On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend my very first sewing blogger’s meet-up in Toronto, ON in Canada. I made Cake Pops for the first time, for everybody. They were a lot of fun to make, and I’m going to include the recipe at the end of the post.
Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow (who also made everybody colour coordinating name-tags!) and Adrienne from All Style and All Substance instigated (organized) this fantastic event for us, there were 18 of us in total, and I’ve linked to everybody in this post! We all met up in the Fashion District, at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue and carried on to visit fabric stores in the area.
Left to Right: Andi from How Unseamly; Kristian from Victory Patterns; Dana from Wardrobe Dysfunction; Adrienne from All Style and All Substance; Sarah from Pattern Vault; Anastasia, sewist.
From Left to Right: Vicki from Another Sewing Scientist; Sandra, JustSew; Chloe from Button and Needle; Reethi from Weekend Crafting; Tracey, sewist; Debbie from Sew Debbie; Jagoda, FitNottoFit (in front).
Yours truly, walking alongside a mural on Queen St. W.
After this, we all met up at Tequila Bookworm, to eat, drink, exchange sewing stashes and be merry. And we accomplished all of the above, with gusto!
Four people at the front, from left, Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow; Kay from Gently Down the Seam; Cathy from Seraphinalina and Kristin from K-Line.
Many of the attendees wore items that they had sewn themselves and it was such a thrill to see it all in person.
Everybody’s sewing stashes laid out on the table, waiting for the big exchange
Sewing Stuff I Brought
And Cake Pops
Vultures Sifting Through Sewing Stashes. Me, on the right, double-fisted with sewing loot! 🙂
Fabulous Stuff I Got
Thank you to everybody for coming out and making the day so successful. I had a blast and enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of you!
Recipe for Cake Pops
Ingredients: (makes 20 pops)
- Cake mix (either make your own cake or use your favourite mix)
- 1 box instant pudding and pie filling mix
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup milk / almond milk / soy milk
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup Icing (make your own or use your favourite ready-to-use icing)
- 1 packet flavoring for icing (I used strawberry)
- 3 bags Candy Melts (cocoa, pink and white)
- Cake decorating sprinkles (in a variety of coordinating colours)
- 20 lollipop sticks
Instructions:
- In large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, milk or milk substitute and oil. Beat with mixer for 2 minutes and pour into a prepared 9 X 13 inch pan.
- Bake 30 – 35 minutes at 350 degrees F.
- Divide cake in half and use only half for cake pops. Crumble cooled cake into crumbs with no large pieces remaining.
- Add flavour packet to icing, and add 1/2 cup icing slowly to crumbs, combining until mixture forms like a dough. Form into tablespoon size balls, rolling in your hands until smooth.
- Refrigerate cake balls for 2 hours.
Melt Candy Melts in separate small bowls until smooth. Dip one end of lollipop sticks into candy melts and then insert into the cake balls.- Wait until lollipop stick in cake pops have firmed, then dip cake pops into melted Candy Melts, varying the colours and layers.
- While Candy Melt mixture is still wet on cake pops, dip into cake decorating sprinkles. Wait for Candy Melt mixture to dry on cake pops.
- Eat.
Gjeometry 
Cool write-up, Catja. 🙂 And thanks for sharing the recipe for your delicious cake pops!
Thanks Adrienne! Glad you stopped by :). And, please make cake pops and eat at will. The sugar rush is good for you.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! Please say you’ll have another Toronto meet-up this summer!?
Thanks so much for the cake-pop recipe, I’m so going to try this!
I also love that photo of you by the mural. If I were you I’d blow it up and frame it 🙂
Hi Eleyna, yes, as a matter of fact, wheels are in motion to have another meet-up in the summer. I hope it goes down, as they say. And, you’re welcome for the recipe, sugar is one of the food groups, after all!
I liked that pic as well, I just wish I had bought some fabric on rolls, like the guy in the mural, to walk along with him, lol. But, I’m not convinced about the red hair. I’m a natural blonde and just dyed it red. Don’t think it “goes” with my skin tone, which is very pale and pink.
I love the red hair! I think it’s great to have bold hair in the wintertime. I wish I could do bangs! I think my face is too round and my forehead is too sweaty for them 😛 but they totally work on you!
Round and sweaty, lol. I’ve not seen that as a reason not to get bangs in any hairdressing magazine. I do like the bangs, too, thanks! And think you could also get bangs, from your pic think they would look cool on you! But, still not convinced of the red, on me, specifically. The colour itself, is nice, turned out very natural, just don’t think it suits my pale and pinkish hued skin. It’s too orangy. That’s not a word, but you get what I mean. 🙂
This post makes me homesick, and hungry for yummy treats 🙂
Hey Andrea, well at least you can look at pics from ‘home’. :). The cake pops were a hit, so I say give them a try! Hopefully, you’ll be around in the summer when another meet-up is planned.
Yep, It was fun …. So glad to have met you, Catja!
Also great to have met you Kay! So happy you also had fun :).
I am just stopping by to let you know that I nominated you for the Liebster Award. For more information check out my http://sarahmschultz.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-liebster-award.html
Have a great day
Sarah
Hi Sarah, thank you so much for this honour! This is very kind and I really appreciate it. 🙂
Kitty received an award recently and now I can feel special too! (If Kitty will let me share his spotlight…)
That’s such a fun idea to meet up and exchange loot…bravo. I love the little tag you added to your treats, which are so cute BTW…..sew on!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun, so great to meet people offline and exchange ideas and loot. Sew on sister! 🙂
I love meetups too …. very inspiring and aint it nice to talk about sewing and stitching almost without pause?!
Yes, it was awesome! And come to think of it, you’re absolutely right, I don’t recall talking about anything that wasn’t sewing related! It was nice, for a change, to get the same enthusiasm back, instead of a blank stare, lol.
Oh how well I know that blank stare!
Lol. You can hear crickets chirping.
Oh, that looks like so much fun!
And, thanks for the intro to the other bloggers. I’m going to check out their blogs, too, and expand my sewing circle.
Ooops, and say Hello! to Kitty for me.
Oh, it was fun, thanks for commenting! I’m so happy I was able to attend. And I’m more than delighted to share the bloggers and the love.
Kitty purrs at you and meows hello :).
It was so nice to meet you and thanks for the cake pop! I can’t wait to see what you make next.
Hi Dana, it was so nice to meet you too, and you’re so welcome! And thanks for your excitement about my next project, I can’t wait to make it and show you. I’m also highly anticipating your next ‘make’. 🙂
Looks like a great day. How fabulous and exciting to exchange stash items.
Hi Leonie, yes, it was so much fun! And the stash exchange was so great as I didn’t have a lot of commercial patterns and now I have several in my size to sew!
Hi Catja, Thanks for stopping by, and it was nice to meet you in person! I just blogged about the event, and linked to your recipe 😉
Oh fabulous, I will check it out! And it was so great to meet you as well, Sarah. I look forward to sharing more with each other :).
Hey Catja – I’ve been on the road and now on vacation, so I’m just finally getting the chance to catch up on all my blog reading now. Soooo glad I made the trek to TO. See you next time!
Hey Vicki, I’m so glad you made it over for the meet-up as well, it was so great to meet you! I hope you are having a terrific time on vacation, have a drink on me. Hope to see you again soon!
Sewing meetups are so fun! Reethi (I found you through her blog, we have been sewing friends for a few years) told me about this one but I was closing a play production all weekend and couldn’t make it. Looks like I missed an opportunity to meet some great people! Next time!
Hi Connie, I’m so thrilled you stopped by! I had actually met Reethi earlier but did not know she sewed till our Sewing Meet-up! That’s too bad you weren’t able to attend but sounds like you had a fun night anyway. I look forward to seeing you around blog-land and hope to see you at the next meet-up.
Hooray for sewing meet-ups! Your cake pops look awesome.
Also, why did I think you were Australian? Weird.
Yes, hooray indeed! It was a blast to get to meet and chat with like-minded folk! And feel free to try the cake pop recipe. I am NOT a baker, but they came out great.
Well, I have made SO many delightfully lovely Australian friends on-line and I covet the weather there, so maybe I can be an honourary Australian :).