Cake Pops: A Tasty Mess

Although I had originally intended to make these for Christmas, the holiday came and went without my having time to try my hand at them.

I found that these were indeed much tougher than Bakerella makes it seem.

I used a box white cake mix (shhh) because it was on hand, and I made two different butter creams: Peach and Coffee. Although I liked the coffee butter cream, the peach turned out far too mild and really just tasted like vanilla.

I had a surprisingly tough time making the cake balls into nice little spheres, and they generally came out a bit lop sided or rough.

After tucking them in the fridge overnight, I popped some onto lolly pop sticks, and kept some as plain cake balls.

I picked out a few sprinkles to roll on top.

I opted not to use candy coating, but rather just semi-sweet chocolate. Needless to say, the cake pops did not come out as beautifully as Bakerella's.

I had a hard time getting them entirely coated, and the balls kept jumping off the sticks.

Plop.

Whoops.

Overall, the cake pops tasted quite good, but coating them and decorating them was more trouble than I had expected. I'll have to experiment more with coatings and sizes before I get a product as delightful as Bakerella's.

Cake Pops

makes about 50

Coffee Butter Cream:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-1/2 Tablespoons coffee
2 Tablespoons instant coffee mixed with a splash of cream
1 Tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter. Carefully add the sugar, coffee, instant coffee mixture, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. Add a little of the milk at a time to get the right consistency. Turn the mixer up to high and beat well.

Peach Butter Cream

¾ cup butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
¼ cup peach puree
Vanilla, to taste

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Add peach puree and vanilla and beat again until smooth.

puree and vanilla and beat again until smooth.

Cake Balls

White Cake Mix (and probably oil, water, and eggs)

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with frosting.
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (I got about 60)
4. Chill for several hours.
5. Melt chocolate in microwave or using a double broiler.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Recipes and directions courtesy of Caitlin Cooks, Just Jenn Recipes, and (of course) Bakerella.