Everyone has those few unanswerable questions, the one’s that keep you up at night going over and over the same information but still the answer eludes you. What is the meaning of life? Why can I never bring myself to finish Mansfield Park? What exactly did happen at the end of Lost? But for me the question I’ve asked myself most often is ‘Are cake pops really worth it?’
First lets look at the pros. They look amazing, with all the cuteness of a lollipop, the portability of a Kit Kat and the elegance of a cupcake they truly are the Megan Fox of the confectionary world. And they taste even better. Like heaven and cake and icing and angels all rolled into one.
But oh the cons… For a girl for whom baking is my happy, calm place cake pops can be hella stressful. There are a lot of steps involved, and a lot of waiting time between the steps. And there are a lot of places where everything can go wrong. So wrong that you end up on the kitchen floor, cake pop mixture going crusty in your hair looking up the sky and asking why. Why did I choose to make cake pops? Isn’t banana bread good enough any more?
After many failed attempts cake pops and I have reached a pretty good place. They’re not something I’d make every day. And they’re definitely not the easiest. But they’re definitely not as stressful as they used to be. And they do look pretty cute.
My Cake Pop Method:
- Bake a cake. If you’re prone to getting stressed out/in a rush I’d highly recommend using cake mix for this. But if you scorn cake mix with a hatred that would burn a hole through a Betty Crocker box - Bakerella has lots of nice and easy cake recipes.
- Break your cake up into crumbs either by hand or in a blender and then mix a big dollop (technical terms) of icing (either store bought or homemade) into the cake crumbs. Keep adding icing and mixing until the mixture is almost dough like and you can form balls with it.
- Roll your cakey icing mixture into balls and freeze them for at least an hour.
- Melt some chocolate or candy melts (colored chocolate, you can buy it here) and while it’s melting try to find your cake pop sticks and stand. If you don’t have a stand here’s a list of things I’ve used in the past – some wood with holes drilled in, a watermelon, some modeling clay, another cake, all my brothers (holding four cake pops each).
- Take your cake balls out of the freezer. Dip the end of a cake pop stick into the chocolate then insert it into the ball. Once you’ve done this put them back in the freezer for a few minutes.
- Now here’s my number one tip. Mix a little bit of sunflower oil into your chocolate before dipping the cake pops in. It will thin the chocolate and make it about 200 times easier to coat your cake pops.
- One by one dip your cake pops into the chocolate. I like to completely submerge my cake pop and then tap the stick against the edge of the bowl to let any excess run off. Then quickly put the cake pop into the stand.
- If you have any energy left add some decorations but if not just enjoy your awesome creations, and make sure to take a lot of pictures. Because cake pops are seriously impressive.