Cake POPS!

This past week my Mom, Abigail and I took on a challenge making 50 cake pops. This "fun" baking experiment took about 4 hours longer than I hoped, making our baking extravaganza a two day event. When it was all done and I saw our beautiful display of these cake pops, I decided it was worth the learning hassle. (Cooking and baking come easy for me, so I was a bit put off when this became a "challenging experience".)

Ta-da! 

For the past year or so Cake Pops have been all the craze, on blog posts for party ideas, on Pinterest and even in the Starbucks display case. While they are cute and fun to eat, I'd rather make and eat cupcakes over cake pops any day. Dare I say... they are a bit too sweet for me? Well, Craig loved them and bringing him home a bag of Cake Balls (same thing, without a stick) was the way to his heart.

For your pleasure- a dorky picture of me finally enjoying one of our creations. 

As if you can't look up about 100 recipes on your own like we did, here is what worked for us. This will make about 75 regular sized cake pops. I'm a make-it-from-scratch kind of gal myself, but everywhere I search, they suggested using boxed cake mix/ frosting.

3 boxes same flavor cake mix (we did Chocolate)
1 1/2 tub of frosting (we chose cream cheese)
1 package almond bark
Sprinkles

Make the cakes as the directions on the box say for a 9x13 pan. While still fresh out of the oven, crumble the cake with forks (or as my Dad said when he walked into the room during this part "What did the cake do?") Let cool and combine them in a big bowl with your hands to make a fine mixture, adding in the frosting until it "holds" together. Stick it in the freezer for at least 20 mins, or refrigerate until later use. We used a melon baller/ cookie scoop as our measure for size and rolled them with our hands until they were firm.

The crazy part- figuring out how to coat them. Dip the sticks in your melted chocolate and stick them in about 1/2 -3/4 of the way through the ball. They took a while to set so we stuck them in the freezer again for about 20 mins. Melt your almond bark (we had success with this over melting chocolates) in a double boiler and I suggest just working from your stove top to keep it warm and workable. Holding the stick, twirl the balls in the coating and use a spoon to assist in coating it all over. Sprinkle with decorations and let dry by sticking the stick in a colander so the balls don't smear. It is trial and error the first few. Good luck!