Cake Pops

I needed to learn to make cake pops for my daughter’s 16^th birthday party. It was a must, to have cake pops at the party, due to their famous presence at local bakeries and coffee shops.

Too expensive to purchase 150 of these sweet little concoctions, I turned to my own resources to get the job done. In this particular case, I used Google, Pinterest, YouTube, & AllRecipes.com to eventually find video, which really helped me figure out how to dip these suckers in frosting.

First, went out and purchased Babycakes Cake Pop Baker. I got mine at Michaels with a 50% iPhone App coupon for a total of $15.00.   

Then, I chose the cake recipe. I went with Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake . I halved the recipe and it made 57 cake pops. In the picture, here, notice I placed the cake batter in a picnic "ketsup" bottle. It made it particularly easy to get the batter in those little dome shaped molds. You can use a plastic sandwich bag, too, with a corner snipped off.

 Be sure to fill it just below the fill top of the mold. If you fill them even, they puff up too much, like in the picture below, and they will come out with a crispy ring attached.

I used Baker's Joy before each batch and the cake pops came out really easily with the tongs that come with the cake pop maker. I baked these 4 minutes flat. They were perfectly baked and not dried out. I laid them on a wire rack to cool. 

Here they are, finished, and waiting for their lollipop sticks. I used 6 inch sticks. 

For frosting, I went with my own thoughts on that: 4 C confectioner’s sugar, 3 T butter, enough milk to create a soft consistency, and corn syrup to make it more thin and shiny. Before you stick the stick into the pop, dip the end in the frosting. This keeps the pop from falling off later when you dip them.

 Be careful not to push the stick more than halfway through the pop. If you go further than halfway, you are risking that the stick will later "pop" out the top of your pop. Ick. See further below for an example of that.

 Now its time to freeze them. I put mine in freezer bag, arranged flat like above, on a cookie sheet, then I placed them in a chest freezer for 30 minutes. This makes the cake hard and will help you when you are dipping them.

 When you choose a vessel for your frosting, choose one that is tall and skinny. But not so tall that you can't reach all the way to the bottom with your cake pop. I used a syrup pourer. Review this video for tutorial on how to dip.

I took each pop out of the freezer individually, dipped them in the frosting, sprinkled the pop with sprinkles, and then set them to dry here in this box that I punched with holes. I used a metal skewer and it turned out just about the right sized hole. Keep warming your frosting between pops. The thinner the frosting, the less chance that your pop will get too heavy and fall down the stick.

 Here is an unfortunately soul who fell off his stick :(.

  And finally, I used the remaining frosting to make one last attempt at decor on the pop.

I tried, also, dipping them in chocolate melts...which are much different than dipping them in chocolate. Chocolate has A LOT more sugar and ends up making it too sweet. Chocolate melts, however, have more waxy-product and less sugar, making it taste chocolately, keep its candy-coating-ness, and not taste so sweet. I used, here, Simply Melt. It tasted better than the icing I made, but I need white cake pops, so I may need to try white melts. Hmmmm.