Valentine's Day Cake Pops

Recipe Review: Sweet treats to get ready for Valentines Day! They taste as good as they look!

I have FINALLY figured out how to dip cake pops! I've had so much trouble before. Leave it to Bakerella- the cake pop guru to make a video so it suddenly seems so simple! Turns out I never melted enough chocolate and so I was having to twist the pops all over the place and that's why it wasn't working.

I had a cupcake job this weekend and had some leftover batter. I decided to tint it pink and purple and make some cake pops for valentines day! Cake pops are awesome because you can make them a few days in advance and they stay fresh and yummy. Now that I had mastered the cake pop dip, it was time to decorate. I bought conversation hearts but only a few of them actually looked good, and most of the phrases have been updated to things like "text me" and "tweet me" yuck. What happened to "Be Mine"?? I ended up crushing the heats with a rolling pin and sprinkling them onto the pops. Cute!!!

I've updated my cake pop instructions with hints that I've learned along the way.

Here we go!

1. Bake a normal sheet cake and crumble into a bowl. I like to cut off any hard corners or brown edges.

2. Add frosting. I use about 1 cup for an entire 9 x13 cake. Mix well so that frosting is evenly distributed. Its better to add it a little at a time if you are unsure about how much to add. At this point the mixture should be moist but not heavy and you should be able to easily roll into balls.

3. Roll cake/frosting mix into 1 inch balls, pop them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. (I have even left them overnight)

4. Melt your chocolate or candy melts according to the directions on packaging.  I like to use a glass measuring cup rather than a bowl because the depth is good for dipping.

5. Press a lollipop stick about halfway through the cake ball. Remove and dip into melted chocolate then reinsert. Place upside down on baking sheet. Once you have dipped all the sticks place in fridge for 5 minutes

6. Dip entire cake ball straight down into melted chocolate. Rock slightly if needed to make sure whole surface is covered but do not twist. Remove from chocolate and gently tap sides while rotating to let any extra chocolate drip off.

7. Sprinkle with any decorations if desired, and carefully place into styrofoam or floral foam to dry.

Only one week till Valentine's Day! Now that I've got the treats and blogging done I should probably figure out what to get Kevin!

P.S. I'm pretty proud of myself for actually doing this ahead of the holiday rather than after. The only downside is that I doubt these will last until Valentine's Day so I'm sure I'll end up baking something else this weekend.

Cake Pops

Recipe Review: What do you do when your cupcakes fall flat? You make cake pops.

It was memorial day weekend and I had my sights set on making some patriotic red white and blue cupcakes for a barbecue that we were having at the house. Problem is that when I took my red velvet cupcakes out of the oven they didn't have  happy little rounded tops. Instead they had flat tops- and by the time they had cooled completely they were concave. They still tasted amazing... but they didn't look amazing, and well I have a "This is Sparta" mentality about cupcakes and inferior cupcakes will not be allowed.

So what was I to do with all of these sad flat little cupcakes? Make cake pops of course! Cake pops are quite trendy and have been popping up everywhere. They're a really nice size, just about two bites, and hold up better than normal baked goods so can be made a few days in advance. Between cake flavors, candy coating colors (Wilton has about 20 different colors you can get at Michael's) and decorations you have endless possibilities. I've seen people make some snazzy cake pops in fun shapes, but I'm not that fancy. (Yet...)

How to Make Cake Pops

adapted from: Bakerella.com

yeild: about 2 dozen cake pops

Ingredients:

One batch of your desired flavor of cake, baked an cooled

(I used about 2 dozen cupcakes- this would translate to 1 box of cake mix, or one 13x9 cake)

2 cups desired flavor of icing

1 bag of Wilton candy melts

sprinkles or any desired decorations

24 lollypop sticks

Use a food processor to blend cake into crumbs. Add icing and kneed with hands until you reach a doughy constancy. Roll into small balls and set on a baking sheet. Pop into fridge to chill.

Melt the chocolate candy melts in the microwave according to package directions. You don't want to get them too hot, just melted. Poke holes into cake balls about half way through with lollypop stick. Dip stick into melted chocolate and press into cake ball. Return to fridge for 5 minutes.

Dip cake balls into chocolate and tap to remove any excess. Apply any sprinkles or other decorations while chocolate is still soft. Set aside for 5-10 minutes while chocolate hardens.

printable recipe

I apologize that I don't have prep step photos- my camera's memory card corrupted and needed to be reformatted so I lost those :-(

Cake pops aren't hard to make- but in my experience they are a bit tedious. I can never seem to truly "dip" the pop into the melted chocolate without it falling off the stick. That would be so easy. Instead I end up using a large spoon and holding the pop horizontally and twirling it into the spoon of chocolate, rather than inverting it completely. I use floral foam to stick the pops into while they are setting, and this works well for when you are serving them too. I brought a few left over pops to work the next day, and one of the managers actually thought that I had bought them at Starbucks for everyone! I love when anything I make is mistaken for a professional product. For this batch I used red velvet cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, and white chocolate melts that I tinted blue. I've done these before with chocolate cake too. I recommend reserving some of the cake crumbs and frosting so you can adjust the mixture until you reach a consistency that is slightly drier than cookie dough. You don't want make them too dry or too moist. Basically this is the perfect thing to taste test until you get it just right. (taste testing is just awful right?? heh.) Check out the Bakerella website for some adorable cake pop ideas from the cake pop master.