March Roundup

Cake pops! What an amazing collection of pops! Tinkerbell, pots of gold... Amazing! Enjoy the photos and thanks to everyone for participating.

Tinkerbell Cake Pops

Posted by - LinsFood

a pop by each kid!

Phew! We just made it! This month's challenge on Have The Cake is Cake Pops and we finally managed to find some time to make them this afternoon! My kids and I baked our usual Madeira cake for it, a tried and tested recipe I use for most birthday cakes I make. I usually let the cake sit overnight before I start decorating but in the interest of speed, we sliced it while it was still warm to allow it to cool down quicker!

I crumbled up the cake, added some condensed milk and brought it all together and formed the mix into little balls which were placed on a lined baking sheet. These went into the fridge for about 20 minutes to harden.

We dipped the lollipop sticks into some edible glue (I do a lot of cake decorating) but you can also dip them into whatever you are going to coat the balls in. This will ensure that the balls stay in place better. Next, we pushed the sticks into the cake balls and put them back into the fridge for about 10 minutes.

It's a stick up!

We chose to use Green and Black's organic white chocolate for the coating. Zapped it in the microwave (as I always do), tinted it ever so slightly with green and stirred it for about a minute to let cool slightly. My kids then picked a cake pop each and dipped them thoroughly in the chocolate and placed them back on the baking sheet. I gave them an option of having them completely round (stick them in styrofoam the right way around) or a flat top, well you can see what they chose! Back in the fridge they went while we had dinner!

dipped in white chocolate

Assembly was left completely up to the kids. A fairy here, a bug there, feathers, feathers everywhere! TA - DA!

IT WAS FUN!

Pastel Cake Pops

Posted by - Rena

As usual, I was standing in Michael's staring at pastel colored nonpareils. I had to have them.

I decided to make my pumpkin "fake cake" as my base. The cake is a can of pumpkin mixed with vanilla cake mix. The combination makes the most delicious cake ever with barely any calories. The cake is very moist because of the pumpkin so I didn't need to add much frosting. I really didn't need to add any but what fun would that be?

I dipped the cake balls in white candy melts which you can find at Michael's as well. I guess they are mostly for candy molding but they worked perfectly for the cake pops. I then dipped them in the nonpareils. They were mighty tasty!

I didn't realize how dark and fuzzy the pictures were until it was too late - meaning they were in my belly already - so you get vintage-looking photos. Imagine my mom making these with my help in the 70's while I'm wearing my patchwork overalls.

Pot of Gold Cake Pops

Posted by - Vivian

I've had Bakerella's Cake Pop book since it was released... but have I ever made cake pops before??? Nooooooo.  I was excited about this month's challenge because it forced me out of my comfort zone and into the land of cake pops.  Aside from having to make my own black colored chocolate, these really weren't that difficult to make.  Of course, these simple pots of gold are nothing at all like the beautiful creation in the Cake Pop book.  I used a simple cake mix for my cake and had leftover home made Malted Frosting left over from a cake I made last month.  These were a big hit with my Sunday school class.  Thanks for the challenge!

St Patrick's Day Cake Pops...

My very first attempt at Cake Pops...and look how it went...I chose to use Green Velvet Cake as my base (basically Red Velvet, but green!)

 I deconstructed, added frosting (cream cheese of course!) and re-constructed to a cakey dough...

 Rolled into balls, and popped them in the fridge...to set...

 ...melted some white chocolate and set the sticks in using some of the chocolate...

 ...dipped and decorated...Green Velvet Cake and green sugar for St Patrick's Day...

 I'm pretty chuffed with the results...would have prefered a 'greener' cake, but that's the perfectionist in me!! 

I even had enough left over to make some pretty Cake Balls...all in all a great first attempt at "The Monthly Challenge" Sara xx

Posted by - Sara.

The less successful cake pops...

Posted by - Hannah

Well I have to admit I tried this months challenge and it didn't go so well! I waited especially untill I went home from Uni for the weekend so I could use all of mums food dye and sprinkles and things. I've given up chocolate for lent so I planned to use icing instead. My brother decided to join in (He's better at baking than me really so I wasn't complaining!). It all started off well, we made a normally sponge cake and cut it all up a bit to cool....

 

 Next we put it in the food blended to make it into crumbs and then mixed it with some cream cheese icing. The difficulty I found was no one seems to have a exact recipe for this,so it was all a bit of a guestimate. Anyway next step we made it into the balls (At this point everything seemed fine!)

 

The next stage was dipping them. As I said no chcolate for me :( Unfortunately icing doesn't appear to work! It kind of half absorbed, half slid off. And then one of the balls broke in the icing... not pretty! So we compromised, I'm afraid my cake pops never really made it to the tradition being on sticks stage but we did put them in little cases and decorate them so it wasn't too bad. Hopefully next month I'll be more successful!

 

The finished product...

Lamington Inspired Cake Pops

Posted by - April (Miss Conversationalist) @ Tête-à-Tête 4 Food

Miss C "after seeing that this month's challenge was making Cake Pops I was really excited. I decided to make lamington inspired cake pops as I love a little twist to classics" 

Miss C "i thought this would only be, bake a CAKE + FROSTING + COAT with CHOCOLATE + DECORATE = CAKE POPS, how wrong I was! Yes, those are the basic steps but it isn't that easy"

Cake pops "getting the amount of cake and frosting ratio is crucial, as this determines whether they can be formed into balls" 

Cake pops "also, finding a good glaze will insure the coating and decorating process is a lot easier"

Cake Pops!

Posted by - Anuja @ http://simple-baking.blogspot.in/

I have been thinking of making these for some time now but somehow couldn't get around actually making them. Then Rena from Have the Cake posted her March challenge....ta da.. Cake Pops! It was a sign..I have to give it a try. This is a very simple ‘how-to’ for making them, I am in no way an expert and will gladly leave that title to Bakerella!

Basically to make cake pops you need to make a cake.  Then you deconstruct ( well actually smash) the cake and mix it with an icing ( any icing or frosting will do).  Then you roll it into balls, chill them, then pop in some sticks and dip in melted chocolate.

I made it into a weekend fun project as Saee was at home and boy did we have fun!! I managed to get only half the quantity of pops done as the other half was gobbled up by my sous chef.

You can use any cake recipe or even a packet mix is fine. Check out the great tutorial by Instructables here.

Oh and BTW they are supposed to look like cupcakes :).

March Challenge: Cake Pops

Posted by - Rena

Everywhere you look, there are cute little cake pops popping up at parties, weddings & even Starbucks! Let's have some fun! Our challenge this month is to make cake pops. The possibilities are endless.

One of my favorite bloggers, Bakerella, has an amazing collection of cake pops. She is truly an artist. The combination seems to be fairly standard: bake a cake, mix with frosting, make balls and coat with chocolate. Instructables has a great tutorial on their site.

Have fun!

Muppets Cake Pops by Bakerella. I mean, really!