I started following this new blog a few weeks ago called Bakerella and this woman is SUPER CREATIVE.  I secretly (but not so secretly) want to be her.  Not only was she on Martha Stewart but she makes all kinds of super cute treats! I was most intrigued by her little cake pops and cake bites.  When they posted the pot luck sign up sheet at work for my co-worker’s wedding shower, I couldn’t resist trying these little babies!

I should start off by saying that at the beginning, these cake pops were a DISASTER.  I referred to them originally as the little balls of death.  You need to have amazing patience to tolerate making these suckers (I mean that both literally and figuratively).  I think my biggest problem was that I don’t currently have a microwave so the chocolate just didn’t get hot enough and became super lumpy and sticky.  By the time I finished my first batch, it looked like a 5 year old had assembled them.  Actually, I take it back.  A 5 year old probably could have done a better job.  I will just have to wait until we move into our new apartment (YAY only two more weeks!) before attempting these again.  To their credit, the cake pops did eventually turn out and were absolutely delish.  Not to mention adorable.

Here are the steps to making these with a few of my tips thrown in, as well as a couple of helpful links.  I would really encourage you to try these, just make sure you follow all the steps carefully!

How to Make Cake Pops

Directions:

What you need before you start:

• 1 13 by 9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch- you can use any flavour you want, I used chocolate)
• 1 can frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent if making from scratch)
• approx. 2 cups of candy melts (whatever color you like) plus more if you want to double dip
• bowls for dipping
• wax paper
• aluminum foil
• lollipop sticks
• styrofoam block

1. Bake a cake from a box mix or from scratch and cool completely.  I used this FANTASTIC new chocolate cake recipe… the cake turned out so moist and decadent.  The only thing I changed was that I added an extra 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to up the chocolate taste.  Click here for the recipe.

2. Crumble your cake into a large bowl until very fine.  If the cake looks lumpy and thick, run it through a food processor.

3. Add your icing and mix until combined.  Again, I made a homemade chocolate butter cream for this but I’m sure canned would taste good too.  Or maybe not.  I’m biased.

4. Once you have combined the icing with the cake, form the mix into 1.5 inch balls and place on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  This recipe will yield about 50 cake pops.

5. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for several hours.  NOTE: This is partly where I went wrong the first time… I would actually recommend putting them in the freezer for at least 30 to 45 minutes for them to harden up almost completely, otherwise they will turn into total mush when you try to dip them in the chocolate.

6. Remove balls from fridge/freezer and push a lollipop stick into the bottom of each ball.

7.  Return balls to the fridge while you prepare your chocolate.

NOTE: This was also a mistake that I made… you want to make sure your chocolate is totally melted and somewhat thin before attempting to dip these or you will have a huge mess.  I would also recommend jabbing a hole into the ball with a toothpick and then dipping the lollipop stick into chocolate before pushing it into the ball.  This will help the ball stay more firmly on the stick.  I would also melt the chocolate in a nice deep bowl so you have lots of room to dip.

8. Slowly dip the ball into the chocolate and then allow excess chocolate to drip off before sticking the cake pop (ball side up) into your styrofoam block to set.

After my cake pop disaster, I decided to forgo the chocolate coating completely.  I modified them a little by topping each one with a swirl of vanilla buttercream and a little pink fondant heart.  I was very happy with the results until I was driving to the shower and noticed the balls were FALLING DOWN THE STICKS! (insert sad face here).  I almost chucked them out the window right then and there.  If you are going to  forgo the chocolate like I did, make sure you keep these in the fridge/freezer until you are ready to serve them.

The pops did turn out cute though, did they not? That being said… nobody say “cake pops” to Josh for a little while… he might just cry.  He was a trooper through this one.

As I said before, I will attempt these again, however… cake pops and I need a little break from each other for the moment.  If you want to see a great video as a step by step, check out this link.

I would also highly recommend checking out www.bakerella.com for some serious inspiration.  I mean, she is a professional cake pop decorator but look at this design… I could just EAT THESE they are so cute!

Photo from www.bakerella.com

Source: Recipes and Cake Pop instructions adapted from Bakerella and All Recipes