EAT: Cake Pops 101

Cake Pops 101

So for Piper's birthday, I decided to make an attempt at cake pops. I love love love to bake and I love fun party stuff like this. On Twitter a few weeks ago, I stumbled across the video below on how to make them. Sounded super easy and very different from the ones made in molds everyone struggles with. So, first the video and then my pictures :)

Here's my ingredients and decor stuff. I used olive oil, which you really should use veg but I don't keep that around the house. You'll also notice the rectangular pan which I didn't use because it's my roomies and it was gross.

Baking in the oven.

Snagged these little baskets for $1 each in the party section at Target. The green stuff is floral foam and it cuts just like butter.

After baking the cakes, crumbling them, and adding the frosting...you'll want to start forming them into balls. It should stick together easily, but not be overly sticky. If you find it too sticky, add more cake crumbs if you have them. Too dry? More frosting. I think I used a bit much and only used 1/2 of the frosting container.

On a cookie sheet and into the freezer to harden a bit. Bakerella suggests only 15 minutes. NO WAY! Perhaps my balls were too moist (LOL) but the longer the better. I mean like 60 minutes plus. I had SO MANY casualties at first because the weight of the chocolate was too much for the cake ball and would rip right off. More time in the freezer was the solution for sure. They shouldn't be FROZEN SOLID, but pretty firm to the touch. One thing that helped was dipping the stick into the chocolate, sticking it in the ball, and THEN transferring to the freezer for some sitting time.

Chocolate melts in a double boiler. Microwave was a disaster. Hardened WAY too quickly. When melts get heated too rapidly, they turn into a cakey, flakey, pastey chunk of mess. You can use oil to melt them down again, hence why I decided to go the double boiler method instead.

Melted down and TONS of oil added. When I did the white melts, I didn't use NEARLY as much since I avoided the microwave. Oil can be used to make the chocolate more liquefied which is super important. If the melts are too thick, your cake balls will pop right off. It really should drip fairly easily off your spatula. You'll want to rock it back and forth, side to side very gently and smoothly. Never stir. 

Here's a picture of some of them decorated and drying in the flower foam. PERFECT drying tool. You'll see a few have sugar crystals, nuts, and some edible heart confetti.

The finished display. Remember, there's flower foam inside the baskets. I covered the basket with grass and stuck the pops in.

One thing I also learned was bigger, is not better. A lot of the cake balls I made were much too big and made for a heavy pop. Next time, I'll remember to keep them much, much smaller. The box of cake mix made about 16-18 cake pops but probably would have made 2 dozen easily had I not made some of them so big.

Here's a sneak peek of Little Miss Birthday Girl in the tutu I made her. I ordered one off Etsy and the seller did not get it to me on time. That's an entirely other story and one I'll definitely be blasting when I get a minute.

Anyway, by the time you're reading this it's Piper's birthday and I made some AMAZING things I can't wait to show everyone this week. Stay tuned ya'll!