Cake Pops!

Today I thought I'd try my hand at something new! Inspired by the entertaining recipe blogging of Pioneer Woman, and the baking genius of the lovely Bakerella, I went to the shops and armed myself with cake mix, frosting, lollies, chocolate melts and lollipop sticks.

In March, Pioneer Woman hosted a Bakerella cake pop fest, where a few lucky people got to go to her Lodge way out in the sticks of Oklahoma (read, gorgeous ranch accommodation with a to-die-for kitchen) and learn how to make these cuties from the master herself! Naturally, she blogged about the whole process, but if you, too would like to give these cake pops a go, you can find the step-by-step instructions here.

Well, lacking an army of readers to flock to my door to join me in my quest, I conscripted my three girls, who were gladly prepared to experiment with me! That is, until I stipulated that kitchen cleaning assistance would be required by all who wished to participate in cake pop decorating. This decree weeded out one daughter, who was disinclined to continue her involvement in the program.

Part 1: The coloured sugar.
Being novices to cake decorating in general, I decided we should start with something easy, so we opted for plain white chocolate coating, rolled in coloured sugar, with a candy star to finish it off.
The girls had 20 good minutes of fun massaging and shaking food dye through small zip-lock bags of sugar. Our zeal resulted in eight colour varieties, and used up all of my white sugar, but was great fun to do!

Inky hands!

Part 2: The cake pops.
With cake pops, you can pick whatever flavour of cake you like, and cake mix is fine to use, so I picked a Green's Lemon Cake, and added a splash of orange essence, and a few drops of rose pink and yellow food dyes to make a nice apricot colour. The finished cake, complete with finger imprint in the middle. This was the first cake I'd made that I didn't have to be careful with- I was about to turn it into a pile of crumbs before forming it into balls. So, sure as eggs are eggs, I gave it a good bash to get it out of the tin, which resulted in a goodly sized chunk ending up on the floor. I'll be more careful next time... I think!

We mixed the cake crumbs with a good wad of frosting until it was a moldable consistency, rolled it all up into small balls, and pushed lollipop sticks into them. We dipped the sticks into melted chocolate first, so they would hold inside the cake a little better. Then we put the balls into the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up, which they did nicely.

Now the funnest part- decorating!

Melting white chocolate in a bowl in another bowl of hot water. It's a bit more tedious, but a bit safer than doing it in the microwave. Believe me- I've had melting-chocolate-in-the-microwave disasters before!

Some of the coloured sugars on pretty plates... aren't they sweet!


Cake pop battle!

Oops, I popped!

An interesting perspective...


Cuties!

Finished specimens... I thought I'd try the Bakerella trick and put a coloured backdrop behind them. I couldn't quite get the right angle though- you don't see any polystyrene blocks in her pics, although I bet they are there! I think it's the camera- I was just using my iPhone camera, and couldn't take great closeup shots of multiple pops. That'll teach me for not recharging the camera batteries!
Gift of love. My darling hubby got the honour of having the first one. I picked a real cutie for him- cos he's a real cutie!
My pick. Mmm, it was yummy! But very sweet. I'll definitely make these again, but only for parties or gatherings of some kind. I don't think my pancreas will stand it if I make them just for our family too often!
1st date...

1st kiss... don't they make a great couple!

Yummmm!


In Him,