Mackinac Moment

We were treated to a beautiful rainbow the other day just before school started. I've got to say, my classroom probably has the best view of any schoolroom in the entire state of Michigan!

Fall

Fall on Mackinac is, by far, my favorite time of year. Things are quieting down, the air has that wonderful wet leafy smell, and the trees are absolutely gorgeous. Not to mention that fall is the only time of year that Mackinac Island is warmer than the mainland. All that water has been heating up all summer and now Lake Huron gives us beautiful "Indian summer" days. Though not today, definitely not; it was downright frigid this morning. But, while several towns near us got their first snow, we didn't get as much as a flake.

I was a busy little beaver this past weekend - feverishly working on Halloween costumes. My son's is finished and I'm about 80% through my daughter's - I just need to alter her "nude suit." (Don't worry - I'll share soon.) What have you been doing with your time?

Minecraft Cake Pops

Since my last attempt at cake pops didn't turn out so well, I thought I needed to give them another try. This year my son requested a Minecraft party (he's kind of obsessed these days) so I thought I could make cake pops in the shape of the blocks from the game. Luckily, we tend to plan these things early, so when I saw these molds at Meijer back in August, I bought three of them for $1.00 each. They were perfect - each little side of the cubes was about an inch (about 2.5 centimeters) long.

I followed one of the many cake pop tutorials out there and just made cube-shaped pops using the molds instead of rolling the dough into balls.  I squished as much dough as I could into the molds, too; I wanted the pops to be really dense. I was glad I bough three of them; I had one sit out and thaw for a few minutes, one fill, and one to sit in the freezer. It would have taken much longer if I'd only bought one. And, since they were so cheap, it wasn't a big deal.

I dipped the  pops into white candy melts, this time using the brand sold at Hobby Lobby instead of Wilton. I did not have a good experience with Wilton last time. I also melted them in the microwave rather than using the double boiler. I'm not sure if the difference was the chocolate or my newly improved mad-cake-poppin skills, but either way, they turned out so much better this time.

After dipping them in the white chocolate, I sprinkled the sides with brown decorating sugar and the tops with green so they would resemble a grass block.. They weren't perfect, but my son's second and third grade class didn't seem to mind.

I made sure to save one for myself. Quality control you know, they looked like grass blocks but I needed to make sure they were fit for the kids to eat.

It's a good thing there weren't a bunch of them left over - they were that good. The creaminess of the candy coating with the crunchy sugar was delicious!