Need something different for an upcoming birthday party, baby shower, wedding, or holiday? Right here is the answer. Cake pops should be the main attraction at your next event or party. But be careful: once you start making them, you won’t be able to stop, and most people who try them won’t let you. Don’t be afraid. To make cake pops, you don’t have to be a pastry artist or a candy expert. You don’t even have to bake well. With a few simple ingredients and common candies, you can turn any cake, even one you bought at the store, into fun little treats.
A cake pop is a piece of cake that looks like a lollipop. Cake crumbs are rolled into small balls or cubes and dipped in icing, chocolate, or other decorations. Like cake balls, they are then put on lollipop sticks. Making cake pops is a good way to use up leftover cake pieces or crumbs.
History
Cake balls came about as a way to use up leftover, possibly stale cake. This led to cake pops. So you’d have all this delicious leftover cake, which you’d crush and roll into balls with icing or another binding ingredient. The balls would then be covered in chocolate or something else sweet (much like donuts).
Cake balls became so popular that bakers started making them from scratch, instead of waiting for leftover cake to use up. Then the idea came to me: why not put a cake ball on a stick? And voilà! The cake pop we know and love came into being! Then Bakerella, also known as Angie Dudley, who is known as the “Cake Pop Queen,” really put the spotlight on cake pops with her amazing creations. Before you could say “POP!,” cake pops were everywhere, from home cooks to bakeries to Starbucks, which now serves a variety of cake pop flavors.
Angie Dudley of Bakerella, a food blog, was the first person to make cake pops. She did it from Martha Stewart’s living room, turning truffle-like balls of cake covered in chocolate into the craze of the moment.
From 2009 to 2011, the number of people who liked cake pops grew.
How to Make Cake Pops
Now having all the basic tools, you can start making the cake base. You can make cake pops with almost any recipe, but don’t use one that has nuts, fruit, or other ingredients that will make the pops lumpy or pointy. The base of your cake should be a nice, fine crumb of sponge. When making cake pops, you first bake the sponge cake base in a tin. Then, you break it up and mix it with a glue-like buttercream or ganache.
Mixing bindings and frostings with the cake crumbs makes it possible to shape cake pops into balls and other shapes. You can easily add different colors and tastes. Here are the steps in making cake pops.
1. Cut off the cake’s darker or crispier edges so you’re left with the softest part. Take 240g (812 oz) and break it up into small pieces. You can do this by hand or with a food processor set to pulse.
2. Make 120g (4 oz) of a binding, such as buttercream, frosting, or ganache. Mix the cake crumbs and the glue together with a spoon to make a firm mix.
3. There are two ways to make the cake balls. If you have a set of measuring spoons, choose the tablespoon size and scoop out two level tablespoons. You could also use scales to measure out 30g (1oz) and then roll it into a smooth ball. Once you’ve made your first cake ball, it’s easy to use this as a size guide so you don’t have to keep going back to the scales to weigh each one.
4. Make a smooth ball out of the cake pop amounts. This will make a ball about 30g (1 oz) in size, which is the size most often used in this book.
5. Make a hole for the stick to go into with a cake pop stick and pull the stick out.
6. Put the cake on greaseproof paper and let it firm up in the fridge for up to an hour. Be careful, though, because the pops can sometimes lose a little bit of their shape. Lay on the flat side of shapes that have a flat side. If you can, put the hole-side down on round balls. For mini wedding cakes, stick the two circles together with melted chocolate and put the hole-side down.
7. Make your chocolate or coating thick enough to dip. Fill a disposable plastic or parchment piping bag with chocolate or coating, cut off the tip, pipe straight into the hole, and put a cake pop stick in right away. Put into a block of polystyrene and do the next pop. The cool cake and warm chocolate will harden together, making sure the stick stays in place. Now the cake pops are ready to be dipped in chocolate and decorated.
You can make cake pops into almost any shape you want. Shapes like rounds, ovals, rectangles, teardrops, and cones are used in the book. You can also use cookie cutters to make cake pops in unusual shapes, like hearts, stars, flowers, and even baby feet.
Conclusion
Cake pops are fantastic since they can be used in a variety of ways and are a dessert that can always be relied on. They are a fun, incredibly popular option with children when it comes to birthday celebrations, and they are a sophisticated alternative when it comes to formal events or for corporate gifts. They are the perfect bite-sized offering for adults to enjoy during an afternoon tea.
This dessert can be eaten on the go and is perfect for people who are watching their weight since it combines the greatest elements of cake and a topping that dissolves in the mouth without giving the impression that too much food has been consumed.