If I ever set up my tea and cake shop, I already have a vague idea of the menu:
Large, American Style Chocolate Cupcakes (preferably with a liquid centre)
Welsh Cakes
Gateau Au Yaourt
New York Cheesecake, with a different filling depending on the day of the week
Home made ice cream (including Turkish Delight flavour because I haven't seen it for years)
Chocolate and Coffee Banana Layer Cake with Pecan Icing and Walnuts, for my Mum
Chocolate Guinness cake with cream cheese icing (Philadelphia are going to be making a fortune off me, aren't they…)
Hot chocolate made with various chocolate bars
And especially Cake Pops.
People like cake pops. They like the brightness, the novelty factor. They are easy to make look pretty once you realise a few little things about the technique, and they are infinitely variable using the odds and sods of decorating items you've picked up over time.
I used sprinkles, chocolate shapes, mini fudge, 4 flavours of chocolate cake coating, wafer flowers, easter rounds, mini eggs, jelly sweets, hundreds and thousands… you get the picture.
Oh, and chocolate chips. I do believe that some of them ended up looking rather like UFO's because of said chocolate chips, but that's part of the fun.
I don't think I'd get bored of making these things. In fact, I'm positively excited about the idea of making them again and experimenting with some of the more daring designs, a la bakerella. I want to make the original cupcake style ones (once I can overcome the eyewatering price of the mould…). I want to make bunnies and chicks (although that might be next year now) and cats and mice and… oh, anything that takes my fancy. Christmas puddings. A cake pop for every season, in short, and I'm going to do them my way, with a little bit of guidance from the masters. By my way I mean finding a cheapish way to do it; a student loan doesn't cover baking ingredients brilliantly (though it does go MUCH further if, like me, you're not an alcoholic… I mean a normal student) so I spend my working hours dreaming about cakes, then go home and bake them. But, basically, it does make me wince at the price of good quality cooking chocolate, for example. I bought 20 blocks when it was last on offer… I emptied out Tesco's!
Anyway, I'll shut up about the cost of baking now and get on with the popping.
Cake Pops
I took advice from a few different recipes about the best kind of cake and frosting, then just went mad with my own decorations. I'd advise you to do the same, especially for your first attempt if you're not already a very confident cake decorator - some melted chocolate and sprinkles, done creatively, can still make people's mouths water.
1. Make up a Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake mix as directed, then bake. I used a 9x13x3 roasting tin, as opposed to the 9x13x2 tin they specify, and it still rose beautifully and was INCREDIBLY moist. You're just going to be crumbling it up anyway, so when it comes to getting that size of cake out of the tin… well, you don't have to make it pretty. Mine got cut in half and folded onto a cooling rack because it wouldn't fit onto one and ours are two different heights! I would definitely recommend greasing and lining the tin though.
2. Once fairly cool, crumble the cake into a LARGE bowl. I left it for an hour at this stage until it was completely cool.
3. Add your frosting. Now, this is where it's up to you and your feel. If you've made cake truffles before, you know the consistency you're looking for - basically, you want to add enough frosting to make it all stick together, so you can roll them into balls, but you don't want so much that it ends up incredibly sticky because you're going to be hard pressed to make it less so… I used about half a tub of Betty Crocker Fudge Frosting, so I'd say start with a quarter and then add more about a tablespoon at a time. Now, most recipes say to use vanilla buttercream, and I probably would next time, though I don't know how this would alter the amounts. I only used this one because I got confused in the supermarket! Still tasted very yummy, though.
4. Roll your pops up! Now, I had about 800-900g of mixture - it should be the sort of lump you can pick up, take out of your bowl and weigh. I placed the now empty bowl back on the scales, zeroed, chucked the mix in, then divided this by 50. Each cake pop was then weighed individually so they were a fairly uniform size - I found that you start to judge it better and better.
My pops weighed from 17-20g each, and I ended up with 47, which I was happy with - 45 fitted nicely into my stand, and that left one to try and one to save for my little brother!
The best way I found to roll was to take your small balls, squish it quite hard a few times between your palms, then roll it more lightly into the ball shape. This ensures it holds together well and has a nice smooth surface. Place the balls onto greased, lined baking trays, and refrigerate for a few hours at least. I refrigerated mine overnight and that meant they were nice and firm to work with in the morning.
5. Melt your chocolate. Now, I used several different types of chocolate, but for the 45 pops I'd estimate that I used 450-500g of chocolate. I used these silver spoon chips for the flavoured ones, but this is quite an expensive option - the white chocolate and milk chocolate cake coverings from silver spoon work nicely, and I assume they have been tempered so you don't get that bloom, though I can't say for sure. It says that you get a glossy finish, at least! You may want to double dip the white chocolate ones, however.
Now, when you're dipping, you preferably want to melt it into something deep, rather than a wide bottomed bowl. I used a bowl for the flavoured chocolate and found it more difficult to get a smooth finish, though it is also important to re-melt your chocolate for 10 seconds or so periodically. Using a jug, which meant I could dip the whole pop in at once, was much easier.
First dip your sticks in the chocolate, then push them into your pops - you want them deep, though not all the way through. Preferably leave them to set for a little while.
To cover it, dip it, then tap it on the side of the bowl or jug whilst rotating. You'll get the hang of it! You need to judge when it is still wet enough to add your decorations, but not so wet that it will drip everywhere. The coloured stuff dried a lot faster than the chocolate - the white and milk chocolate took a lot of spinning and tapping to get it smooth! I promise that it's worth the effort, though, for the smooth finish!
6. I don't have much to say about decoration except let your imagination run wild!
Use anything and everything, and make sure to look in supermarkets for when they have 3 for 2 offers on decorations. Variety is the spice of life, after all…
7. Once they're done, the best place for them is in a polystyrene block, which we had in the loft. An alternative would be in a shoebox or similar. Use a skewer to make holes in it and they will stand beautifully. I wonder if you could use oasis? A bouquet of cake!
And there you have cake pops! These will certainly turn some heads at charity cake sales, birthday parties, and anywhere else you care to take them.
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