Anyways, last nigh was Tuesday night which meant Mike's weekly poker night aka I'm bored and have nothing to do night. Earlier in the day I was thinking about baking something but didn't want to commit to anything intensely time consuming since I have been pretty tired lately. That's when cake pops popped (haha, no pun intended) into my mind. I was still debating on whether or not I really wanted to bake anything when Jen (you'll remember Jen, my new sous chef) said she'd come over and help me, so it was decided for me!
In case you are one of the few people left in the world that doesn't know what a cake pop is, have no fear for it is the simplest thing ever! A cake pop is a little cake ball on a stick (i told you it was simple). Essentially you bake a cake, crumble it up and mix with frosting. Then form little balls (you can make crazy shapes but we'll get to that in another post), push a stick in and dip it in melted chocolate. That's it!
As a disclaimer, I know in the past I have voiced my strong objections to boxed cake mixes and canned frosting but I must say that when it comes to cake pops I go with the pre-made stuff. You're just going to mush it all up anyways so whats the point...
Here's what you need
Cake mix - I used Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme
Frosting - I used Duncan Hines Creamy Home Style Cream Cheese
Popsicle Sticks
Melting Chocolates in assorted colors - I used pink, purple, and dark chocolate
Styrofoam block (optional but necessary if you want to keep your cake balls round, otherwise they'll be flat on top)
I have previously gone over the steps to make cake pops in an earlier post so i won't bore you all with that again but I will say that while making cake pops isn't necessarily the hardest thing to do, it can be labor intensive and it's probably going to take a few tries to master a system that will work for you.
Here is what I learned this time around:
1. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the chocolates as you melt them. It will make the consistency of the chocolate slightly thinner and perfect for coating the cake balls. I also found that it helped keep the chocolate from thickening up again quite as quickly.
2. To get a smooth coat of chocolate that looks seamless, first dip the cake pop straight down into the chocolate about halfway and quickly pull it back out. Then, while holding the cake pop at an upright angle, spoon chocolate on the rest of the cake pop and slowly spin the it to allow the chocolate to coat the entire cake ball.
Remember my sous chef, Jen? She's back!!
You can decorate the cake pops any way that you'd like but we decided to splash chocolate in different colors for a fun, messy look.
These cake pops were soooo good! I took 27 of them into work today (I think only 10/11 people were working) and all but 4 were gone by the end of the day. Remember the coworker that once said to me "OK, freakin' yum!"? This time she came out of the break room and said "that was a party in my mouth!", LOL. If ever i feel self conscious about my baking I just need to take my treats into work because they always praise my baking and make me feel awesome!
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