cake pops

we co-hosted a baby shower over the weekend and favors were one of our "to-do's." being a fan of all foods on a stick, i made my first attempt at cake pops. YUM!

if you haven't heard of cake pops, you soon will. bakerella stumbled upon these gems back in 2008 when she put her cake balls onto lollipop sticks, and she's taken the baking world by storm since. her book came out last fall and is chock full of dozens of cake pop recipes.

[via amazon]

here's my step-by-step for these fun favors:

supplies:
cake mix
pre-packaged frosting
sprinkles of choice [i used white sugar crystals and rainbow nonpareils, which are 1/2 the price at kroger vs. michael's]
candy melts in choice of color [i bought these at michael's, when they were on sale]
lollipop sticks [i used 6"]

instructions:

bake a pre-packaged cake mix as directed. i used a Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake. let the cake cool, then crumble the cake into a large bowl. mix in 1/2 container of pre-made frosting and work with your hands until the mixture is well-combined. i added an extra spoonful of frosting for consistency. i used Pillsbury dark chocolate. roll the mixture into compact balls, approx 1" in size. cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. i refrigerated mine overnight.

melt the candy morsels as instructed on the package, stirring periodically. because i was making 2 colors, i used 1/2 package of yellow morsels and 1/2 package of white morsels. if i'd had a fondue set, that would've been ideal. i had some trouble keeping the candy melts the right consistency for dipping, so a constant heat source would've helped. insert a lollipop stick into the flat end of the chilled dough ball. insert it at least 1/2" into the ball, but not all the way through the center. dip the pop in the melted candy coating, coat to cover.

dip into sprinkles, or hand sprinkle as desired. i found that the colored sprinkles made the pops too top heavy, so i opted to hand sprinkle those. the white sugar crystals were fine to fully coat, though.

set into styrofoam to dry. i wrapped my styrofoam block in plastic wrap so i can re-use it with easy clean-up. candy melts will harden in a few minutes.

package into a small cello bag, tie with ribbon for a to-go treat. i displayed them in a basket filled with raffia for the shower. but a friend also displayed hers by placing ball-end down, resting in cupcake liners.

this is super easy and you can mix & match so many flavors! i haven't ventured to test my creative decor skills like bakerella has mastered, but maybe someday.

i think the next flavor will be a chocolate and peanut butter. like a peanut butter cup on a stick. yes please!

what are your weekend baking plans? what flavors of cake pops do you want to try for yourself?