Return of the Cake Pop

Last week I had a cupcake project lined up for the upcoming Easter holiday. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as planned and pretty soon I had 24 cupcakes that looked like a mini version of this disaster that had happened before. I'm starting to think that it's either the baking soda that I'm using, or my roommates are giants who stomp around and cause my cupcakes to deflate. Both are very plausible reasons.

Anyway, instead of throwing out a batch of cupcakes that looked terrible but tasted great, I was persuaded to turn them into cake pops.

Oh the dreaded cake pop.

The last time I made these, I had chocolate in my hair, a shake in my hand, and a crazy look in my eye.

Cake pops are not my most favourite thing to make. To be fair, I've only given them one try but that was enough for me to file the idea away and nervously laugh at trying it again.

Don't get me wrong. They're cute as a button. Looking up pics of other people's cake pops makes me want to try my own.

But then the horrible memories come flooding back.

The biggest problem I have is that it is So. Damn. Time. Consuming.

They're expensive, finicky, and take a huge set up too.

All for 5 minutes of a bite of cake.

Anyway....enough with my complaining.

This time around I used chocolate melts from Bulk Barn and I noticed that the chocolate cracked and oil oozed out of the crack. Not a cute look. They were easier to melt and work with though.

I spread out the work over a few days rather than trying to cram it all into one day which helps loads!

I also decided to add Nutella instead of buttercream icing to the cake crumbs which ups the yumminess factor but adds to the weight of each cake pop.

Although I don't like making them (and did I mention all the dishes I needed to wash?) they are definitely cute and can make for really cute designs. I'm going to keep working on them and trying to figure out a method that works best for me. When I do, I'll do an in depth tutorial called 'The Idiot's Guide to Cheap Easy and Cute Cake Pops'.

Happy Baking!

White and Purple Cake Pops

This post is going to be super fast...I know I always say this but this time I mean it. Okay here goes...

A lot of people don't know what cake pops are. So when I decided to make them for a cultural club's first meeting people were like what the fudge is a cake pop?

For those of us who live and breath Tim Horton's without which our existence would be pointless, it's comparable to a timbit on a stick coated in chocolate. But instead of a donut, its cake.

It was my first time making these and I overestimated how easy it would be. The basic procedure is:
- Bake a cake
- Wait for the cake to cool and then crumble it up so its a bowl of crumbs
- Mix in icing
- Form the crumbs into little balls
- Pop balls into freezer for about 20 min
- Remove and insert a lollipop stick
- Dip in chocolate and let harden



My procedure went like this:
- Bake a cake

My Set Up

- Wait for cake to cool and crumble it up at which point half of it is on the kitchen counter
- Mix in icing and panic on whether theres enough or if more should be added
- Form crumbs into cake balls while watching How To Train Your Dragon
- Put balls in fridge because fridge and freezer are the same
- Frantically try to melt chocolate into a good consistency and give up after an hour
- Dip the first cake ball and stick it on styrofoam to dry only for it to slide all the way down the stick in 3 minutes

- More panicking
- After the 3rd ball realize its because the fridge is not the freezer
- Put remaining balls in the freezer and kick yourself in the head
- Wait 15 minutes and then run to the freezer and back 30 times to dip each cake ball while keeping others in freezer

Why does the purple look pink? 

I'm not even going to talk about the troubles I had adding designs and decorations. It was ugly. A couple of front line cake balls were lost. A deadly battle to the finish ensued.

Detailed normal instructions and recipes can be found on Bakerella's website and a video tutorial is here.

They're pretty, cute, and less calories than a whole cupcake...I think....unless of course you eat 10...which you probably will because they are awesome...or so I've been told.

All in all it was a good trial and error process. Next time I know what to do and what definitely NOT to do.

And sorry about missing MM...I'm just stressed and busy.





And this was another long post....DAMIT