Cake Pop-o-Rama!

Last week, a friend of mine was so kind as to bring me a treat to work. I let the excitement build as she pulled it from her purse and was delightfully surprised when a Starbuck's bag appeared! I can't help it...I love Starbuck's products...what with all their buttery, sugary goodness...
Out came the cutest confectionary creation I had ever laid eyes on: a cake pop! What is a cake pop, you ask? Well, instead of candy on a stick, it's a ball of CAKE on a stick that is covered in chocolate and decorated. I was so lucky as to have been brought a chocolate raspberry cake pop that tasted absolutely and sinfully scrumptious. It's the perfect idea, really. I love dessert but find I spend way too much time enjoying the main course that it leaves hardly any room for sweets afterward (not that that stops me from having dessert still, mind you). A couple of bites and sadly...it's all over...but on the bright side, it's just enough to satisfy!


I couldn't stop thinking about that cake pop, so the next day I thought I'd pay it forward and bring one to another friend of mine (and also one for me). She loved it as much as I knew she would and I left thinking, "I could MAKE these MYSELF!!" I checked out a few how-to videos on youtube and was excited to learn how simple they (appeared to) look to make. With Valentine's Day around the corner, it would make a perfect theme. And so began the quest of the cake pops.

Together with my new cake-pop-obsessed friend, we set out to buy the necessary supplies: cake mix, icing, sprinkles, melting chocolate, and sticks. While perusing through the store, we stumbled upon an ENTIRE cake pop making section complete with scoops and fancy stands, but for nearly $10, we concluded that we could conjure up our own stands. In hindsight, we now fully understand the value of the pre-purchased cake pop stand (you'll see why).

Step #1: Bake a cake! We did cupcakes so they would cool faster.


Step #2: Allow cake to cool. The waiting was TORTUROUS!


Step #3: Crumble cake into tiny morsels.

Step #4: Mix cake crumbles with about 1/2 can of icing...until it becomes gooey and malleable.


Step #5: Form cake balls with hands (try not to eat it...I know...it's hard).

Step #6: Set cake balls in fridge for about 10 minutes.

Step #7: Melt some chocolate in the microwave, dip about an inch of a stick in the chocolate, and place the stick into the cake ball. The chocolate helps to adhere the stick to the cake ball.


Step #8: Again, place the cake pops in the fridge to set. My suggestion is to refrigerate these longer than you think necessary so they don't fall off the sticks (personal, tragic experience).


Step #9: Melt more chocolate...enough to coat all of your cake pops. My suggestion is to melt the chocolate in stages to avoid hardening of the chocolate. We tried a double boiler but our attempts to temper chocolate failed...quite miserably. I would melt enough chocolate to coat about 3-4 cake pops at a time.

Step#10: Dunk the cake pop into the chocolate and spin it until there are no drips (this is the time consuming part).

Step #11: Place the cake pop into the stand. Oh wait...we didn't buy the stand...so we put ours in drinking glasses. Bad idea. If you are going to make these, either cough up the $10 or find a piece of styrofoam to stick them into.


Step #12: Decorate as desired!


Our unfortunate...and ultimately hilarious mishaps were only amplified by the fact that it was nearing midnight and we all needed sleep. We ended up ditching the poorly melted chocolate and covering some just in icing instead. My words of wisdom are:
Add enough icing so the dough is quite sticky (or else they fall apart).
Don't make them too big (or else they fall off).
Don't melt an entire vat of chocolate at once (or else it will harden).
Don't do this when you are sleep deprived (or else your cake pops will turn out like ours...).


Exhibit A (below) shows a true travesty of cake pops gone wrong:

All in all, it was an extremely fun experience and the cake pops tasted INCREDIBLY yummy. So chocolatey...so gooey. I will attempt this, yet again, now that I have learned some valuable lessons, and master this cake pop until it is perfected.