So Nadine introduced me to this site Bakerella.com back over the summer when she discovered THESE! I was so amused that I started perusing the site more and more, finding the most adorable creations ever...AND ALL OUT OF CAKE!
When I discovered she had a cookbook out, I knew I wanted to get my hands on it! I requested it for Christmas, and my brother and future sister-in-law bought it for me! It's such a fabulous cookbook. I highly recommend it! Everything is so well laid out and helpful, not to mention it's chock-full of the most darling ideas ever!
So today, I set out to complete my first set of Bakerella cake pops! I had my heart set on her darling cupcake pops.
Adorable, no?
And so it began!
Here's about all you need to get the party started!
You bake any old box cake in a 13X9 pan and let it cool completely.
Then you crumble the cake so it's very fine and there are no large chunks. This resulted in me removing (and eating..shhh) all of the outer layer...anything golden brown that was slightly crunchy.
The resulting cake dust! Whoo!
Then you do this...
Yup. You schlep a whole glob of frosting into the mix and mash it up. As this was my first time attempting cake pops, I didn't know what to expect. After tasting the final product, however, I think I used too much frosting. Next time, I think I'll cut down as the cake bites were all rather mushy and not very cakey.
After the frosting was mixed in...
Then you ball up the cake into 1 1/2" balls. Again, after doing this now, I think I would have scaled the size down a little bit. My lil' cupcakes turned out to be a little more honkin' than I expected!
You let these chill in the freezer for 15ish minutes to firm up. In the meantime, you can get your other ingredients ready!
Oooooh! Sprinkles! Pretty colors!
After they've had time to cool, you have to roll the balls into cylinders and smoosh them through a flower cookie cutter, but only a little ways through. That makes the base of the cupcake. You then have to shape the top of the pop to make it like the rounded top of a cupcake, like so:
Back in the freezer for another chill sesh!
Then you melt your dipping chocolate and get ready to rumble!
You dip the bottoms in, only up to the rounded part, set them round side down, dip a lollipop stick in chocolate, and insert it into the cake pops. This ensures the stick will stay put and the cake won't fall off! What a catastrophe that'd be!
They looked a little naked...but not for long!
This next step was my most favorite part of the entire decorating process! The cupcakes come together quickly (just like Bakerella said they would), and the results make you giggle with glee with how delightfully adorable they are!
I melted white chocolate and tinted some purple and some pink, leaving the remaining white. Then I went to town!
I added both dot sprinkles and jimmies to the pops for some variety, but personally, I liked the look of the dot sprinkles much better. I thought the jimmies were just a little too bulky and overwhelming, but I still liked the variety. We were lacking the mini M&Ms the recipe called for, so instead I tapped into our ridiculous stash of redhots to add that final cherry on top! =)
Here's how they turned out!
Pretty adorable, huh?
One hiccup, though completely minor, was forewarned in the cookbook. Sometimes, if you roll the cake bites too tightly, the cake wants to expand once it's dipped in the chocolate coating and will crack, like so:
We had two casualties, but that's ok! We ate them! =)
So note to self: don't roll the balls so tightly next time and hopefully the chocolate won't crack!
Oh, and did I mention I have a new adorable baking apron from etsy.com that my mommy got me for Christmas? (I just checked...it's not on the market anymore. Sorry!) It's only my new favorite (and very appropriate for these cupcakes, if I do say so myself!)
Happy baking!
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