Hello All! It’s Wednesday!

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for like a week now. I actually started writing it last Friday and then never got to finish it. Tonight’s the night though. I’m getting it DONE.

Let’s talk about Cake Pops.

Cake Pops! Not my idea kids. The original idea came from a blog that I read regularly, Bakerella. Check out that site for lots of creative variations to this basic idea. The only difference between mine and Bakerella’s is I made my cake and buttercream from scratch. I seriously considered using a boxed cake mix but just couldn’t bring myself to do.

So here we go:

Step 1

Find a cake recipe that you like. I used this one from one of my very favorite cookbooks, Williams-Sonoma Cakes, Cupcakes & Cheesecakes. Everything I’ve made from this cookbook has come out perfectly.

I made the Golden Cake minus the Tangerine Fudge Frosting

Basic Golden Cake

Yield: 13×9 inch cake (enough for about 40 cake pops)

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk

Position a rack in the middle of an oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set to medium-high speed (I used my KitchenAid Stand Mixer w/ paddle attachment), beat the butter until light. Gradually add the sugar, beating until well blended (a good 2-3 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and, dividing the flour mixture into 3 batches, beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Once the mixtures are combined, continue to beat for 30 seconds. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 28-30 minutes. (The recipe said 35-40 minutes but mine was done in 30!). Transfer to a rack and lack cool completely in the pan.

Make a mess in your kitchen like so:

Batter into the pan:

Anddd done:

Step 2

Crumble the cooled cake into a BIG mixing bowl. Crumble, yes, completely. Then stir in about 1 1/2 cups frosting. I started out mixing everything with a wooden spoon but quickly gave up and used my hands. Really mix the frosting and cake together until they are completely integrated into each other. (I didn’t really do that as well as I should have). It’s important to mix them together thoroughly otherwise your cake balls might fall apart like some of mine did.

After the frosting and cake are completely blended together, form into firm balls (haha I tried to come up with another word instead of firm but couldn’t)(I am …like 14 years old apparently). Mine were ping pong ball sized I would say. Place the balls on a wax paper or parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerator for 10 minutes. Once cooled, melt a small amount of chocolate to use as an adhesive for the lollipop sticks. Dip the sticks (purchased at a craft store, Michael’s in my case) in the chocolate and then push into the cake balls, about 2/3 of the way down. Refrigerate these for a good four hours or put them in the freezer to speed up the process.

Cake on a stick. Naked.

Step 3

Melt your chocolate or candy melts and dip the cake balls, coat completely with chocolate and then sprinkle or dip them in whatever decorations you’d like. Let cool on wax paper or stick them in styrofoam if you don’t want a flat side. I used one bag each of chocolate and vanilla candy melts.

Annnnd done:

I took these to a dinner party and they went over really well. Even with their two year old daughter (who kept trying to lick it like a lollipop. haha). The cake was moist and ridiculously rich because of the frosting. I was wondering how the cake would hold up because all of blog posts of people that made them that I read had used a boxed cake mix. Luckily this recipe seemed to work really well so I’d recommend it to you. It’s a basic yellow cake. It’s not too sweet which works out since you mix it with frosting and cover it in sugar….

And also, if you were reading the blog, FOREVER ago, you may have seen when I made cheesecake pops, here. I almost made the cheesecake pops for this dinner party but I didn’t want it to need to be refrigerated. Plus not everyone likes cheesecake.

The pictures seemed to have disappeared from that post so here are a couple:

I hope you enjoyed the recipe! Let me know if you try it!