Kitchen Adventures: Cake Pops

I wanted to make something different for my niece and had saw cake pops online and had sampled some a few months ago, and I thought what cuter dessert for a little girl than cake on a stick!
Although I enjoy baking cakes from scratch and making my own icing I decided for my first time out to just used a boxed cake mix and icing to make the  process a little simpler, plus I had read and heard all the disaster stories associated with these mini desserts and I didn’t want to invest a lot in high end ingredients if there was a chance it was going to end up in the mis-adventure pile.  So although Bakerella’s recipe is fantastic – for this trip to the kitchen I went with an adaptation of this Duncan Hines recipe.
Researching on Google gave me the tips that when I crumbled the cooked cake that the crumb should be even.  That less is more when it comes to icing, and that freezing is not the best way. 
I made the cake per the box directions.  Once completely cooked I put it through the food processor to produce an even crumb.

Cake after being put through the food processor

I added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vanilla icing and mixed it in the mixer until it was incorporated through the crumb.  I popped it in the fridge then for about 20 minutes so that I wouldn’t warm the dough up as much with my hands.
I rolled up about a dozen 1” balls and put them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, covered them with saran wrap and popped them into the fridge.  I then used 1/2 the remaining cake/icing mixture to place a well drained maraschino cherry in the centre of the ball.  The last portion of cake/icing mixture I added some fresh orange zest and 1 drops of orange oil flavouring.  I left them all in the fridge covered over night.

Rolled and Chilled

I melted my white chocolate candy wafers over a double boiler set to low heat to avoid over heating the melts.  Taking the balls out in advance is important to give them a bit of time to warm and expand a bit and not crack your chocolate after the fact.

dip the lolly pop sticks in chocolate first
to glue the stick into the cake ball

I dipped the sticks in the white chocolate before pushing them about half way into the cake balls.  When dipping them once in – once out.  Let them drip without tapping them.   If you try and swirl them or move them in the chocolate the stick just comes loose and then you’ve just got balls in chocolate – which aren’t bad either, but that is another post!

Orange - Cashew Cake Pops and Cherry Snowball
Cake Pops

I rolled the freshly dipped orange cake balls in crushed cashews, and the cherry vanilla balls in sweetened coconut.


These ones need a bit longer to warm up because of the cherry and need to be dipped very quickly to avoid cracking.  Having your cherries well drained helps minimize the amount of moisture in the ball which can cause cracking or seeping through your chocolate shell.

I added some delphinium blue gel food colouring and
some raw sugar for a wintery feel

Drizzled with white chocolate and dusted with Wilton's Silver dust

On the other vanilla/vanilla combination balls I dipped them in the winter blue icing and then drizzled them with white chocolate.  After giving them a few minutes to harden I gave them a light dusting with Wilton’s silver icing dust to give the white chocolate a pearl hue.
Overall a success!  I’m looking forward to making some more Christmassy themed ones for dinner at my parents.  I know my niece will love them and I have a feeling everyone else will as well!
J.