Friend Kris alerted me to a baking and catering trend at parties in the US: cake pops. I understand they're hip and happening here in New Zealand as well, but we can't keep up with everything, can we?
So I found a recipe and suggested Kris give them a try, but she's not a big dessert fan or baker, and bounced the challenge back into my lap. And as you know I've got heaps of time on my hands. But with Easter coming up I thought it might be fun to test them out with an Easter themed decoration or two over the weekend. I am such a sucker, aren't I?
What I hadn't realised is that cake pops are made by baking a cake then mixing the crumbled cake up with icing. This dough is then formed into balls and refrigerated for several hours, after which the balls are stuck onto sticks, dipped into melted chocolate and decorated. The recipe above indicated that the best way to dry them after dipping was to stick the pops into a styrofoam block or use a cardboard box with small holes cut into the top. With no styrofoam in the house I organised the latter option.
It's a messy process. The sticks are put into the balls, which are then quickly dipped into the melted chocolate. The chocolate is blobby and drips. I'd hoped to do some Easter bunnies with marshmallow ears, and some pops just with sprinkles. But the ears kept sliding off and the pops dripping! The box holder didn't work at all, the pops kept falling over. (Note to anyone who wants to make these: invest in a styrofoam block or forget making these.) At one point I tried pushing the pops into ripe peaches on the bench, they stayed up briefly and then toppled over. Sigh. I finally laid them down, and gave up on making more bunnies. I'll use that idea for cupcakes, which are much easier to execute.
They do look cute. If you don't mind a flat top, the easiest thing to do would be to put them on their tops to harden in the fridge. In terms of taste, I was afraid these would be sicky sweet, so not my type of thing at all, but once they were chilled they tasted reasonably good.
Bottom line: cake pops, maybe yes maybe no. Probably too fiddly to make except for special occasions, unless you're one of those uber perfectionist bakers who can pipe and decorate with the best of them. That isn't me!
Far too fiddly!!! :)
Posted by: Jen Yates | 03/27/2018 at 08:38 AM