I haven’t had much experience with cake pops, in fact prior to making them I’ve only tried them once, when I stole a bite from my friend’s Starbucks Tiramisu cake pop. I was not impressed. Regardless after seeing them become the new monarchs of desserts, I thought I’d give it a try, especially when I saw these amazing pictures by Bakerella.
I decided to go for the Red Velvet version and embarked on an especially fun trip to Michaels for baking supplies. In addition to the cake and frosting ingredients (recipe below) you’ll also need wax paper, one or two Styrofoam blocks, lollipop sticks and dipping chocolate – I used Wilton’s Candy Melts in dark, white and pink chocolate.
Bakerella’s recipe calls for a pre-made cake mix and cream cheese frosting, but to be honest I find the taste of cake mix to be disgusting. I don’t even want to know what packaged cream cheese frosting tastes like…
So I relied on my one and true love to guide me through this- Ina! (Chorus of fan girls led by me – Ina is the best, we love you Ina) and used this recipe, meant for Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.
After making the cupcake batter, pour it in a 13 X 9 cake pan and bake at 350 Degrees F. Once the cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
I made the cake and frosting, Now WHAT?
Begin adding the cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake mixture. Use enough frosting to make the cake moist so you can roll the mixture into small balls. You might not need to use the entire frosting. (more for you to enjoy by itself). If your mixture starts looking soupy or gooey, you’ve put too much frosting in there. If this happens, an easy fix is to put the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours so it gets a bit cakier.
Once you have the right consistency, roll the mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (This recipe should make 45-50. It should be about a spoonful per ball)
Chill for several hours. (I chilled mine for almost 12)
Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package. Tip* : After melting the first batch of chocolate I found the consistency of it to be too thick for dipping. I found out that adding about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (if you’re melting the entire Wilton’s chocolate package) will help get the right consistency for the chocolate.
Take one of your lollipop sticks and dip the tip of it in the melted chocolate, then stick it on the cake ball. Dip the cake ball in your melted chocolate. Tip *: Make sure you’ve poured your chocolate in a deep dish. You want to be able to fully submerge the cake ball in the chocolate, so you don’t have to roll it around. If you shake it around, the ball will fall off and you won’t get a smooth chocolate covering.
Once you’ve dipped your ball in the chocolate, stick the bottom part of it in the Styrofoam block. Then repeat the process. Refrigerate and eat at your leisure.
I was pretty happy with how these turned out, especially since they were my first try. I’ve already thought up of a few more pairings that I’d like to try, like pistachio cake pops dipped in white chocolate or chocolate cake pops filled with raspberry sauce, dipped in dark chocolate.
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