Let Them Eat Cake!

One thing I've been spending too much time doing is blog stalking. Sometimes I hit "next blog" at the top of the screen, and sometimes I pop from one to another from my friends' blogs, which has led me in some fun discoveries. People are just so creative! I love the ideas I get -- some I've used right away for our ward's ladies' activities. Some I file away for future possibilities. Some things I just have to try for myself. So here's my first feeble attempt at an idea I found on a blog that I now stalk fairly regularly. They're cake pops. I would give you the link to the blog, but that would show you how bad my first shot at this was. I don't want to burst your bubble about me! Anyway, here's what I did:

I started with a chocolate cake. How bad can that be, right?

You take the whole thing and crumble it up into a bowl. Yes, the WHOLE thing.

You need a pretty big bowl. I used my big Pyrex mixing bowl, and I wished it were a little bigger. Then you add cream cheese frosting. Best thing about this is there's no measuring. One whole cake. One whole can of cream cheese frosting. (and there's no reason why you couldn't mix flavors here) You could probably make your own frosting if you wanted... buy why?

Mix all the frosting and cake together until you get a mush ball in the bowl. That's a technical term. Mush.

Then you roll it up into balls. You could use an ice cream scoop, but I felt the need to be a part of this experience. Yeah, right -- whatever. It's a little messy. She says you get about 45-50, so I made 4 dozen. I'm thinking they were a little big, and I'd probably make them a bit smaller the next time.

You're supposed to chill these babies for a couple hours or so. I went for the speed method of putting them in the freezer. I put the sucker sticks in first. (Think about it -- how would you get the stick in them if they were frozen?)

Then you take that candy coating stuff you can buy in the cake decorating aisle. I was going for a classy Valentine look, so I used pink. Melt that in the microwave. I did a little at a time, but still ended up reheating several times. I've never worked with this stuff before, so it was new to me. My first ones I tried to spread it on the ball... not such a good idea. Then I re-read and you're supposed to pour or spoon it on and tap off the excess. This is all fine and dandy, until I tapped and my stick moved and the ball started spinning on it. Fine. Back into the freezer they went. That's all fine and dandy too, until you try to put warm candy coating on frozen cake balls. The coating hardens up way quickly then. Hence the multiple reheatings in the microwave. This was a process!!



By the way, you need 2 packages of the candy melts. One doesn't do it. Then, I had to sample a bite of one of these babies... I couldn't help myself. Mine in no way looks anything close to the originals, but if you don't know what the originals look like, then who's gonna tell? Not Me! (Ok, so I'm telling now.)


Since I'm not up to elaborate decorations -- I obviously need a cake decorating class -- I just drizzled mine with melted chocolate.

If you stand them in some styrofoam, they can cool and dry really well. I took some to a lunch with some friends, and they went over ok-pretty well. At least, there weren't any left to take home afterwards. I can't say I totally love the texture -- it's kind of like when you mush cake and frosting together, you know? I've seen something similar done with Oreos and cream cheese, to make a sort of bon bon or truffle. I think I like that better for taste. I guess you

could dip those, too.

And in case you're wondering, yes here is the link to the original blog. I love Bakerella, and she certainly deserves credit where credit is due. Check out her blog at www.bakerella.com. You'll agree that I need more practice. A LOT more!