Monday, October 1, 2012

Baking Cake Pops

October 1st is No D Day.

In honor of the event, I won't just be blogging about something other than that topic. Let me see if I can finish this post without that letter. :) Channel my inner English major. My brain is its own thesaurus.

I want to talk about baking.

I am an okay cook. Better than okay, perhaps. But I am still in my infancy. I cook five nights a week. Six if you count that one night a week we reserve for leftovers. My week usually looks like this:

Su: big batch of something
M: leftovers
Tu: chicken
W: crockpot or soup
Th: chicken
F: pizza
Sa: sausage/pork

But I've been working on my baking skills recently.

Project of the Month: CAKE POPS

To begin, my mom bought me Bakerella's "Cake Pops" book. We went to Michael's to buy lollipop sticks & melts. But I have been saving the pretty purple coating melts for later this month, so I ran to the supermarket for cheap chocolate & vanilla coating - right on the baking aisle. Perfect for some test batches.


My first batch was ugly but scrumptious.

My steps:

  • Mix 2oz leftover buttercream (from scratch) frosting from my freezer with half a chocolate cake from a box mix. (Cake was too moist from not cooking long enough or might have put more frosting.)
  • Roll balls, place on wax paper on cookie sheet, put into the freezer for 15 minutes.
  • Prepare every variety of sprinkles, crystals, & chocolate chips in my cabinet.
  • Remove tray of cake balls.
  • Melt vanilla coating in microwave-safe tall plastic container, 30 sec at a time.
  • Coat tip of lollipop stick in coating, pierce cake ball, submerge completely into coating & remove.
  • Learn that I bought the wrong type of styrofoam for sticking sticks in & panic.
  • Learn that my babies' mallet & peg toy or my utensil basket work as emergency stick supporters.
  • Learn that coating stiffens very quickly. Shake those sprinkles like crazy. Let them go everywhere.
  • Laugh at ugly yummy treats. Post to Facebook.

With half a cake remaining & chocolate coating in the cabinet, it was time to try, try again.

"Bigger cake pops this time?" begs Hubster. You got it, Baby.

This time, I knew better. Use utensil basket again. Work faster so the coating is not too stiff. Keep ice packs beneath tray of cake balls so they stay firmer for longer. Expect to have sprinkles everywhere. Success will be mine!

Let me tell you. These were even better with chocolate coating. We ate two each & gave one small one to Sweetie. The rest are sitting in an airtight container on my kitchen counter...calling my name.

I can't wait to try the cool shapes, animals, themes, etc. from the book. I'm turning 33 later this month & plan to make pretty purple cake pops. 33 of them. :)

Oh, by the way. No fourth letter of the alphabet. Check it, y'all.

11 comments:

  1. WOW!!!!! That just blew my mind!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. I am impressed by this post for a multitude of reasons. The lack of Ds is at the top of the list. Bravo.

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  3. Awesome!!! I tried to make them once, but used regular chocolate for dipping because Pete said he thought candy melts wouldn't taste good. It didn't work well at all, and I now know not to listen to the husband next time. ;)

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    1. It was very hard not to use the word "candy" in this post. LOL. And I think that's a good general rule about not listening to Pete. ;)

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  4. Oh yum!
    I'm impressed...

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  5. You rocketh greatly!!! (No fourth letter here either!) :P

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  6. Gorgeous! You make me want to make them! I love it that you didn't even include the carbs, in honor of no D-day.

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  7. Very cool, and kudos on not using the letter d. After today is over, can you post the carbs for these? Pretty, pretty please?

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    1. The different varieties from Starbucks (about the same size as my second batch) are 22g each. I think that's fair. You're looking at 8-12g for the cake, plus additional carbs for the frosting mixed in and the candy coating. On the smaller end of cake pops, maybe 15g, but I tend to err toward the bigger value. (That way, if your BG drops, you get more cake pops... Haha.)

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    2. Agreed. The ones I make I successfully bolus 20 carbs each.

      I use the styrofoam to dry them, never thought of the utensil tray.

      In case you wanted to compare techniques, my post is here - http://momentsofwonderful.com/2011/05/i-should-charge-for-this-cake-pop-tutorial/

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  8. i can't even believe you didn't use D in this post. IMPRESSIVE!

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