Cake Pops!

Only recently have I really desired to learn how to make cake pops. It was after a baptism where they had cake pops as the party favor did I learn how freaking amazing they are! I always thought they looked extremely difficult to conquer (and I'm in no way saying they are the easiest thing to make) but it made so much more sense after following the detailed visual instructions from Ashley Stock's blog. So with her expertise, I went to town... literally.

Had to stop at Michael's for a few supplies: candy melts, cake pop sticks, and styrofoam (I'm gonna keep you guessing as to why styrofoam is needed).

Candy Melts

So you bake your cake as usual (as the box tells you), let it cool, and dump the thing in a bowl with half a container of your choice frosting. I would go with the same flavor as your cake, but but it's all about creativity so whatever floats your boat. Then mash away! Once mashed, roll the cake into 1-inch balls.

Now here is where I'm going to insert some things I've learned. Use less of a roll and more of a compact. If you roll the cake until its a solid ball, you've pretty much got yourself cake dough all over again. I didn't realize this until all my cake was in the form of highly dense rolled cake balls. So a more compacting technique may get you a cake-ier consistency which, I would think is what it's all about.

Technique tip: The balls should be somewhat small as a small carboard stick needs to withhold the cake balls weight (another reason you don't want dense balls ;-)

Confetti Cake with Rainbow Chip Frosting

Once the cake balls are formed, the sticks must be placed. So, microwave the candy melts until smooth adding a large spoonful of shortening for thinner consistency. Dab the stick into the melted candy and place in the cake ball. Should look like the picture below once sticks are placed.
Technique time: After sticks are placed, use a styrofoam base as a holder for the cake pops. The stick should be able to harden to the cake ball in this right side up fashion. Because my cake balls were so dense and large, the stick fell right through the cake ball despite the candy melt "glue" to hold it in place.


Once the candy melt glue has hardened to withhold the cake balls weight you are ready for dipping and covering the entire cake ball with the candy coating.
Now, as you can see below, I have not perfected the "covering of the cake ball", so I really don't have any techniques tips for this part of the project. However, I can tell you that the consumers have thus far loved the extra glob of candy coating. I had to dump this extra glob on so my cake ball would finally stick to the stick, but the presentation was/is awful! With some practice, I will master the candy coating adding sprinkles, colored icing, and more decortions!

So ta-dah! Here they are all set in my cake tupperware ready for my consumers at work.