Cake Pop kind of night

Cake Pops.  

A new phenomenon. I had been wanting to try it. I was making Father's Day baskets, and decided I would add those to make it look nice and fill the baskets. My sister-in-law Kristen had been talking about making them too, and i HAD to try it. Plus they look like fun!

Believe me. They are harder to make than they look. 

Supplies:

Cake Recipe or Cake mix {and ingredients listed on box}

2/3 portion of frosting recipe or container of chocolate frosting

White Chocolate Candy Melts {2 bags from Michael's}

Candy sticks {from Michael's}

Styrofoam

Gel Food Coloring {NOT liquid}

Foil

Vegetable Oil Spray

Shortening {large spoon full}

Step One:

Line your large cake pan with foil. Grease with vegetable oil.

Step Two:

Follow the recipe on your cake mix and bake your cake as directed. Allow to cool

Step Three:

Put your baked cake in a large mixing bowl. Crumble with your hands.

 Add about 2/3 of the package of chocolate frosting (or your own frosting recipe) to the crumbled cake.

The frosting is what acts as a glue to hold the cake balls together.

Step Four:

Roll your cake mix into 1 inch balls using the palms of your hands.

You should be able to get 35-40 cake balls from a single batch of cake mix.

Step Five:

Now we prepare the chocolate shell.  

Pour one entire package of white chocolate candy melts into a microwave safe bowl.  Follow the melting instructions on the package.  

Pull out your melted white chocolate and stir thoroughly with a spoon until COMPLETELY smooth.  Once smooth, add a large spoon full of shortening {Crisco} to the white chocolate to thin out the consistency a bit. Stir thoroughly again.

Step Six:

Take a cake pop and dip into the white chocolate about 1 inch. 

Place it into the center of your cake ball.

This will act as a glue keeping your cake pop and stick attached.

hen place your cake pop in the Styrofoam to harden.

Continue with the remaining cake pops. 

(this is what happens when your cake balls are not fully molded together. They fall off stick!)

Step Seven:

Now you are ready to coat your cake pops in the delicious white chocolate.

This is the most tricky step of the entire recipe.  It took me some practice before I was good at evenly coating the chocolate on the pop.

Once you have evenly coated the pop, gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl to get off any excess chocolate that would drip.

For extra decoration, you can add a pretty design on top. I drizzled chocolate over the white chocolate for effect. You can also color the white chocolate with color gel. 

NOT LIQUID FOOD COLORING!!!

Fill a Ziploc bag with your colored white chocolate or desired topping.  Cut a small hole in one corner of the Ziploc back so that you can drizzle the colored chocolate over your pops.