Bakerella Cake Pops
Source of Recipe
Bakerella.com
Recipe Introduction
This is less a recipe than a series of notes on making cake pops. I’m not at all satisfied with my results, but love the idea of them, so I’m going to continue to experiment. I have been charmed by these cake pops (and by her cupcake pops) for months now and finally deicded to try making them for the kids for Halloween this year. I was concerned about the flavor since she uses those candy melts for covering them and I think that stuff is terrible. But the recipe for making pumpkin cake pops showed up in an issue of Betty Crocker Fall Baking with full directions that seemed easy, so I thought I’d give them a try. Bottom line – Giant PITA. And almost nothing worked for me the way that it does for her. The candy melts were too thick and goopy – the coating was uneven and lumpy. The food color pens wouldn’t write on the candy coating (and my piping skills stink. I finally gave up pumpkins and just dipped them in Halloween sprinkles). There was WAY too much frosting in the cake crumb/frosting mixture. My balls fell off my sticks. They don’t taste all that great (but I really didn’t expect them to). I think that the kids will love them and the girls at my office liked them a lot. I think that I can improve my technique and I already have a ton of ideas for different ones. She does mini cupcakes the same way and they are adorable. I’m wondering if I can’t do this with scratch cake (don’t see why not) and real chocolate and white chocolate for dipping. Folks at eGullet suggested that I could use Royal icing or white chocolate colored with oil based food dye for coating.
List of Ingredients
1 (1 lb. 2.25 oz.) box Devil’s food cake mix + ingredients called for to make cake
1 c. canned vanilla frosting
1 1/2 pkg. (14 oz. each) orange candy coating
48 paper lollipop sticks
Small green mints or small green gumdrop leaves, quartered (I used green candy coated sunflower seeds)
Styrofoam block
Food decorating pen
Recipe
Bake cake, as directed on box in a 13x9-inch pan. Cool.
Line a cooky sheet with waxed paper. In a large bowl crumble the cake and mix in the frosting very well [I used my gloved hands]. Roll cake mixture into 1-inch balls [I scooped the balls with a small ice cream scoop-type disher] and place on wax paper. Freeze for about 15 minutes and place in refrigerator to keep cold and firm.
In a microwave safe bowl, melt the candy coating, as directed on package until melted and smooth. Take a few cake balls out of the refrigerator (don’t do more than 3 or 4 at a time, so they stay cold and firm). Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted coating about 1/2-inch and then into the cake ball no more than half way. Dip the cake ball into the melted coating to cover and insert the ‘stem’ (green candy) into the top. Push into the Styrofoam and allow to cool. When the coating is cool and firm, draw on the pumpkin faces with the decorating pen.
MY NOTES: I think that the cake/frosting ratio is off. The cake balls were just too gloppy. I’d like to try it with slightly less frosting (maybe start with 3/4 cup), even though on her website, she actually calls for using up to an ENTIRE can of it. I also had real problems with the candy coating (besides it tasting awful). It was just too thick. One thing that she suggests in her website recipe that she doesn’t in the magazine is to freeze for a few minutes after putting in the lollipop sticks and before dipping. This did help the balls stay on the sticks. But I never got a smooth coat. I ended up needing more of the coating than the recipe called for and when I went back to the store, they were out of the orange. I found some yellow ones at another store, but they were a different brand. The Wilton candy coating was better than the Make n’ Mold brand, but still too thick. The Wilton food pens were useless – I’m guessing that they only work on fondant or Royal icing. The pens that she sells at her site are Americolor, so I’ll have to order some of those.
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