I do a slightly different variation on the cake balls compared to the professionals. You could call it the lazier version, but I actually prefer the taste of mine. Instead of preparing the cake mix as the instructions say on the box, I simply pour in a can of soda, mix it up, and throw it in the oven. The pros apparently make the cake as the box says.
Another modification I make is that I don't let the cake cool and then mix in a container of frosting. I pull the cake out of the oven and crumble it all up pretty much immediately while the cake is still hot. You get to kind of play hot potato with the cake when you first start trying to roll them into balls. :) I mush it all together and roll it into a nice size ball. Then I stick the lollipop stick in about half way. From there I put them on a baking sheet and put them in the refrigerator to cool completely.
Once they're cool they're ready to be dipped and decorated. For the reindeer I decided to use a yellow cake mix with Coca-Cola and then dipped them in milk chocolate. The antlers are just the regular pretzel twists cut in 2 pieces. We were unsuccessful in finding the alphabet pretzels that others have used. I think they worked just fine though. The noses are red m&m minis. The eyes are little white confetti sprinkles and I dotted them with an edible marker. I held everything on with frosting and it seemed to do just fine. I was quite pleased with the way they turned out!
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| Luckily I had a trusty assistant to hand me the antlers as time began to run short. |
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| The finished Rudolphs!!! |
Then there's the snowmen. For them I decided to do a triple chocolate cake mix with Coca-Cola and then dipped them in white vanilla flavored candy coating. I made two different sized of cake balls for the body and head and then stuck them both on the lollipop sticks before refrigerating.
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| Pre-dipping |
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| Post-dipping |
The snowmen were the main reason I decided to give the edible markers a try. It seemed like the easiest way to put on the eyes and mouth. I had never worked with such a thing and quickly discovered that you have to be pretty careful with the way you use them. The candy coating builds up very quickly on the marker if you press too hard. I eventually got them all drawn. The noses are orange candy-coated sunflower seeds.
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| Notice Zach in the background...he tried to snag a pop through the whole process. I was the mean sister who wouldn't even let him have 1 until they were complete. |
The hats are one side of a regular Oreo and then a mini Oreo on top. I think next time I would just get chocolate wafers because we quickly realized that it's pretty tricky to get the Oreos separated without breaking the wafer. Again, everything was held on with pre-made icing. I was so excited to see them complete too!
Styrofoam is certainly the best way to display cake pops. And it worked best to pre-punch holes for the lollipop sticks before decorating. All in all it was quite a process and took the whole team, but it was worth it! They're so cute and delicious to eat!!!
Then to my great surprise Emily got me the Cake Pop book for Christmas!!! Now I can make cake pops for every occasion!
