Cake Pops

Of course everyone knows Bakerella who introduced cake pops to the blog world. I love going through her website and just gawking at those numerous recipes and ideas and reading all the fun stuff. It was when I saw a video promo of her recipe book that I decided I had to try the pops. She made it look so goddamn easy that I would be a fool to not try out something so easy and incredibly cute. Boy was I wrong...the easy part still in tact, but the fool I am, decided to act all brave and try a few extra stunts, only to goof up big time, waste ingredients, time and energy and by the end of it something as easy as making pops turned out to be a time consuming, nail biting, husband torturing experience. The outcome was brilliant, but not one I enjoyed so much after the goof ups. 

Note to self: always stick to the recipe and don't ask the husband for help when the whole process involves melted chocolate.

For starters, I just couldn't find candy melts in any of the stores, second, I couldn't find lollipop sticks unless I decided to buy a packet of 50 lollipops, threw away the hard candy and preserved the stick (not a great idea..yes, but it did cross my mind you know) and third, no styrofoam to hold the pops. Whined about my 'issues' to Ro and obviously 'Mr. know it all' had all the answers and solutions. He asked me to use chocolate instead of the melt and so I decided to use white chocolate. For the sticks, he nicely cut out our left over bbq skewers into equal halves and for the styrofoam bit, he spent some half hour making holes on a cardboard piece which would then hold the pops. Yeah yeah he's brilliant, I know!

But the problem arose when I decided to act a lil smart and pour some double cream into the melted choc and there...it curdled..it frikking curdled. I almost cried. Threw away that entire set and rushed to the nearest grocery store, picked up a bar and hurried back. Again, the smart ass that I am, wanted a pink  pop and decided to add some red food colouring to the melted choc...this time a lil part of my brain was working and so I at least had the common sense to take a spoon full of melted choc and try it out first. Lucky I did that, cos that curdled too. So my idea for pink pops were down the drain. So white it was and I must say, it still looked so awesomely pretty.

Any flavour cake- 1/4 kg (250gms) (I used a golden syrup cake)

Philadelphia Cream Cheese- 100gms, at room temperature

White chocolate bar- 150 gms

Lollipop sticks- 16 (I used wooden skewers, cut in half)

Styrofoam- to stick the pops in for drying (used a cardboard with holes in them)

If you are baking a cake, wait for it to cool completely and then crumble it in a large mixing bowl (you can also wince a bit while doing this to a perfectly baked cake)

Add the cream cheese frosting to this and mix thoroughly with your hand (so you can lick it later), without leaving any specks of cream cheese.

Keep a baking tray with baking paper ready and roll the mix into small balls and place them on the tray. I got about 16 of them, but it would depend on what size you want really.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. I kept mine over night. Bakerella says you can even freeze it to speeden up this process

Break up the white chocolate and melt them in a bowl over boiling water or in a microwave as per instructions. 

Dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate, shake off excess and insert it onto the rolled cake balls carefully, going a lil less than half way.

Holding the stick, dip the ball into the melted chocolate till it is fully covered, rotate to have an even coating, tap off the extra chocolate gently...not too hard because the cake can fall off (trust me, I know) and fix them on the styrofoam piece or onto a cardboard on anything that can hold it upright.

I chucked it immediately into the refrigerator for it to harden a bit.

If you want to add a few sprinklers do so after you have dipped it in the chocolate, because then, it will stick on easily. 

And like Bakerella, you can of course paint away ..anything you want. I definitely didn't have the patience after all that drama.

Notes: What you need to do is crumble an already made cake and then make balls out of it. Now who would want to painstakingly bake a cake only to crush it and crumble it? Not me for sure. So I used a store bought cake and continued with the steps involved. You are free to bake any flavour cake you like and then use the same. I just wasn't sure I'd go ahead with the crumbling bit once I made a pretty, fluffy cake. Didn't want to take any chances there. Also, I was lazy. I used a golden syrup cake for the pops and paired it with a white choc covering. Since the cake is your own choice, I decided not to pass on a recipe as such, but you can follow it from here if you are interested though.

Do check out Bakerella for more ideas and tips.

Since I'm pretty sure kids would love these pops I'm sending it to Srivalli's event 'Kids Delight- Finger food.'
Its can definitely be gorged down in one or two bites and so sending the same to 'Sugar High Fridays' event hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen where this months theme is 'Bite Size Desserts.' This long running successful even is the brain child of Jennifer.