Cake Pops 101

The other day I wandered into Starbucks for my freebie coffee and spotted their glass case of food.

Did you know they sell cake pops for $3 each? Or 2 for $5?

Really? Crazy pricing, but people pay.


Selection of my decorated cake pops

Anybody can make cake pops. This was my first time. It isn't hard. Time consuming, yes. Hard, no. All you need are the ingredients and decorating supplies.

Allow at least one day to make the pops. They can keep on the counter for a day or two, or in the fridge for up to 5 days. I sent them with the hubby to work to get them out of the house.

For the cake balls (Walmart):
Boxed cake mix
Tub of icing

Decorating supplies (Michaels) in the candy/cake section:
Styrofoam form (I used a 12-in square form, 2-in deep)
Treat sticks
assorted colors of white melting chocolate (white, black, dk green, red, orange, yellow, neon green, orchid, etc)
sanding sugars (black, orange, white)
candy eyes
candy bones
assorted nonpareils (the wee black and orange balls)
and whatever else strikes your fancy. If you want to bag them individually, then you need small plastic goodie bags and some black and orange curling ribbon to tie around the stick.

How to make a cake pop:

No pictures. Sorry.

I didn't think about blogging until AFTER I finished cleaning up the cake pop mess.

Start with the center of the pop, I opted for chocolate cake and chocolate icing.

Bake the cake according to the directions. I made the 13 X 9 size. Cool. Crumble cake into large bowl. Add icing (start with 1/2 can) and fold until mixture comes together. I used almost the entire icing tub, except for a couple tablespoons. Using a 1 1/4-in. cookie scoop, scoop rounded ball of cake and roll into a ball.

This is where you need to decide if you want to make any shapes other than balls. I made Frankenstein into a rectangle. The tombstone has a rounded top and is fairly flat. I did put ridges in the pumpkins, but it didn't make a difference, though I did make an indent in the top and flattened the ball a little. Make triangles if you want a candy corn, or cone if you want to do a witches hat. Or whatever floats your boat.

Note: do NOT roll the balls too tightly. It will bite you in the butt later when the chocolate-dipped balls dry and crack open. It appears to be random, but prepare to do a little 'doctoring' of the wounded cake balls.

Place balls on parchment lined cookie sheet that can fit into your refrigerator. Repeat until all of cake mixture is used. I ended up with 65 balls. Chill balls.

Time to get your workspace organized.

1. Pre poke holes in Styrofoam--allow enough space for the wet pops to dry. Place parchment/waxed paper over Styrofoam form to catch drips, and the occasional Oopsie where the cake ball falls off the stick. Use toothpicks to hold paper in place over foam and poke into pre poked holes in foam.
2. Disposable plastic cups (16-18 oz) to melt chocolate wafers. Fill cup 3/4 full of wafers to equal about 1/2 cup melted chocolate.
3. Cut large cups in half if you don't have small cups to hold sanding sugars, nonpareils, eyes and bones . . . and whatever else you want to use to decorate.
4. Waxed paper covering your workspace. Easy clean-up for drips and to set your chocolate dipped cauldrons to dry.
5. Snack-sized Ziploc baggies to melt chocolate wafers for decorating. Put about 10 wafers in baggie. Melt the chocolate in the microwave about a minute. Squish to make sure wafers are melted. Cut off tiny bit of one bottom corner of baggie. Squeeze to decorate.
6. Whipping cream--use a tiny bit if chocolate is too thick to dip into. Some of the colored chocolate doesn't melt quite right. If you don't have cream, add a little bit of melted vegetable shortening. Mix well.

Dip tip of treat stick in chocolate--what color depends on your preferences and what you are making. Poke chocolate coated end 2/3 into cake ball. Refrigerate. This will help adhere the cake ball to the stick. Work a couple of balls at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge. Dip cake ball into melted chocolate, completely coating it. Spin between fingers in cup to remove excess chocolate. Turn upright and continue twisting to smooth chocolate. Place in Styrofoam holder to dry. Repeat.

 *The cake pops that look too perfect to be true are made with FONDANT, NOT dipping chocolate.*

Use the plethora of Internet pictures for ideas. Here is what I did:

Mummy--white chocolate base coat. Let dry. Add a neon swathe and place eyes. Dry. Use Ziploc baggie of white chocolate to make bandages. Dry.

Frankenstein--dark green base coat. While wet, dip top into black sanding sugar, add eyes, and jab bones into neck. Dry. Add mouth and eyebrows. Cover cracks with black 'scars'.

Tombstone--White chocolate base. Dry. Dark green for grass. Dry. Black for RIP and add cracks to tombstone.

Jack Skellington/ghosts--White chocolate base. Dry. Black face. Dry.

Pumpkin/Jack-o-Lantern--Orange chocolate base. Sprinkle with orange sanding sugar. Dry. Add dark green chocolate stem and vine AND/OR black Jack-o-lantern expression.

Nonpareils--Dip in desired color. After excess chocolate is removed, add eyes and roll in cup of nonpareils. Dry.

Cauldron--Dark chocolate base. Tap off chocolate (need excess chocolate to form rim of cauldron). Place on waxed paper with stick in air. Dry. Add 'flames'. Red, orange and yellow. Dry. Turn over. Don't worry if the chocolate comes off the cake ball. Blob neon, or purple, or dark green into cauldron. Add eyes, bones, excess bits of colored chocolate (red, yellow, orange, etc), a few nonpareils and a touch of sanding sugar. Dry.

By the end of the day, I was beat and just dipped the last few cake balls into yellow chocolate for a moon effect. After they dried, I drew a bat or a witch riding a broom. I also used the green and orchid chocolate for monsters (the ugly cake balls) and added random eyes. I tried making a Dracula, but it didn't work out, but he tasted good! Oh, and I made a legless spider (I didn't have any licorice legs!) Dipped him in dark chocolate added eyes and rolled him in black sanding sugar.

And there you have it--Cake Pops 101.

Have fun creating!

Margaret