tips from a cake pop rookie

 

I have a bad habit of making things for showers and parties that I have never made before. Do you remember my terrible petit four mess? I do it all the time. Sometimes it turns out terribly. Sometimes it is just super stressful. And almost always I say "I will never do this again!" 

Anyway- for the POP shower, I signed up for cake pops. I had never made cake pops and had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I picked up a few tips and tricks along the way and thought I'd pass them along to you (you know, just in case you have a bad habit of attempting food masterpieces that you've never made before for large audiences as well).

After making the batter, roll the cake balls and freeze them. Seriously, this trick made all.the.difference. I tried to dip them in the chocolate without freezing them and they slipped right off the sticks but after they were frozen I had no problems whatsoever.

 On this note, take the frozen cakeballs out of the freezer in small batches so that they stay nice and cold.

Also, keep your chocolate at a moderate temperature. If it is too hot, it won't be thick enough to coat the cake ball, but if it is too cold it will be too difficult to manage and you won't get a smooth finish. I melted the white almond bark completely over a double boiler and then turned it down to simmer so that it stayed completely melted, but not too hot.

 Tap off the excess chocolate gently and then turn the cake pop upright to dry.

Use a styrofoam board covered it in foil to let the chocolate set (just poke the cake ball sticks into the styrofoam to keep the cake balls steady). This made decorating so easy!

Similarly, a foam board covered with coordinating wrapping paper is the perfect display for the cake pops!

Next time I might go for a more complicated design, but for my first attempt, I count this a success!