Getting ready for Wimbledon with Oreo tennis balls

You know when you have what seems like a brilliant idea for ages, really want to try it out, buy all the stuff, set it up, get cooking or making….and then it’s a failure?

It’s not often I come up with crafty or foodie ideas, so when I do I get quite excited. I’d decided I wanted to adapt my Halloween Pumpkin Oreos and turn them into tennis balls in preparation for Wimbledon and I decided that this weekend was the one to get making.

Maybe I should just stick with the ideas, and not actually try them out? My first attempt was that I’d gone out and bought the Oreos, and then eaten them before actually making the tennis balls. Second attempt I had a go, but I’m obviously not dainty enough.

The idea was to use lolly or cake pop sticks to made Oreo ‘lollies’, cover the Oreos with lime green candy melts, and then when dry, draw on tennis ball patterns with edible pens (or use ‘writing’ icing.

The first failure was lolly sticks. Oreos definitely aren’t made for making into lollies. As soon as you stick a lolly stick into the filling, the biscuits split.

The next fail was using candy melts. Now I’m sure these are great for cake pop covering and a multitude of other baking ideas, but I couldn’t get them to melt thin enough, and couldn’t neaten them off. Did they look like fluffy tennis balls? Nope, just messy.

I did debate using writing icing pens but I know I’m not steady enough (and didn’t have the right colour to use), so I used edible pens. I used the green (because you can’t get beige as far as I can tell, and the silver was too fine a pen), but it dragged through the hardened candy topping. Plus of course lop-sided pattern, and they don’t really look at all like tennis balls.

So they were hidden away…read eaten. That’s the bonus with trying out sweet treats, generally even if they go wrong, they still taste ok.

If you want to attempt tennis ball Oreos, you need:
Oreos (or any other biscuits seeing as the lolly stick idea didn’t work)
Candy melts
Edible pens

1. Melt the candy melts according to the instructions. I used a microwave.

1. Dunk or smooth on with a spatula the melted candy melts. Let them set on greaseproof paper or a baking sheet.

1. Turn-over and repeat to cover (you could just do one side)
2. When set, draw on or ice the ball line/pattern.

If you want to have more success, you could just cover biscuits (homemade or bought) with fondant icing discs and then decorate with the pattern!

What sort of baking or creating fails have you had recently? Let me know if you have more success than me!