Cake Pops

Sometimes things go beautifully and other times, things go horribly wrong.

I felt I had perfected the cake ball pops and was ready to try something I had glanced at on a magazine rack in Michael's last week.  The headline mentioned using cookie cutters to form various cake pops. I thought that was a really cool idea, so I wanted to put it into motion sooner rather than later.

This past weekend was my first opportunity and I had the perfect "guinea pig". My nephew is turning twelve and asked for Funfetti cake pops.  We're a group that LOVES Disney. No joke. Look up "Disneyphile"(Disney's name for it's freaky fans), and you just might see a picture of our crazy crowd.

Back to the task.

I have a Mickey Icon Cookie cutter. It's about two inches tall and about an inch thick - a little big for a normal-sized one-inch cake ball, but it's Mickey! So, why not?

I was forming the Mickey Icons and was loving how they were turning out.  It was so hard not to show anyone what I was doing.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to see the look on my nephew's face.

Normally I can get 40-50 cake balls from one cake box recipe, whereas these Mickey cookie cutter cake pops only allowed for fifteen big pops and one teensy little ball.  The pops were going to be about serving size for fifteen people.  I decided the ball would have his birthday year, and he could decide who got that little nob.

Easy solution!  

I put the sticks in with a little bit of chocolate and then had a thought that these might fall apart at the ears, given the size and weight of them.  I decided one of the flat sides needed to be painted with white chocolate so that no disasters would befall Mickey.

**No mice, fictional or otherwise, were harmed in the making of these cake pops**

I decided to test my theory on the first Mickey Icon pop.

**Remember my opening remark**

Painting one side wasn't enough.  Poor Mickey split right up the middle and took a header (pun intended) right into the melted chocolate.  I, not wanting anything to go to waste, took both halves out, pushed the two together, stuck the stick back in, let it lay in all it's chocolaty goodness, and told it I would deal with it later.  Yes, I spoke to it. I was that upset.

Since painting one side hadn't worked, I stepped away from the cake pops, and the mess, looked at my tools and tried to hash out another plan of attack.  I had plenty of gadgets and yet not enough.

The question that popped into my head next was, "What would Grandma or Nana have done without all the fancy-pancy kitchen gadgets?"  The answer came back so quickly, and given my calm, I knew someone was watching out for me. :~D

Spoon it! 

So that's what I did. I used a spoon for the remainder of my venture. It worked out much better than I'd expected.


Though they were ridiculously rich - the kids loved them - they weren't too horrible. They were messy to look at for someone who is ridiculously picky about how things should be presented.  Given that this was the first attempt at cookie cutter pops, I'm letting it slide.

Ta Da!

Lessons learned:

*     Use smaller cookie cutters.  One inch is plenty big enough for a cake pop and the results will most likely be cleaner.
*     "Basting" chocolate on is a good idea for frosting, but not for candy coating.
*     When that inner voice tells you that something is too heavy and maybe you should rethink what you're doing, listen to it!  It knows of what it speaks!

And if you're wondering what happened to the Mickey that took a fall, I shaved off the excess chocolate with a knife and smoothed on a thin layer of chocolate. I was the only one that knew which one had fallen apart.

If you'd like to make your own attempts at Cake Pops, check out Bakerella.  A friend introduced me to the site last year, and it's been great for some really cute ideas!

Some of my more successful attempts at "Cake Poppery"

Easter eggs - Sprinkles over the candy coat while wet.

Cowboys! - Had to mix the Cowboy blue myself.

My very first attempt at Cake Pops. Notice the "sweating" from the chocolate. I was upset about it until I saw the Mickey in the center. I've since perfected the melting of the chocolate and the coolness of the cake.