A Lesson in Cake Pops

K.B.
Feb 18, 2016
3 min read

You know when you are browsing through Pinterest and you see a million delicious pictures of cake pops... well that's what I was doing when I decided enough is enough! It's prime time I start making these beauties!

I had just recently purchased Hazelnut Bakery Emulsion (By: Lorann Professional Kitchen) and had leftover Chocolate birthday cake in the freezer. I wanted to explore mixing the two flavours together. I mean.. Hazelnut and Chocolate.. how could you go wrong?!

I started by watching video after video after video, learning how to roll the perfect cake pop. My cake was in the freezer so I started by taking it out and defrosted it in the microwave. then I crumbled the cake into a large bowl; there was way more than I had anticipated, HA, not that anyone was complaining ; P ! I then began to add Nutella Hazelnut Spread, and Hazelnut Bakery Emulsion into the mixture. I mixed all the ingredients together by hand, until it stuck together, enough to form a nice round ball.

Here comes the fun part of it all!

I just eye balled it. I scooped some cake mixture up in my hands and rolled it into a ball. If you want to be precise then 1-1.5 oz. will make the "perfect" ball. Then you take a popsicle stick and dip it into your Candy Melts or Chocolate, then proceed to stab them into your cake pops (Approx 1cm in) then pop them into the fridge to firm up, if you want to speed the process, put them in the freezer for 2-3mins. (It just all depends on how cold your freezer/fridge is) When you go to dip them, Make sure your cake pops are NOT frozen, if they are too cold, your Candy Coating will crack. (Not to cold and not quite room temp) Work quickly, as the cake pops may start to fall off your stick and PLOP right into your Candy Coating...and boy what a mess this makes lol take it from someone who's been there..done that = P

I melted my Candy Melts, (I got these at Michael's) until it was smooth. BUT.. HERE IS WHERE I MESSED IT UP! Take note. Don't overheat your Candy Melts. If you do, your Chocolate will become sluggy..kind of like brown Lava..and this my friends is very hard to work with! Not impossible..just slightly time consuming and messy...but it still tastes GREAT! It is not the end of the world like I thought it was. I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to baking, so I was distraught. However, my taste testers ate the cake pops unaware of the flaws that resulted in my overheating. Some issues you may experience with overheated Candy Melts are as follows:

- They won't be as shiny.

- They won't have the perfect snap that Chocolate bars do.

- The Chocolate will be thick. Once you burn it, there is no fixing it (that I am aware of). The thickness of the Candy Melts will make for a slightly messy, but rustic finish. - The Chocolate that is anchoring the cake ball to the stick will soften as it comes to room temp, and as you dip your cake pop, if your ball is too big, the weight of it and the thickness of the Chocolate will be too much and you will loose your cake pop in your Candy Melts. (This should NOT happen if you properly temper your Chocolate = ) )

Finally, Throw some Sprinkles or Edible Pearls on them, while they are still wet and enjoy!