Cake Pops

We made these cake pops for my daughter's 9th b'day. I used a boxed yellow cake mix to bake the cake, following instructions on the box, but replacing the eggs with 1 cup yogurt. When the cake was completely cooled, I crumbled it up, mixed in abt 1/2 cup frosting to get a consistency that would hold its shape when rolled into balls. Using a tbsp measure, we made abt 20 round balls. Next we melted some candy melts, dipped lollipop sticks abt an inch into the melted chocolate and stuck these sticks in the cake balls. We froze these for 15 mins to harden them up so the sticks stayed put. Then came the fun part. My daughter, her friend and I had a great time dipping these pops into melted milk, blue and pink chocolate. I used Wilton candy melts and just microwaved them in 15 sec. bursts for abt a min and a half, stirring in between. We stuck the dipped pops in styrofoam and refrigerated them for 15 mins, then drizzled melted white chocolate over them using a plastic bottle with a small nozzle.

We shared these with N's friends at the dance class and they all loved it.

This is a great project to do with kids. We did loose a few pops which fell apart mostly due to excess force and/or swirling in the melted chocolate. This was our first attempt at cake pops, so we stuck to basic simple decorating, but really your imagination can run wild once you get the hang of this.

If you plan to make these for adults, my suggestion is to use semi sweet candy melts. For me atleast, the sweet cake, covered with the sweet chocolate, was a bit too much. But then again...none of the kids complained abt the sugar overload.

Updated August 14, 2012:

We made Soccer Ball Cake Pops over the weekend for a friend's kid who is very much into the game.

For this, learning from my previous experience, I used half frosting and half cream cheese to bind the crumbled cake and shape into balls. This made the end product just right in sweetness. I melted Nestle's white chocolate chips per package directions and dipped the cake balls in it. I really loved the taste of this brand. For the pentagonal design on the soccer balls, I used fruit roll-ups and stuck them on with a dab of melted chocolate. My daughter & I made a little box, with green tissue paper for the soccer field grass, and she drew the soccer nets. Sure made a tasty and unique personalized gift.

Updated Sept. 16, 2012:

Last Friday my daughter has a back-to-school event and her 4th grade class had a bake sale. For this, I made owl cake pops as the owl is her school mascot.

I used store bought butter pound cake, plus some cake I had in the freezer and made abt 40, of which I took 30 to the event. Following my earlier experience, I used a combination of cream cheese and frosting to bind the cake into balls. This makes the end product not overwhelmingly sweet. After refrigeration for 1/2 hr, I stuck the sticks in them with melted chocolate, refrigerated again for a good one hr. Then stuck semi-sweet morsels for the ears, put back in the fridge for an hr. Then dipped the pops in melted light cocoa chips and refrigerated again. I stuck bracelet candy for the eyes, rainbow sprinkles for the nose and star shaped sprinkles for the feet, all using little melted chocolate. I used a toothpick/skewer to help stick these pieces.

I was happy that all my pops sold out at the event!