Cake Pops!

Here is a disclaimer before I post these:

Many, many bloggers have posted cake pops before me, and probably all are better than mine. As far as I know, the original, inventor and reigning queen of cake pops is Bakerella, and you must click over and look at all her gorgeous creations. Wait, don't click yet. You'll never come back. But she does have a book out now! How cool is that? And her pops are amazing!

These are my lame interpretation. They are improving but I've discovered there is a bit of a learning curve with these. Fortunately they are super fun to make and unfortunately really, really delicious. Somehow a few of mine always seem to fall off the stick while dipping and I am sadly forced to eat them. 

Ok, here's my little photo tutorial...

You will need:

Cake mix

Container of frosting

2 bags of Candy Melts (I buy Wilton brand at Michael's in the cake/candy making aisle)

approx 50 lollipop sticks (any length, but I prefer the longer ones)

Styrofoam or floral foam blocks

Sprinkles, if desired

Bake a cake. Any cake. Homemade, from a mix... whatever suits you. 

I made a chocolate cake from a mix. Well, actually hubby made this. While babysitting my friend's two kiddos. And taking care of ours so that I could have kid-free shopping day. Is he amazing or what??

Let cake cool completely. This is important. I usually bake it the day before I actually make the pops. Then dump the cake into a big bowl. Break it up a bit if needed because you are just going to crumble it...

...like this. Nice and fine. A few bigger bits are ok. I use my hands for this part- gets pretty messy but it's oddly meditative. 

Now grab your frosting- any kind. The pops themselves are a bit of a process so I just use store bought. But you can make homemade. If you're an over achiever. 

Now scoop almost the whole container into your bowl. I use a big spoon to stir it all up. Add a little more frosting if needed to make a rollable but not too gooey texture. They need to roll up into somewhat firm little balls. Like cookie dough. 

I place them onto a huge cookie sheet covered in wax paper. I usually get 40-50 pops from one cake, depending how big I roll them. Here's a little tip: roll them smaller. The bigger they are, the heavier they are. And heavy cake pops fall off the sticks while dipping. Then you have to eat them.

Now put your candy melts in a bowl, or two bowls if you are using two colors. I've discovered a shallow bowl makes it easier to dip. Melt them in the microwave according to package instructions. Stir and microwave more until creamy and pretty thin. The candy in the photo above is too thick. Heat more. 

Dip the tip of each stick into a little of the candy and stick into each ball, about 3/4 of the way through. 

Then take your cookie sheet and put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. I always have to clear a space big and tall enough. If you don't have space, do these in batches on smaller trays. You can remelt the candy as much as needed. 

Once chilled, it's time to dip! You may need to melt the candy a bit more at this point. Make sure to cover the ball all the way, so the candy touches the stick. This keeps them on the stick a bit better. (I accidentally dropped some sprinkles in my bowl of candy melt... oops.)

I love they way they look with matching sprinkles on them... almost like glitter. If you use any sprinkles, do it right after you dip each pop while the candy is still wet. 

Then stick each pop in the foam block to harden. I find that I sometimes have to stick the un-dipped pops back in the freezer once or twice during this process... if they get too warm they start to fall off the sticks while dipping. Then, again, you have to eat them.

I got a bit inventive while making this batch and crammed some floral foam into a couple cute, tall containers I had. Then covered the foam with tissue paper, and stuck my finished pops into that. It looked so cute! 

These were for a baby shower, to celebrate my cousin's baby boy arriving in January. I love the blue and teal together. 

I did not, however, love the brown. Most of the candy melt colors are flavored vanilla, but the brown (naturally) is chocolate. YUM. But just not as pretty. So I set aside these four for momma-to-be. Or her kiddos. But pregnant mommas sometimes need four double chocolate cake pops. 

Click here to see my bee-shaped cake pops for Beckham's first birthday party. They were my first batch ever. I think I'll be sticking with these round, solid color ones. :)

These red ones I made for my sister-in-law's baby shower... the theme was Ruby, so I used red velvet cake. :) And speaking of Ruby, she arrived 11 days ago and is the most adorable, perfect, sweet little girl you could imagine! Love her. 

Notice the foam blocks covered in tissue paper? Sure wish I'd have thought of the foam-in-a-cute-container idea sooner.

This batch was for a friend's daughter's birthday party, and I decided to keep it simple and do them upside-down to avoid the whole foam block situation. They still looked super cute on a fun platter, and this was definitely easier. But I do love the way they look standing up.

Don't forget to make your laundry detergent to donate to a shelter and come back and enter my giveaway!!