Last week my family and I went on a cruise.
We had been planning it for about a year, and finally last week we went.
We had a fantastic time, really. It was a Disney Cruise, so it was a great time for the whole family…
But I will say. Over the course of the week on a boat with thousands of people I learned a few things about the human condition…
Would you mind if I shared some of my keen observations? Thanks.
First, people are far too concerned with comfortable footwear. I saw more pairs of Crocs and Tevas than one should ever have to bear witness to in their life. I get that we are on a ship and that comfort is key, but comfort at what cost, I ask?
Second, I apparently am not a huge fan of other people’s children. Sorry. I am sure your kids are great and all that, but if we don’t share DNA…well…I’m not a fan.
Third, a free soft serve ice cream machine guarantees that my husband will eat no less than 6 ice cream cones a day. I knew my husband loved ice cream, but I honestly had no idea that it could blossom into a full fledged addiction.
Fourth, old people dancing to The Black Eyed Peas makes me feel awkward. Nothing against the BEP, any top 40 dance-ish song does the trick, really…I mean, when your Grandma yells, “Somebody call 911, Shawty fire burnin’ on the dance floor, whoa!” I just want to leave the room.
Fifth…the promise of free food via buffet makes people cah-razy! Like stampede, crazy. I have honestly never seen anything like it in my life. I can’t say that I was above this either. I became obsessed when feed-time rolled around every 20 minutes, if there was a buffet to be had, you could guarantee that I was there, elbowing people to get to the shrimp cocktail. The sensation of hunger escaped me for a good 7 days.
Sixth, now ladies. Please, I do not mean this to offend anyone…but never, EVER, get your hair braided with beads on vacation. Besides appearing incredible painful it just looks bad. We should never have to see that much of your scalp. AND it makes your head look small, which in essence makes your body look big. Kind of like an engorged tick. We never want our body to appear proportionally larger, so just say no to “island braiding”. It’s fine for the little girls, but if you are over the age of 15, it’s not a good look.
Also men, it will never be ok for a gentleman to braid either. I was a first-hand witness to beard braiding. Don’t let the islanders encourage you to make poor vacation choices. The pictures will haunt you forever. If Brad Pitt can’t make it work, you can’t either.
And last but certainly not least…Open Bar is a choice, not a challenge.
That is all.
While I was on vacation I got tons of dessert inspiration. Disney makes some fun stuff.
This isn’t one of them, though, so stay tuned 🙂
I have seen these push-up pops all over internet-land for a while now…I finally decided to get some and give them a go.
I am HOOKED! They are so fun and cute and portable.
I ordered them HERE.
Funfetti Push Up Pop Cupcakes.
Here was the assembly process…
I baked a cake (Funfetti) in a large “jelly roll” pan (15 1/4×10 1/4) so it was rather thin, and also made a batch of vanilla buttercream.
Then I use the top of the push up pop container to make the perfect sized rounds….this was my husband’s idea and I have to say it worked great!
After I poked out my cake rounds I started assembling…
I filled a piping bag with the vanilla buttercream…I didn’t bother using a fancy tip, because it was just gonna get smushed down anyway…I just snipped off the end with a pair of scissors.
Next I squirted in a bit of frosting…
I had some colorful sprinkles on-hand, so I figured, why not?
I layered the sprinkles, another cake round and more frosting…
I gently pushed the sprinkles into the top layer of frosting so they wouldn’t all fall off everywhere when you open the cupcake pop.
And I even added a cute little pink chocolate on top.
If you are wondering how to eat them, just take the lip off and push up.
So easy.
What’s even cooler is that since they come with lids they are totally easy to transport.
No worries about cupcake carriers…
Love these little guys!
Can’t wait to try out more fun ways to use them.
LOL my girlfriend recently took her family on a Caribbean cruise and I asked her to please please please do not get your little girls hair braided hahaha
And you totally read my mind with the push pops!! I have to make 150 push pops for a kid’s party coming up and I was thinking of doing the sheet pan method for the cake layers as well.
Could you please tell me how many push pops you were able to make from 1 sheet pan of cake? I know it’s going to take a LOT of cake to make 150 pops but it would be a HUGE help with estimating how much cake & frosting I’m going to need.
Thank you!!!
I got about 24 pops 🙂 good luck!
Awesome, thank you!! That doesn’t sound too bad.. roughly 7 sheet pans of cake should be enough plus extras for “testing” lol
Oh another question? Do you think it would be at all possible to make ahead & freeze prepared cupcake push pops?
I think that would work fine with these 🙂
Thanks for all your help! I’m excited to start putting them together 🙂
You outlined ALL the CONS in a cruise and that’s why I haven’t been on one since I was 13!! Was ROFLMAO at work during a stressful day so thanks for that! Love the pops by the way!
How many pops did this recipe make? They are super cute!
It makes about 12
God, I love ya. “Open Bar is a choice, not a challenge.”
SAYS YOU.
Oh, Shelly! I am laughing so hard, that my child is yelling across the house, “What’s so funny?!?” 😉
I have never been on a cruise…I’m going to reread this post if I ever get the idea to book one.
AND, I have had a case of those push-pop containers in my guest room closet for, oh, about a year now. Thanks for the inspiration to DO something with them!!!
I am so thankful that Pinterest led me to your website! I could not go to sleep last night as I was drooling over your creations and could not looking to the next one! I cannot wait to try your amazing ideas =)
Such a cute dessert! I love the pops- built in portion control. Looking forward to the Disney-inspired recipes.
Hilarious observations! Love the push-up cake creation. I’ve never seen these before, but what a great idea!
Love the push-pops. I’ve only used them for cookies so far, much easier to wash and re-use 😉 These look really pretty and fun. I’m glad to hear you had a fun family vacation. Love all the tips too!
I guess you have feet that do not hurt otherwise you would not give other people’s footwear chopice a second thought. In fact I have yet to wonder why people care what other people choose to wear. If the person is happy with how they look who are we to judge? Same for the hair braiding. It is the rude people that i find hard to deal with and yes the kids that the parents think are so wonderful and we should all be willing to put up with them in our space.
The portable cupckaes are cute but not sure worth the trouble to put together instead of a good old fashoned cup cake.