag lunch, which is one component of our grad program in which we meet together to listen to someone present on a research topic or project. It's the same thing as colloquium.

What's funny is that this whole cake pop project came about because Jason said something on Facebook about how cake pops are dumb or something (I don't even remember), and then Erin's sister (recent graduate from our program) suggested that we make cake pops for our next brown bag, so we did! Turns out Jason loooves cake pops. Heh heh. Aand we decided to make the cake pops relevant to our program by making RtI-themed cake pops.

So how do you make these? I highly recommend watching Bakerella's step-by-step video. You can also use this process to make brownie pops, which don't even require frosting (Grace and I made them here). Anyway, see below for random craziness.
We made 2 kinds of cake pops:
(1) white cake + cream cheese frosting (candy melts on the outside)
(2) Red velvet cake + cream cheese frosting (melted chocolate chips on the outside)

Not a fan of the taste of these melts (too white chocolate-y),
but they make cake pops so easy!
We also used a darker green for most of the pops

Loren's Spongebob Squarepants & Pineapple Pops

Yeah...that is the chef from Sesame Street with a marshmallow hat. lol

An RtI pyramid (so nerdy!)

RtI Pops! The nerdiness continues....

Inside the red velvet cake pop

Free Slurpee Day @ 7-11

Yay! Gotta love free food events! Grace told me about this. Luckily we live near a 7-11...sorta. I wasn't a fan of the mango flavor (too sweet). In general, I haven't enjoyed slurpees/slushies as much as I used to (I used to love getting them at movies, and I never do now). This was free though, so why not?

Fresh Yellow Peach Tea

Yeah...my hand must do for a surface because I don't have a nice wooden table or something I can use outside (natural lighting is the best) in this here town. Anyway,...this is very simple & easy. I don't have exact measurements because I didn't measure anything & people have their own preferences for how strong they like the tea, how many peach chunks you want, and how much sugar you like in it. Here are my estimates:

1 pot of hot water
2 fresh yellow peaches, chopped/diced
3 black tea bags
3/4 cup white sugar

(1) Make tea (boil water & add teabags & let steep for ~5 minutes)
(2) Wash & chop peaches (you might want to skin them first)
(3) While the tea is hot, add peach chunks
(4) Stir in sugar until dissolved

Corrie: "I only like yellow peaches--not white ones."
Grace: "That's racist."

Mini Apple Pies with a Personal Pie Maker

Used Nicole's personal pie maker from Sears

Coulda added cinnamon too!

 

N for Nicole...and some messy pies lol

Turned the extra dough into a little dumpling/empanada/hand pie

Mini Apple Pies
Recipe from AllRecipes (I just copied and pasted this time directly from the site), but we had a lot of leftover filling since we weren't making a full pie. We're planning to use the leftover insides in our oatmeal and other things.

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
   
   To make the little pies, basically follow the directions on the pie maker. I think it was easy and pretty fun. Thanks, Nicole, for the idea and letting us (Grace and Corrie) share this pie-making fun with you!