Ruthanne has been blogging since early 2008. It’s like the chocolate to her peanut butter, the Grande to her Caramel Macchiato ~ it just fits and feels right. She’s passionate about her Lord, her husband and her children. When she’s not homeschooling her rowdy crew, she enjoys photography, good literature, baking, and really good coffee. You can find her blogging at Eclectic Whatnot where she shares a few random thoughts and loads of pictures.
It was about this same time last year that I stumbled upon Bakerella’s site and absolutely fell in love with her cake pops. I was a little intimidated at first, but soon learned they were one of the easiest treats to make and my children loved them!
Ever since, I’ve tried to come up with new and creative ways to make them. My most recent venture being the Bubblegum Machine Cake Pops. My children told me they looked like baby rattles and ice cream cones {have any of you ever seen a red ice cream cone?!}, but with the help of some smart bloggy friends I figured out it was their way of getting me to make more. More practice equals more treats for them. Such smart children I’ve raised. 😉
Items you’ll need:
(A) Sprinkles ~ I used jumbo sprinkles, but I’m not sure they were necessary. Any kind of sprinkles will work.
(B) Dots ~ I sorted out the reds. You won’t need all that many of these. You could also used red m&ms, as well.
(C) Red Candy Melts
(D) White Candy Melts
(E) Bag of Lollipop Sticks
Not Pictured:
(F) Rectangular block of Styrofoam – usually found in the floral section of your local Wal-mart.
(G) One 9″ x 13″ cake.
(H) One can cream cheese frosting. {Not the whipped kind.}
First things first, bake your cake. You can bake one from scratch or doctor up a mix. Allow the cake to cool completely.
Thoroughly crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl.
Stir in your frosting until everything is combined. You can use homemade frosting here, I’m just not sure exactly how much to tell you to add. Maybe two cups?
Cover two baking sheets with wax paper.
Using my 1 tablespoon scoop from Pampered Chef, I scoop out a rounded ball and plop onto the baking sheet. Don’t worry about shaping them at this point. Rotate between the two baking sheets, making sure you have equal cake balls on each.
Place the cookie sheets into the freezer for about 15 minutes.
(1) Take out one cookie sheet. Roll each cake ball in the palm of your hand, shaping it into a nice, smooth ball. Place the cookie sheet back into the freezer.
(2) Take out the other cookie sheet. Do the same with each cake ball, except after you form a smooth ball, begin to shape it as it’s picture above. Perfection is not required here. Simply roll it in between your hands, elongating it slightly, making sure the bottom is wider than the top. Flatten the top and bottom. Place the cookie sheet back into the freezer.
For the rest of this, I place several sheets of wax paper on top of the counter to make clean-up easier.
(3) Open the package of red candy melts, place in a microwavable bowl {one that is deep enough to dip the cake balls into} and melt on half power in the microwave. Stirring frequently.
Take out the bottom pieces for the cake pop from the freezer.
Dip a lollipop stick about 1″ into the candy melt. Slide one of the bottom pieces onto the stick, leaving about 1/2″ or so at the top of the stick {as pictured above}, and dip again into the candy melt making sure to cover the piece entirely. Push the stick into your Styrofoam block.
Repeat this until all bottom pieces are used up. You may need to melt more candy melts during this process and stick the bottom pieces back into the freezer to keep them firm.
(4, 5 & 6) Open the package of white candy melts and repeat the melting process you did with the red candy melts.
Pour the sprinkles into a shallow dish and set beside the white candy melt.
Cut the red Dots into thirds, width-wise.
Grab a toothpick and set aside.
Take the other cookie sheet with the smooth, rounded cake balls out of the freezer. Dip the tip of one of the lollipop sticks into the white candy melt, slide a cake ball on top, flush against the bottom piece and dip into the candy melt again making sure to cover the cake ball entirely.
Gently knock off any excess candy melt. Holding the lollipop stick sideways over your bowl of sprinkles, quickly sprinkle the cake ball with sprinkles while rotating the lollipop stick in your hand.
Push the lollipop stick back into the Styrofoam.
Take one of your cut Dots and dip one side into the candy melt. Place on top of the cake ball.
Take your toothpick you set aside, dip it into the white candy melt and smear some on the front of the bottom piece ~ to look like the dispenser.
Repeat these steps until all the cake balls are used up.
Price Break-down:
Cake mix: $1.00 {on sale}
Can of frosting: $0.50 {on sale}
2 bags of candy melt: $5.98
Lollipop sticks: $1.99
Box of Dots candy: $1.00
Sprinkles: FREE {already on hand}
Styrofoam: $0.50 {Originally, it cost around $6, but I’ve used it a dozen times.}
Total: $10.97
This makes about 25 cake pops, so each cake pop would cost under $0.50. Cheaper than your average candy bar and way more fun to eat!
This post is linking to A Soft Place. Find more recipes at Tasty Tuesday.