Fun Cake Pops

I saw the cutest idea for a sweet treat HERE that would make a great gift or party favor and thought it would be fun to try them. My sister has made truffles in various flavors this way for years but this is a new take on that idea.

BAKERELLA makes cake pops from basic to amazing in design and I must say looking at her site and all of her ideas is addicting and causes me to long to do things I have absolutely no time for. But, being that we are still in celebration mode and being that John has off of work today I thought I would take a shot at making cake pops.


All you need to make Cake Pops is:

-- Cake Mix (I made my favorite chocolate cake last night and added peppermint flavoring)
-- Can of frosting (I whipped up chocolate butter cream with a bit of peppermint and vanilla)
-- Candy melts, or chocolate/white bark.
-- Lollipop sticks (I had short ones but the long would work much better I believe)
 
For step-by-step instructions with pictures click HERE. They are more time-intensive than I anticipated.

My tips --
I found that the balls need to be quite cold but not frozen otherwise the chocolate does not adhere quickly making the process ever so much longer.

If adding color to your chocolate or candy melts I found that even the paste I use to tint frosting contains water and does not work for this as it hardens too quickly - hence only 1 green tree pictured below) You need oil-based coloring.

 To dry you can use a block of styrophoam if you have it otherwise I used an old cereal box and poked holes in which worked fine.

My original intent was to use white
chocolate sprinkled with candy cane dust
but that didn't look very interesting so
I added red and green too.

I am thinking I may try this again (on a weekend) and might even bring myself to buy a flavored cake mix and a container of frosting such as lemon to make these for a gift. That would at least cut out a few steps. I also have a bridal shower coming up in March and I think the little wedding cakes Bakerella makes might be fun to serve then.

The snowman was just for fun and is the children's favorite but is too much work to make more than one. The trees were quite easy though. Just shape the dough as a tree.

If you have children that want to help -- it works great for them to put the sprinkles on as long as you aren't going for perfection here! :) Seppy only helped by eating them.