For Jordis's third birthday party I decided to make cupcakes and cake pops. Because I wanted to eat one or twenty. So I browsed recipes and got some tips from my Tweeps.
Here is the best of what I learned about cake poppin'.
But just know that to make picture-perfect cake pops like the ones you might see on a crazy baker web site or over at Crazy Crafty Christina's blog you will need a strong Type-A personality, special tools, the perfect dipping chocolate, and a fancy camera. I have none of those items, but I did borrow my sister-in-law's nice camera for the party.
So my recipe, if you will, is for . . .
Realistic Cake Pops
Good-Enough Cake Pops
Not-Necessarily-Perfectly-Round-or-Smooth Cake Pops
Most-Likely-To-Not-Be-Featured-on-Bakerella.com Cake Pops
Cake Pops for the Craftily Challenged
Here you go:
1. Make and bake a cake. Preferably not in an Easy-Bake Oven. Let your kids stir up the mix a bit cuz they will remember it fondly when they grow up.
2. Let it cool.
3. Take the cake out of the pan, bash it up, and put it in a large mixing bowl, not a fish bowl.
I did one batch of chocolate cake and vanilla frosting and one batch of yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Both of them were delicious and overly consumed by moi.
4. Add at least 1/2 of the tub of artery clogging, artificial everything frosting to the bashed up cake.
Special Tip #1 - Probably best to add a little more than 1/2 the tub of frosting. It makes for some good glue to hold the ball together and if you don't put enough in, they get a little cracky.
5. Mix the cake and frosting with a fork until you are bored. Then use your hands until it is thoroughly mixed and begging to be shaped into balls.
6. Roll that mixture into balls with your hands.
Let your kids help you with this, but don't expect the balls to be perfectly bally. But who cares? It's for a three-year-old's birthday party, not a magazine cover. Unless it's for a magazine cover - in that case just go buy the cake pops. Make the balls not too big, not too small. Maybe about the size of a walnut. Unless walnuts greatly vary in size (do they?). If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you.
7. Put the balls on a cookie/baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper and put in your refrigerator for at least an hour.
Some internet peeps said to freeze, others said that freezing them was lame. Don't leave the balls in there for more than 24 hours or they begin to dry out.
8. Get some melting chocolates and put them on the stove in a non-stick pot to melt.
Special Tip #2: Don't use a stainless steel pot like I did with my first batch of purple melting junk. Because well, it just doesn't work and I had to toss it.
9. Dip the tip of fancy sticks you bought from a craft store or ones you collected from the tootsie pops your kids just ate, into the melted chocolate and then stick it about half way into the ball.
10. Stick all the balls (now with sticks in them) back in the fridge so that chocolate, (which acts like glue, but won't get you high), will harden.
10. After a few minutes, take out one pop at a time and begin the arduous dipping process. And by dipping I mean DON'T DIP!
Use a spoon to drip the chocolate onto the ball. Get it all over that bad boy. I am sure the unrealistic cake pop recipes have a fancy way of doing this so the chocolate goes on perfectly smooth. But I am sure that is more time consuming and stressful so just get the surface of the ball covered and move on with your life.
11. After the ball is unevenly lathered with the melting chocolate then shake on your sprinkles, chocolate chips, shards of glass, or whatever else you think would make a great topping for your pops.
12. Stick the pops in a flat piece of styrofoam.
We always throw away styrofoam when it comes in packaging because our cats eat it and then puke it up. (Who says styrofoam is not recyclable? Tell that to my cats.) Therefore, I had to buy a piece of styrofoam at the craft store . . . perhaps the most painful part of my cake-pop journey.
I made a cake-pop bouquet with some of the cake pops (on an $8 styrofoam ball!) and covered others with treat bags and ribbon as party favors.
Special Tip #3 If you make your balls too big or they won't fit into the treat bags and you will have to eat them right there on the spot.
The birthday girl loved the cake pops = success!
The birthday girl's mom loved the cake pops = cake pop booty.
The cake pops were time consuming to make, but if you follow my special tips and don't expect perfection then they are not difficult to make. My goal is to never to make them again simply because they tasted incredible and I ate too many and I don't want to get fat and have health issues.
Pin It Now!
Welcome friends, family, randoms, lurkers, blog addicts, fellow desperate moms, and Bono. This blog consists of mostly funny stuff that will make you feel better about yourself. Lots of mom comedy, non-Kodak moments, and un-fashion tips. On Wednesdays I write about my life as a former childhood actress complete with posts about how the entertainment business works, actors I met (or stalked), people and animals I worked with, my Hollywood friends, and photos of former teen heartthrobs. And if that’s not enough to draw you in to follow me . . . I have done some amazing giveaways. A rubber chicken, millions of doll hairs, and unlimited supplies of air. Come join the party.
11 comments:
I have made cake pops twice and I LOVE THEM!! Try the strawberry cake with vanilla frosting next time as well the red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! YUM-O!
Holy moly, this is a hilariously adorable post. I love your daughter's face in the cake ball rolling stage picture.
great idea!! My son's birthday is coming up. My challenge will be to make some that look boyish!
oh my gosh. i love your recipe. i wish i had it for the time i made cake pops.
hello kitty shaped. tag teamed with a friend.
and melted the chocolate in the microwave (here is a tip: don't.)
by the time we got 12 of them dipped, i had to reheat the chocolate and it "melted" to the point beyond all repair.
so 12 Hello Kitty cake pops it was.
They were beautiful though. ;)
Laughing. So. Hard.
I've never even heard of them, but now I wish my kids were still little so I could make some. Maybe I'll give them a go at our annual Baking Day in December. People will want them with their cookie baskets, right?
You crack me up. That sounds like what happened when I tried them for Christmas, except I made like 2 and then froze the "dough" and ate it throughout January one frozen chunk at a time (just like frozen cookie dough). I'm glad you were happy with the turn out!!!
Wow these look awesome! You all did a wonderful job and the children looked like they were having lots of fun!! I think it is a great idea and the way you displayed them looks amazing!!
I found a cake in the freezer (don't know why that was there, and how long, but oh well), so I decided to try them. I mixed too much frosting, but that was okay, because in the end, they ended up being chocolate covered balls of gooey cake. I used almond bark to cover them. They are so good. the only problem is that since they are small, I just ify having about 10 a day claiming it is like having one piece of cake just divided throughout the day.
love the photo of your helpers. and goodness, these look just wonderful to me! i better not make any though. i am way to close to cake pop booty as it is.
also, will you please write another book?
Oh my gosh! I love the way this is written! Actually I'm so glad I found this and read the whole thing because I was thinking about maybe doing cake pop bouquet centerpieces for a wedding. Having read this and learning how labor intensive they are, I just might go with a different edible option hahah! OH btw I love how you slipped in the "shards of glass" as a topping! Hilarious!
Post a Comment