I was asked to make cake pops for a Disney Planes themed birthday party this weekend. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I've had issues with cake pops before but they were so cute and looked simple enough so I decided to give them a try.
Cake pops are pretty common now but we've still had a few people who, after taking their first bite, are surprised at the texture. They are expecting a cake-only ball dipped in chocolate. When we make cake pops we crumble a baked cake, mix it with frosting, and then form it into balls that are dipped in chocolate. And the result is delicious. Baking the cake and mixing in the frosting is almost always the easiest party of making cake pops. Almost always doesn't include this time. When mixing the cake and frosting I noticed the mixture was getting too smooth but didn't think much of it. I let the mixer run for a couple minutes and when I came back it looked like I had thick cake batter in my bowl. Sometimes when I've made something many times before I go on autopilot and don't really think about what I'm doing. This time I clearly wasn't thinking and used twice the amount of frosting I was supposed to. It's moments like these when I question whether I should be baking or not. It's also one of those moments I don't like to share because it puts a dent in my quest to be perfect. But then I thought, how much fun is that if you only see the times where things work perfectly? So I'm putting my cake batter cake pop mixture on display for you all to see. This picture definitely belongs with a blog on "what not to do" when making cake pops.
Cake pops are pretty common now but we've still had a few people who, after taking their first bite, are surprised at the texture. They are expecting a cake-only ball dipped in chocolate. When we make cake pops we crumble a baked cake, mix it with frosting, and then form it into balls that are dipped in chocolate. And the result is delicious. Baking the cake and mixing in the frosting is almost always the easiest party of making cake pops. Almost always doesn't include this time. When mixing the cake and frosting I noticed the mixture was getting too smooth but didn't think much of it. I let the mixer run for a couple minutes and when I came back it looked like I had thick cake batter in my bowl. Sometimes when I've made something many times before I go on autopilot and don't really think about what I'm doing. This time I clearly wasn't thinking and used twice the amount of frosting I was supposed to. It's moments like these when I question whether I should be baking or not. It's also one of those moments I don't like to share because it puts a dent in my quest to be perfect. But then I thought, how much fun is that if you only see the times where things work perfectly? So I'm putting my cake batter cake pop mixture on display for you all to see. This picture definitely belongs with a blog on "what not to do" when making cake pops.
When mixing the cake and frosting you want to use enough frosting so you can easily form balls without them crumbling apart. But if you use too much frosting they won't be firm enough to stay on the stick while dipping them in chocolate. Here's a secret for you: box cake and can frosting make the best cake pops. I love baking from scratch and am a big advocate for making things homemade but in my opinion cake pops taste better with the store-bought stuff. If making cake pops this way you want to use half a can or less of frosting to one box of cake. I usually start with a little less than half the can and add more if needed. Which is what I did this time after baking a second cake since I apparently forgot that rule the first time around. Once the cake is mixed you can start forming the balls. I use a cookie scoop to help keep the size consistent. I let the cake balls sit for about 10 minutes before putting the sticks in. When ready, I dip the sticks in a little bit of melted chocolate and then insert them about half way into the cake ball and let them sit about 30 minutes before dipping.
The dipping is the hard part. The cake balls can fall off the stick If the chocolate is too thick or the cake mixture wasn't the right consistency or the sticks weren't put far enough into the balls. Just a few things to worry about. This time the dipping was a success. And I needed a success after my cake+frosting failure. After dipping in the white chocolate I let them sit for about an hour before dipping them halfway into the red.
I made the propellers out of fondant a couple days earlier so they'd firm up. For the blades I made my own stencil and cut them out. For the hub I used a frosting tip to cut out the circle and a smaller tip to make the indent.
My busy season at work is starting so I won't have time to bake as much until after April 15. Can you guess what my paying profession is? I'm hoping to still have time for a few creative projects from now until then and will share them with you when I do!
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