Cake Pop Stands from KC Bakes
Feb 28, 2012 Product Review
I’ve been making cake pops for a few months now. They’re fun, easy, and incredibly delicious (and a nice morning treat with my current “dessert with breakfast” diet). But the one thing that bugged me about the whole process was the Styrofoam blocks I was going through. I tried wrapping them in packing tape and poking holes through with a sharp pencil so that they wouldn’t fall apart so easily. I tried buying the denser blocks used to make “fake” wedding cakes. I even tried making the cake pops upside-down, which gives them ugly, flat tops.
Then I found the pretty, practical, affordable cake pop stands by KC Bakes. I purchased three of them at a discount, with a promise of a write-up if I found them useful. And oh my yes, I do. So does my number-one cake pop helper.
First of all, they’re infinitely reusable, as opposed to Styrofoam, which breaks down rather quickly with all of that poking and wiping. If you’ve been using Styrofoam, these stands will pay for themselves after not that long.
The holes are the perfect size for regular sucker sticks. They’re well spaced so that you have access to each cake pop. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.
These stands clean up easily. If you drizzle chocolate on them you just wait for it to dry, and it lifts right off cleanly with the help of a fingernail. If you drip chocolate into one of the holes, it can be picked out easily with a toothpick. This was the biggest improvement over my Styrofoam blocks: those were nearly impossible to clean.
The “skinny mini” six-hole size is also perfect for gift giving, at $15. If I’d had my act together I would’ve bought a half dozen of the small ones and given them to teachers for Christmas, filled with cake pops, of course. End of the school year, perhaps.
If you’re a cake pop maker – or want to be – I’d definitely recommend these stands. They’ll make it so much easier to produce pretty, professional-looking cake pops. Your friends and family won’t believe you didn’t buy them from a bakery.
Plus, I can’t wait until my next party: the centerpiece of the buffet table will definitely be a gorgeous display of cake pops!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
Feb 28, 2012 What's Going On
In my last post I mentioned how terrible I felt when I woke up on Friday, but things improved rapidly from there as the cold finally started to leave my body – just in time, since the Tangled Royal Family 5k was the next morning! After our early run with Jeff Galloway (more like a crawl for me) I went to sleep, and woke up feeling better than I had all week. I headed to the Fit for a Princess Expo with the rest of the group, and engaged in some retail therapy – a sure sign that I was on the mend.
I picked up a couple new pairs of running pants, an arm band case for my phone, a sparkly skirt and headband to wear for the half marathon, and a vibrating timer that Jeff Galloway had told me about that morning.
I also found some more shirts that I related to:
And, I got an inspirational look at a whole bunch of metals you can earn for running Disney races. I could see how this could become an obsession.
We also picked up our race bibs for the Tangled Family 5K and Princess Half Marathon. That’s when things got very real for me, when I saw my race number. That makes it very official.
I even caught a glimpse of Cinderella’s coach and footmen!
One more long nap later, and I was feeling about 90%. Everyone on our press trip met up for the big Pasta in the Park dinner at EPCOT. This is a great opportunity for carbo loading, dancing, and watching Illuminations from a special spot reserved just for the pasta partiers.
I, however, missed everything but the pasta, because I was exhausted and went back to my hotel after eating! Yes, lame, I know. But I tried to make up for it by eating two helpings of two different delicious (and vegetarian) pasta dishes. And, at least I got to see Spaceship Earth all lit up – I love the way it looks at night!
I got to sleep at a decent time Friday night, and managed to get six hours of sleep before the 5K. I’m so relieved that I didn’t spend the whole trip sick and miserable, that would’ve been such a waste!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, & 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, exercise, Tangled Family 5K
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
Feb 25, 2012 What's Going On
I’d been sick for several days before heading down to Disney World on Thursday for the Tangled Family 5K and Princess Half Marathon. By Friday morning, when my alarm went off at 5:30, I was feeling terrible. I’d woken up every fifteen minutes or so all night until 4:30, then finally managed to get one solid hour of sleep. And even though I just had a cold, it was a bad one, and I wasn’t sure I could walk to the lobby, let alone do a two mile walk/run.
Our meet-up that morning was with Jeff Galloway, a training consultant with runDisney and someone I have a huge amount of respect for. I first met him before last year’s Princess Half, and he introduced me to his Run-Walk-Run method. This was a revelation to me, because I know a lot of runners and they all seem to see it as a failure of some kind if you have to walk part of the way. But here was this amazing athlete, who in the early 1970s competed in the Olympics and ran 10 miles in under 48 minutes (only slightly longer than it takes me to “run” 3 miles), telling me that it was OK to alternate walking with running, that it’s a completely legitimate way to complete a half or full marathon.
Jeff Galloway
We gathered just inside of EPCOT as the sun was coming up.
Jeff led us on an easy run/walk through EPCOT as the park’s workers were getting things ready for opening. Well, it would’ve been easy, but I was feeling awful. By the end of the two miles I felt like I was going to pass out. I was getting really worried about the rest of the weekend.
I stopped to take this picture on the way. Partly because it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen, and partly because it gave me an excuse to stop for ten seconds.
We were met at the end of the run with tiaras and breakfast, and really, I’d like someone to arrange for that to happen when I get back to my house from a run. OK? Every time, please.
As we ate we got to hear from an interesting group of speakers: Rachel Booth has won the Disneyland Half Marathon twice, and is going for a win at Sunday’s Princess Half Marathon. We also heard from Betty Wong, editor in chief of Fitness Magazine, Lori Stultz Lovell, the current runDisney mom on the Disney Moms panel, and Suzy Favor-Hamilton, an elite runner who has battled depression and anxiety and is now a motivational speaker.
Rachel Booth
Honestly though, it was kind-of a blur because I felt so awful. But I couldn’t pass up some very special Disney photo opps.
The best part of these Disney press trips is the private time with the characters. You’ve never seen a bunch of grown-up women so excited. We were beaming. And the characters made each one of us feel special, just like they would have with little kids. :-)
When I got back to my room I crawled back into bed, sweaty and exhausted. I really started to think that I had made a big mistake getting up so early and heading out sick. When I woke up from my nap, though, I started to feel better. That was the turning point, and things got better very fast.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, jogging, Travel
Tangled Family 5k: Done!
Feb 25, 2012 Posted From My Phone
Originally posted on Selfish Mom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney World, exercise, run disney
And then a few zebra wandered by…
Feb 24, 2012 What's Going On
Zebra
So after a check-in glitch that left me without a working room key until 11pm last night (very un-Disney-like!), I’m now happily ensconced in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. The thing about these press trips is that we do more in a day than I usually do in a week, and I’m still not feeling well, but my first twenty-four hours here have still been really fun.
Ostrich
I’d never been to the Animal Kingdom Lodge before yesterday, but it’s like staying in a hotel next to some kind of wildlife preserve. When you check in you’re asked not to bring any plastic straws or lids into your room, and to not throw food to the animals.
Antelope
Animals are roaming around right outside of the hotel. Sitting on my balcony so far I’ve spotted roan antelope, reticulated giraffe, zebra, and an ostrich. And no, I’m not some sort of animal expert. There’s a guide in my room that I can use to identify the animals, and check off the ones I see.
Last night our group of bloggers were taken to Sanaa for dinner, which is in the Kidani Village section of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was a little nervous that there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat, because I imagined that an African themed restaurant would serve mostly meat dishes. I was thrilled that just about everything brought out to us was vegetarian, not to mention delicious! Plus, it was all very spicy, and since I’ve had a very bad cold this week, I was glad to be able to taste something. From three kinds of bread with about twelve dips, to the best roasted cauliflower I’ve ever had, and a tangy, oniony chickpea salad, the meal was wonderful.
Above our table at Sanaa
Disney World is known for how well they can accommodate special eating requests. One person in our party had some kind of food allergy and they took great care of her. Our servers also came right to me as each course was brought to the table and let me know which of the dishes were vegetarian.
I managed to keep my camera in its bag all through dinner, making fun of everyone else snapping away, but I had to join in and take a picture of our desserts. And they were as delicious as they were pretty.
Chocolate cake, chai cream, and mango sorbet
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, Food, Travel
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
Feb 23, 2012 What's Going On
I arrived at Disney World a little while ago for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and on the plane I was looking over pictures from last year. I’d forgotten about the t-shirts.
When you pick up your race packet you do it in a giant expo hall at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. This Expo has everything you could possibly need for the race. Really, you could show up with nothing and buy everything you need, from sneakers to sports bras to a fancy plaque for your awesome race pictures.
Pictures from last year’s Expo:
I didn’t buy any of the t-shirts because I’d already made my own at the Hanes Design A Tee store, but I had fun looking at them.
I can relate.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, & 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
From couch potato to 26K with Run Disney
Feb 22, 2012 What's Going On
I’m weird when it comes to exercise, I’ll just admit that there’s no logic to it. I will bribe my kids to get something for me from upstairs, but voluntarily participate in long races. What can I say: I like a big challenge more than I like getting off of my couch to find my cell phone.
Last year I finished the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and despite having to get up at 2:30am and the exhaustion and the pain, it was worth it. Dare I say, it was even fun. And that’s because it gets the Full Disney Treatment.
I even managed to post right before, and during, and then right after the race.
From muscular men bouncing on trampolines to photo opps with Disney Princes, this is a race designed for women. There are men who participate, but they’re in on the joke: often they’re dressed in costume and there to support the woman they’re running with. Plus, they’re not allowed to win medals. [To clarify, they get the bling at the end, they just can't be awarded any medals fro finishing in a top spot.] And while I didn’t think I cared about the medals, this is some serious bling.
The first real race I ever ran was a four miler in Central Park, and it was intimidating. It was filled with real runners, many of them using that short run as a qualifier for the NYC Marathon. I was twice as big and half as fast as most people there. And while I finished just fine (slow but fine), I would not recommend a race like that for your first one.
The Princess Half Marathon, though, is perfect for a first timer. There are runners of all sizes. Many are in princess skirts. A lot of people walk/run it like I do. Everyone around you is supportive. They want you to succeed, they don’t want to beat you.
Well, except for the people in the front. There are some serious runners who take part. They want to beat you, and they are not in costume. But they are in the minority, and I will never be close enough to them for it to matter. In fact, the closest I got to the frontrunners last year was just a couple miles into the race. It takes a long time to get 17,000 runners started, so about half an hour in for me, the first ones to start passed us on the highway, going the other way, almost done. That was weird to watch. They were flying!
So, back to this year. I’m less nervous, now that I know I can finish. I would love to improve on my time, even by a few minutes, but I haven’t been training hard. I started jogging again in October, but I had gained a lot of weight since the last Princess Half, and could barely finish a couple of miles. I realized that I had to focus on losing weight instead, so while I haven’t been running much, I have taken off twenty-five pounds since October, bringing me back to roughly what I weighed for last year’s race.
Like last year, I’m on this trip as press, but unlike last year, they’ve put Saturday’s Tangled Family 5K on the itinerary, so that will be like a warm-up for Sunday’s half marathon. Plus we’ll be watching the kids’ races, which sound like a lot of fun. I’m considering bringing Jake next year if he keeps jogging with me (he’s been helping me train – he’s a great cheerleader!).
It will be a long weekend of not much sleep. Our press events start at 6am on Friday, and we have to leave for the races at 4:45am on Saturday and 3:30am on Sunday. Ouch.
But it will be worth it. I can’t believe I’m looking forward to this. There’s just nothing like that feeling of accomplishment when you achieve something that’s not at all easy. And the fact that it happens in Disney World makes it even more special.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, exercise, jogging, Travel
The wheat bagel that almost made me pass out
Feb 21, 2012 Kids
I’ve read that the number one thing couples fight about is money. That was probably true for the first three-quarter of my relationship with The Ass. But around the time our son Jake started pre-school and started getting super picky with food, a new argument emerged: how to tackle the food issue.
It didn’t help – actually, it hurt quite a lot – that I’ve got enough food-related baggage to fill a luggage cart at JFK. And since Jake has the exact same hang-ups and tastes that I had as a kid, I can’t separate his issues from mine. My husband is a great guy, but he’s never understood my relationship with food. And if I even start to suggest that my history gives me more insight into Jake’s issues, my dear sweet husband flips out (which, incidentally, sends me for the potato chips, but that’s another post).
After years of arguing about how to tackle this, and watching Jake’s food choices get narrower and more frustrating, we finally came to an agreement on a game plan about four months ago. I can’t claim that we’ve succeeded – this is the kind of thing that takes years to test out – but I can see small steps in the right direction.
Like today, when Jake ate a wheat bagel without a fight.
And liked it.
I almost fainted.
Forget the fact that wheat bagels really aren’t all that wheaty, and that most of us are trying to eat fewer bagels, and that the last thing Jake needs is more carbs. The important thing is that he knew it was wheat, and he gave it a shot anyway, and liked it. That was huge.
The main traits we’re working against with Jake are the same ones I have:
- He eats more than he needs to based on a fear that it will be gone. This is why I actually do better surrounded by lots of chocolate and potato chips: if there’s so much there that I couldn’t possibly eat it, I’m content with a small amount.
- He’s a carboholic. Take away my carbs, and I’m a bitch. Take away my carbs, and I can’t think about anything else. I could give up cheese or chocolate and it wouldn’t have one-tenth of the impact that giving up carbs would have on my mood.
- He’s afraid of trying new foods. New foods were forced on him too many times in the past – offered up as a trade for something else he wanted, or he was just flat-out required to take a bite – that he gets really tense around new foods, and assumes he’ll be forced to eat them. I was the same way all the way through my mid-to-late twenties. My husband would probably argue that I’m still pretty bad, but I’m way better than I used to be.
- He’s a couch potato. There’s an ass-print on the couch in the shape of my ass too, so no doubt where he gets that from. Although, being a kid, it takes less to get him up and moving than it takes for me, so he’s got that going for him.
- He has sensitive taste buds. If he eats a mint or mint gum, he visibly shivers and shakes until the taste is weakened a bit. One time when his breath smelled I made him take one of those dissolvable breath strips, and for a few seconds I though he was actually going to throw up. I think he actually tastes things stronger than other people. I totally sympathize, because I’ll taste something that will send me running for water while my husband complains that it’s bland.
So, mealtimes were a struggle. For years. Between me and Jake, me and my husband, my husband and Jake. I would make pasta or sandwiches for the kids, something else for myself, and my husband would come home and make something for himself. Even on those rare times when he did get home in time to eat with us, my husband often chose to wait until after the kids went to bed.
But, after a lot of research, we finally agreed on some rules we could both live with, and they’re starting to bear fruit. Our main goal is to take the stress out of food, so that the rest can follow.
- I get up and make the kids breakfast every day. This was a big change for me on weekdays. My kids are pretty self-sufficient, and for a couple of years I’d been taking total advantage of that. I’d stay up until 2am, then stumble out of bed in time to shove them out the door for school. They’d usually make whatever could be toasted or eaten cold: waffles, bagels, cinnamon bread, cold cereal. Now, I make sure they get a big, good breakfast. Eggs or pancakes, fruit, etc. And this routine has made me get my sleeping habits under better control.
- My husband tries to be home for dinner at least four times a week. In order to accommodate this, we’ve moved dinner to 7:30. This is late for the kids, since they start getting ready for bed at 9, but it’s what we have to do to eat as a family.
- We cut off all food two hours before dinner. Anybody would be more likely to try something new if he were hungry. That’s the only reason I tried guacamole when I was twenty-five, a food I thought looked disgusting, but I was desperate. So, the kids know that at 5:30, snacking stops.
- I no longer cook different dinners for different family members. However, and this is key, I make sure that there’s at least one thing that Jake likes at each meal. If we’re having lasagna and green beans and rolls, and he just eats rolls, we stay quiet. We make sure to offer him some of everything, but there’s no pressure to try anything. He fills his own plate. We just want him to see us enjoying a variety of foods. This took a while for him to get used to. Each time he saw a new food on the dinner table he tensed up. But now he realizes that he won’t be forced to eat anything, and he’s becoming more willing to try new things. Even if he doesn’t like them, each unforced taste is a victory.
- After dinner, the only foods allowed are fruits and veggies. We didn’t want to get into a situation where Jake was claiming to be full at dinner, then asking for crackers or popcorn an hour later. So, if they’re still hungry, the kids can eat all the fruits and veggies in the house. This has produced a boy who now frequently snacks on apples, bananas and grapes. I doubt he’d choose them over potato chips, but then again, neither would I. The point is, after complaining about it for the first few weeks, it’s now routine. He even asks for apples sometimes when it’s not fruit-only time, and my heart skips a beat.
- They get a serving of dessert every day, no questions asked. This, actually, isn’t new. It’s something we started years ago, when we found ourselves bargaining with Jake at dinner in order to get him to eat some veggies. It was setting things up for a good food/bad food battle that would’ve been with him for the rest of his life. We still have not completely undemonized vegetables, but he no longer sees them as the evil things standing between him and chocolate.
- I exercise with him. I can’t expect him to get off the couch if I’m still there. I’ve started taking him on jogs with me. It feels good. And you know what? He’s a great jogging partner! I’m so slow, he alternates between walking and wind sprints as I plod along at my thirteen-minute-mile pace. We have a good time.
So, that’s our plan. Several of these rules were taken from a really good article I found on BabyCenter, 7 New Strategies for Feeding a Picky Eater.
You may notice I really didn’t talk about Fiona. Her natural eating instincts are to eat lots of fruit and veggies, stop eating when she’s full, try new things gleefully, and exercise for fun. She follows all of the same rules as Jake, but it’s all so much easier for her. I’m afraid to do anything but back away slowly, lest I should upset the course she’s on.
The bottom line is, I don’t care what Jake eats now if it helps him to eat better in the future. Blueberries, avocados, wheat bread, brown rice, asparagus, and edamame are all foods that I wouldn’t even try until well into adulthood, and now I love them all. I don’t want Jake to wait that long. And I really feel like we’re on the right track.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
