Treat yo' self: Cut to the chase cake pops

For the first time in probably two years, I made cake pops.

After months of buying cake pops for my kids during my coffee runs, I finally gave in and devoted 4 hours to making them myself for cheaper.

There are many different methods of making these but a long time ago I bought a book by the QUEEN who calls herself Bakerella and it was SO helpful. I have experimented quite a bit since then, learning how to cut some corners on the process. I’m going to share them here. If you'd rather have a no-calorie way of celebrating cake pops, try this t-shirt on for size.

CUT TO THE CHASE CAKE POPS

Note: these will be flat on top. If you want an actual completely round cake pop, you’ll need foam or a stand to insert the stick part in so it’s standing up.

Ingredients and equipment

• cake mix and whatever it asks of you OR a small cake

• candy melts

• frosting/icing

• sprinkles

• lollipop sticks

• optional: treat bags and ties

• bowl

• spoon(s)

• sheet pan or two

• parchment or wax paper

• freezer / fridge

Directions

1. Either buy a small cake from the store and discard about half of the icing (or more) OR make a cake (sans icing) in your oven according to whatever home recipe you have or the box mix

2. If you chose to make your own cake in a pan, let it cool completely. If you bought a cake and took off quite a bit of the icing you can go ahead with this next part now: Crumble the cake into crumbs in a bowl. You can use a fork or your hands.

3. Once crumbled up, if you used the box mix or home recipe method then you’re going to add about 1/4 cup of icing. And stir it in. If you had the pre-made cake, skip adding more icing.

4. Lay parchment or wax paper down on a sheet pan/cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer (you may have to clear some room in the freezer, sorry)

5. With your hands, take about two tablespoons of your crumbs-frosting mix and form into a ball.

6. Place that ball on your sheet pan. Keep doing this until you run out of room on the pan leaving about 1/4 inch of space between.

7. Melt about a 1/4 cup of your candy melts. You can do this either over the stove with a double boil type method or in the microwave in 30 second increments on high. Stir every 30 seconds until it’s a drizzle consistency.

8. Now grab a lollipop stick. Dip one end in the candy melt. Then stick that same end into one of the cake balls. Keep doing that with the rest.

9. Pop the cake balls in their pan into the freezer for 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

10. Melt more candy melt (whatever you want to use for the outside coating).

11. Make a new sheet pan with parchment or wax paper.

12. Take the cake balls out of the freezer.

13. Grab one of the cake balls by the stick and dip the call into the candy melt. Use a spoon to help you cover the rest (it also helps to make sure it’s around the stick)

14. Lightly shake excess candy melt off. Then, place your cake pop onto your new pan.

15. If you’re adding sprinkles or other decoration, do so RIGHT NOW before the melt hardens.

16. You can keep doing the last three steps over and over again until you work your way through all of your pops. You may want to work with just a few out of the freezer at a time until you get the hang of it. Some WILL fall off the sticks if they get too warm.

17. Once everything’s all dipped and decorated you can speed up the process by putting them in the freezer or fridge again for a few minutes OR you can just keep them in a relatively cool place in your kitchen.

18. Then, wrap up, display or eat these!

Copyright: Auntie Meta, 2021