My First Attempt at Cake Pops! Vanilla Cake Pops & Babycakes Cake Pop Maker

 

Cake pops! They're all the rage, and I finally jumped on the bandwagon. As a shower gift, I received this fun Babycakes Cake Pop Maker, and I finally got around to using it recently! I made some vanilla cake pops for a coworker's birthday last week, and they were a great hit with everyone!

This cake pop maker works very similarly to a waffle maker. Although, the "original" way to make cake pops is to bake a cake, crumble it up, and mix the cake with frosting. Then you roll that mixture into balls and dip them in melted chocolate/candy coating/glaze. If you want some amazing cake pop inspiration, you have to check out Bakerella. I seriously do not understand how she does what she does with her cake pops!!

The beauty of this cake pop maker is that it saves you a couple steps! You simply need to make the cake batter, "bake" it in the cake pop maker, and coat the balls with melted chocolate. It saves you from baking an actual cake and making frosting. 

Cake recipes were included in the instructions booklet that came with the cake pops maker. I wasn't sure if a normal cake recipe that I have would work with the maker, so I decided that for my first attempt with cake pops, it was probably best to follow a recipe from the booklet. So, that's what I did! I've included it here below. I'm guessing this would also bake like a regular cake, but honestly, I'm not sure. I still need to figure out if it's strictly a recipe for the cake pops maker, and I also need to figure out if it's possible to use some of my own favorite traditional cake recipes with this appliance. Does anyone out there know?!?

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 tsp. baking powder

-1/4 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup butter, softened

-1 cup sugar

-2 eggs

-2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)

-glaze or coating of your choice

Instructions:

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Alternately blend in flour mixture and milk into butter mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Fill each cooking reservoir of your cake pop maker with about 1 tablespoon of batter. Bake 4 to 5 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into a cake ball comes out clean. Allow to cool and glaze or coat, as desired.

A few pointers for the novice cake pop maker (like me!)...

It's much easier to coat the cake balls if you freeze them for 15 or 20 minutes first (after they're already completely cooled).

If you don't have handy dandy holders like those that came with my cake pop maker, buy craft foam at a craft store to stick your cake pops in while your candy coating hardens. You can also buy the cake pop sticks at craft stores.

Dip the end of the stick slightly in the candy coating before putting the cake ball on the stick. This will help the ball stay on.

Have fun with it! Try not to get frustrated (like I did, as I explain below).

:)

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first about whether this cute looking appliance would work, but it did! It worked great actually. Each batch made 12 cake balls, and each batch only took about 4 minutes! Easy peasy. And the vanilla cake recipe was delicious too!

(As you can see in the top left of the photo above, I overfilled the reservoir; not to worry though, it was easy to cut the excess off of the cake ball).

I think this would be super fun to use with kids! And depending on their age, adult supervision may be necessary, of course. ;)

One batch of the batter made about 4 dozen pops for me!

So. Many. Cake. Pops.

Now, the less fun part of this whole cake pop process, for me anyway, was the coating step. I had a rather challenging time with the coating!

For the cake pops I coated in white, I used these vanilla candy wafers. We use these for Willy Wonka day each year, and they work great. However, I had a difficult time melting them to the right consistency for dipping. I melted them in the microwave instead of using a double boiler; maybe that was the problem?! Not sure. Either way, the melted candy was a bit too thick to dip the cake balls easily. I tried adding a touch of vegetable oil to thin it out, but that didn't really help. I managed eventually, but it was a bit more of a process than I anticipated!

And the cake balls dipped in chocolate were a different story... I didn't use the dark chocolate candy wafers pictured above, but instead, I attempted to melt milk chocolate chips. Well, I actually didn't have enough milk chocolate chips, so I mixed some semi-sweet chips in with them. I think this was a big error. My guess is maybe these two chocolates have different melting points or something? I am not really sure, but the two types of chocolates did not come together very well to melt smoothly. Again, the coating was too thick, and this mixture was also a bit lumpy. But, I also managed to dip some of the cake balls in the chocolate coating, and in the end they looked okay. I ended up needing to use the assistance of a spoon to smooth the edges of the pops. They didn't look great, but they were okay. The sprinkles really help to hide any errors. ;)

Dipping the balls was definitely the most time consuming part of the cake pops process. Mike can verify that I was getting a tad frustrated when making these! But in the end, I have to say that it was worth the time and effort. Everyone really loved them!

Sprinkles make all the difference in how fun and festive these are, don't they?!

I hope I'm not discouraging you from trying to make cake pops by sharing my less than ideal experiences. If you have a little extra time to spend in the kitchen, they're definitely worth it! Kids and adults alike will both love them.

I promise!

Whether you use a cake pops maker like I did, or whether you make them the "authentic" way, you'll be glad you gave them a try!

As you can see, I also mixed some sprinkles right into the cake batter! :)

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the cake pop pictures, all from Bakerella.

Sooo impressive and adorable!!!

Are you kidding me? How does one do this?!? I'm amazed.

TGIF and happy weekend to you all! :)

Too Many Cookies & Not Enough Time

 Hello there!

Is Christmas really less than two weeks away?? Yes, you say?

Tell me you're joking.

You're not?

Darn. I was hoping I could have about four or five weeks before Christmas comes. I have about 3,281 cookie recipes I want to make before the holiday!

By the way, did you know that last Tuesday was National Cookie Day? I didn't either. Until it was too late to celebrate it. :(

:)

Aaaanyway, although I won't have the time to make many cookies this year, I have had time to browse through some delicious holiday cookie recipes! I thought I'd share with you a few of the favorites I've seen these past few weeks. And then maybe some of you will have the time to make them?!?

I will be making at least two different cookies this coming weekend though, thankfully! I am participating in Cookie Swap for a Cause in Boston, and I'll be baking four dozen cookies for the event (I'm thinking a couple dozen of two different kinds). The benefit helps the organization, Cookies for Kids' Cancer from the Glad to Give campaign. I'm excited! But sadly, baking for the event might be the extent of my cookie making this year. Oh well. At least cookies don't go out of style. I can always make some in January. ;)

All of these recipes below look SO good!!

 Peppermint Mocha Blossoms from Damn Delicious

(photo source)

Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Candy Cane Buttercream from Sally's Baking Addiction

(photo source)

Peppermint Butter Cookies from Taste and Tell

(photo source)

Gingerdoodles (or Snickersnaps) from Bakergirl

(photo source)

Bourbon Balls from Sugarcrafter

(photo source)

I realize these aren't cookies, but maybe we can call them cookie balls?!

And finally, a plug for one of my own Barbershop recipes...

Pecan, Cranberry, Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Do you remember when these won the Whole Foods pecan recipe contest last year?! So fun. :)

What cookies are you baking for the holidays this year? I'd love to hear!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon, Egg, and Tomato

A grilled bacon, egg, tomato, and cheese sandwich.

It looks messy and it's kind of ugly, but, it's delicious. Trust me on this one.

Mike and I celebrated our one month anniversary this past Monday. Woohoo! We made it a month. These sandwiches were our anniversary dinner. Romantic, eh? :)

Mike works late on Mondays, and we typically don't eat until around 8:30 or 9:00. Depending on my schedule, I try to have dinner ready when he gets home so we can eat right away (because we're both pretty hungry by then!). These bacon, egg, tomato, and cheese sandwiches were the perfect quick meal for a night when we didn't want to spend much time in the kitchen. I had cooked the bacon ahead of time and had all the ingredients ready to go, minus the eggs. I am pretty good at cooking eggs, but Mike is better at it, so I waited for him to get home so he could cook them! I assembled the sandwiches and grilled them while Mike cooked the eggs. We debated for a bit whether we should grill the sandwiches with the eggs between the bread already, but we decided that might get a bit messy. So, we grilled the sandwiches with the bacon, tomato, and cheese, and then just added the eggs afterward. It was sooo easy! There's no real recipe to share with this one - just layer the ingredients, grill the sandwiches, cook the eggs, and add the eggs to the sandwiches after.

Perfectly cooked eggs! We both like our yolks slightly runny.

To round out the meal, we enjoyed a side salad with our sandwiches.

Ummmm, and we each had a beer.

Mike and I have kept talking about how much we loved these sandwiches this whole week. Yep, they were that good.

Next time you're wondering what to make on a busy weeknight, remember these sandwiches!

TGIF! Happy almost weekend to you all!!

Homemade Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Caramels

Every year for the past 6 or 7 years, in early December I've been taking part in "Willy Wonka" day with a few ladies, a couple of whom are coworkers and close friends of mine. We spend a solid 9 or 10 hours making tons of candy, and then we box it all up to give to friends and family as gifts for the holiday season! It's become a fun yearly tradition, and let me tell you, all my friends and family reeeeally look forward to receiving their boxes of candies each year. ;)

This picture is of a box from this year's Willy Wonka day. As you can see, there is quite the variety of delicious treats in that box!!

Today though, I am going to share with you one specific recipe for a candy that has become a staple in the candy boxes - the sea salt caramels. These are SUCH a hit with the recipients of the candy boxes! And they are definitely one of my favorites too. This year I had the privilege of making the caramels. Lucky me!!

Below are the ingredients and instructions, and then I have some pictures for you to show the process. It's a bit intimidating at first, but it's honestly not that difficult, I promise. I was nervous when I made the first batch, but they came out great, and I was all set to make the second batch without any intimidation whatsoever.

**Be sure to measure all your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready to go before you begin! Once you start this process, you can't really stop. ;) Oh, and beware that your kitchen is going to smell awesome while the caramel is cooking on the stove.

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/3 cups cream (light or heavy is okay; we used light)

-2 cups granulated sugar

-1/2 cup light corn syrup

-1/3 cup honey

-6 Tbsp. butter (salted or unsalted is okay)

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-3 tsp. sea salt, divided

-chocolate, for melting and coating the caramels

Instructions:

Line a 9" square pan (an 8" pan would be okay too) with foil or parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. In a 2 or 3-quart sauce pan, bring the cream to a boil. Add all sugars (sugar, corn syrup, and honey) and return to a boil. Using a candy thermometer, cook until the mixture reaches 257 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring very frequently. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the butter, vanilla, and two teaspoons of the sea salt; mix well until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and cool. 

This next part is hard to explain since it wasn't written down... But you'll want the caramel to cool to an extent. You don't want it to harden all together, but you need it to harden somewhat before you can score it with a knife to mark where you'll eventually cut it into squares. It should be a soft caramel when you score it, but not so soft that the scored marks "bounce" back and disappear after you score them, if that makes sense. And eventually, after scoring, you can remove the foil or parchment from the pan and cut the caramel into squares all together, when it's hard enough and not as soft and sticky... The pictures below will help, I think.

When the caramels are completely cooled and cut into squares, melt your chocolate. You can use whatever type of chocolate you'd like here, but I think milk or dark would be best. :) And you can use baking squares or chips, or you could use candy melts that you'd buy at the craft store. Melt the chocolate using whatever method you're most comfortable with (double boiler, microwave, etc.).

Line a baking pan or cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper. Using small tongs, dip each caramel in the melted chocolate and then place on the lined baking sheet. Immediately sprinkle the top with a dash of the remaining sea salt. Let the chocolate harden completely, and enjoy!!

Just so you know, it's not that easy to take pictures while caramel boils on the stove! 

When the cream and sugars are boiling, the mixture will rise in the pan quite a bit and come to a strong boil. You may need your heat on a medium or high heat to make sure it reaches the right temperature. And if it takes a while to get there, don't worry. Eventually it will, and when it does, it will happen very quickly! So keep a close eye on your thermometer.

The photo below is when I took the mixture off the stove and added the butter, vanilla, and salt.

Next, the mixture is poured into the prepared pan. We used a spatula that had some chocolate on it to spread it. No big deal; it was going to be covered in chocolate later anyway!

This is when I scored the caramel to make the marks for cutting it later. You'll want to score the caramel both directions in the pan (the photo below only shows the score marks one way).

Depending on how you cut the caramels (8 by 8 or 9 by 9), you should get between 64 and 81 caramels out of one batch.

My little "station" for dipping. Caramels, melted chocolate, and sea salt! Does it get much better than that?!

In order to not have too much chocolate coating the caramel, after dipping it in the melted chocolate, it's best to tap the tongs on the edge of your bowl or dish to get rid of the excess. And if you still have extra chocolate around the caramel, you can cut it off with a knife (if you want nice, even looking caramels). 

It's heaven on a baking sheet! :)

Each caramel then received its own individual paper cup before the boxing process began. I pretty much just wanted to take all of these home with me...to heck with everyone else and their candy boxes. ;)

A sampling of other candies that went into the boxes...

White chocolate covered mint joe joe's (Trader Joe's cookies that are like Oreos).

Peppermint bark.

Snowmen!!

Chocolate covered nutter butter cookies.

And a bunch of other items... There's toffee, chocolate covered pretzels, and several others!

I wish I could send each of you one of these boxes!!

These chocolate covered sea salt caramels are a perfect treat around the holidays. You should totally think about making them to give to your family and friends too!

And one more thing... Is it really DECEMBER already??!

Will be back later this week with another recipe for you!