Yesterday was my daughter’s 8th birthday and she requested Cake Pops. She has been asking for them since we saw Bakerella‘s book at the store. How could I say no on her birthday! She spent most of the day riding her bike (thank goodness for nice weather) and I set out to make some super-cute cake pops. She had some high expectations from looking at photos on other blogs and even asked for Angry Bird ones. I was able to convince her that on my first attempt that I should keep it simple and I’m glad that I did.

Step one in making cakes pops is to bake a cake. Any old cake will do and most of the recipes I found said specifically to use a boxed cake mix. I decided to use my favorite recipe for Funfetti Cupcakes and save some of the cupcakes since it would be pretty dangerous to put a candle in a cake pop.

Next, after making sure the cake is completely cool you turn it into crumbs. I used my mini-food processor which worked well for one cupcake at a time. Place all the crumbs in a large bowl. Now you mix in some pre-made frosting into the crumbs. (I made a standard butter-cream frosting with some sour cream mixed in.) Start with a small amount and add more as needed because you don’t want to go overboard with the frosting. Put just enough frosting for the crumbs to start sticking together (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of frosting).

Rolls balls of cake/frosting mixture and place on a lined baking sheet. Place a candy stick into each ball and chill the entire baking sheet in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Use a double-boiler or microwave to melt some white chocolate. The recipes mostly recommend candy melts but I really can’t stand those things so I used some white chocolate from Trader’s Joes. I don’t really like white chocolate (my daughter loves it) but I thought this chocolate was actually pretty good. Add a teaspoon of solid vegetable shortening to the chocolate to keep it smooth while dipping.

Take out the chilled cake pops and dip into the melted chocolate. Tap the excess on the side of the bowl and twirl for a few seconds to keep the chocolate from pooling when the coating sets. Dip into colorful sprinkles before placing back on the baking sheets to harden. Allow to harden at room temperature.

Personally, the cake pops do not appeal to me. There was something irritating to me about taking a freshly baked cake and transforming it into crumbs. Perhaps doing this with old leftover cake would not bug me so much. Also, on one of the blogs I read a comment that compares cakes pops to pre-chewed cake and I could not get that out of my head.

The kids really enjoyed the cake pops. That’s why I made them, right?

Cake pops are a serious trend. They even have them at Starbuck’s now. Although I’m not a fan of cake pops I admire Bakerella. The last couple of days I’ve been browsing randomly on her blog and she has done some pretty incredible things. Make sure that you check it out.

The kid’s both rated this recipe  4 stars and I rate them  2 stars. I don’t know if I would make these again unless my kids ask for them. I’m glad that I tried them though.

cake, candy, chocolate, cupcakes, dessert, recipe, Recipes

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May 2, 2011

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