Monday 6 September 2010

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.

33 comments:

aipi said...

Perfect idea for parties n get -togethers..kids will love it too.They look super fun n cute!!

US Masala

Torviewtoronto said...

looks delicious

Satrupa said...

Cute lil cake pops ...... I believe it is worth the effort. Not to forget your lovely clicks .... makes me drool every time.

Cheers n Happy Cooking,
Satrupa

http://satrupa-foodforthought.blogspot.com

Suji said...

Nisha. cake pops adipoli, Kids will love it for sure...

Regarding the color of the punch, its the lime kool aid that imparted the green color...

Unknown said...

This is totally new to me...yummy pics

Unknown said...

What to say!!!! just awesome....And thanks for introducing such a wonderful side of the pop world....

Monet said...

That last picture really got me...wow...I want to start baking right now. I've seen these everywhere, but your posting was the first time that I've bookmarked the recipe. Great job!

Pointblank said...

Di.. forget about ur cooking, now m really impressed with Roshan.. heh heh heh... Not just for his brilliance, but for actually playing along and trying to keep u happy...

Di, I check out Bakarella's recipe.. Plz don't tell me this is what u tried to make :P... Urs looks like "Kozhukotta".. lol! Just kididng ketto.. it looks cute.. ;)

Ms.Chitchat said...

Enjoyed ur write-up as usual. Loved the idea of the pop,looks gorgeous too.

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

love these white balls of chocolate. looks awesome. great work.

sangeeta said...

First time here , clicked from Sayantani's blog and am happy i did so.

The cake pops are lovely , saw many posts today n all are just great , loved the anglo-indian chicken too...

Hari Chandana P said...

very interesting recipe.. looks so tempting and perfect.. thanks for the recipe.. beautiful clicks !!

Sandhya Hariharan said...

Damn Cute... !! Can I have a spl delivery of the same?

Sarah Naveen said...

Beautiful clicks..looks so delicious..

Shabs.. said...

I am laughing my ass off!seriously....girl u simply rock!....I liked u testing food colouring with little bit of the chocolate...and yeah, running to the grocery store too for getting another bar.....booohaha!I ask saj any suggestion and i am sure that will be super flop...it happened few times and so i stopped trusting him....The prob is that he says it so confidently that i fall for it...But not again...NAd ur mind working on buying 50 lollipops!!!!LOL...
BTW, brilliant pics..and the recipe looks amazing....U say ur lazy and cook exotic dishes really..

Suja Manoj said...

Looks so cute..kids will love this, u are amazing man..that's really nice.

Vrinda said...

Beautiful n tempting cake pops....

Hayley said...

You know what my DD will love this one...! great clicks..

Priya Suresh said...

Omg, wat a cute looking cake pops, sooooooo yummy..

Namitha said...

Sinfully yumm...Lovely pics Nish..:-)They look cute in this white..All those efforts paid off at the end

Rachel said...

Sometimes my oversmartness gets me into such situtations too..nice that Mr. Open book worked out alternatives for you. We did a smilar cream cheese pops for daring bakers... and I had to use my bamaboo skewers :)

Nithu said...

Wow! That is one wonderful recipe out there. Simply superb. Bookmarked.

Sushma Mallya said...

They look so cute, am sure no one can resist these yummy pops...

Lena Jayadev said...

awesome,..this looks amazing yaar..im really sad that only today i came to your blog that too accidently from another blogg..not single recipe, i bookmarked your blog..

Unknown said...

Fun filled post to read....i can imagine the state you would have been going thro' stages...But they looks so adorable 50 lollipops...Man that cracked me. You threw away the candy,let me know next time, i shall be there to collect the candy and curdling of cream, that is terrible thing to happen while baking have had similar experiences, so i make sure i have one extra pack of cream always stored!

Pari Vasisht said...

Hi Dear,
Many congrats to u for attempting that, I had read it and bookmarked too but never attempted simply as I never had the right ingredients.
Glad u that u managed to sail through the rough sea.
FOODELICIOUS

Sanjeeta kk said...

Innovative and lovely! kids will love it.

Unknown said...

Brilliant clicks!! Am sure the kids will fall head over heels in love with these cute pops..

Sarah, Maison Cupcake said...

It's months since I did my cake pops and I must do more. They're temperamental little blighters though aren't they, so badly behaved!!! Someone suggested to me to use the coffee stirrers from Costa Coffee (like tall thin lolly sticks) and I found these a lot easier to use than round ones as it means they don't spin round when you are decorating them!

Sweet Artichoke said...

Ok, this time I am not going to say that your pictures are amazing, even if they are... This time, I am commenting on how much it is fun to read you, because you have a talent for writing, too :-)I really enjoyed reading the cake pops making adventure!
And, of course, cake pops look delicious... I've been following Bakerella for quite some time now, but have never tried the cake pops!

Soumya said...

cute cake pops....looks delicious

Soumya
http://traditional-indian-cooking.blogspot.com

Srivalli said...

Nisha, those are really so tempting..thank you so much for sending me the entry!..haven't been able to blog hop..will check on the latest ones..

Nisa Homey said...

Hi...first time here....lovely looking cake pops and awesome blog.