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Monday, November 07, 2011

Cake Pops

In response to my last post, Mari asked about my recipe for cake pops, so I thought I'd give a quick rundown.

Hastily decorated party cake pops
Bakerella's basic formula is super simple: bake a cake, crumble it up, mash in frosting, form into balls, insert sticks and dip into candy. I think this is her most detailed tutorial.

The first time I tried this, I made several mistakes:
  1. I bought some Fancy Deluxe Super Moist cake mix that called for something like half a cup of oil; even though I didn't add that much, the cake was still kind of greasy--probably fine for regular eating, but not great for cake pops. The second time, I bought a cheap store brand cake. Much better!
  2. I used Wilton's white candy melts, which had a dreadful, hypersweet cheap candy flavor. The second time around, I used their chocolate ones, which were far better; they tasted like candy I would actually want to eat.
  3. I used homemade cream cheese frosting at nearly full strength sweetness. Paired with the white candy shell, that was way too sweet. The second time around, I whipped the frosting left over from my first attempt--maybe a cup?--with another block of Neufchatel and some more vanilla. That made for a less sweet frosting and a far tastier pop.
  4.  I didn't let the balls chill sufficiently before dipping them, and this is probably the most important thing. If they're not nice and cold--the second time, mine were pretty much frozen--the candy coating won't stick well. I had mine in the freezer for probably at least an hour before dipping them, and I wouldn't go with any less than that.
The second time, thanks to the knowledge gained from my first failure, things went much better. The pops actually tasted good--rich, more like dense brownies or even truffles, but good--and were superfun to eat. I wish I'd had a bit more time to decorate them; as it was, after all that fussiness, I was really pressed for time, and ended up slapping on some extra cream cheese frosting piped from a Zip-lock bag. I think I did all 31 (I think that's the number I ended up with, unintentionally!) in about four minutes.


They were a fair amount of work, but a big hit--so festive! I'd love to give them another try sometime, and do fun decorations. There is lots more inspiration over at Bakerella; check it out!

4 comments:

Daniel said...

Thank you for the follow-up on these. I followed Bakerella for a while, but never felt inspired by all the cake pops. I'm glad they seem worth the effort, though wouldn't you rather have a truffle?

CëRïSë said...

Truffles are indeed tasty, but they're more expensive, don't come on sticks, and aren't as much fun to decorate.

But, mmmmmm, truffles...

Hardboiled said...

Thank you so much for posting this! To continue the theme, check out Pie on a Stick at http://www.themotherhuddle.com/pie-on-a-stick/

If I'm feeling ambitious this Thanksgiving, I'm going to try them!

CëRïSë said...

You're so welcome, Mari! And those little pies are adorable; I hope you post about it if you do them!