Finding the Beauty: Cake Pops

Let's talk about those cake pops I made for Annie's birthday party! Yes, they took a while to make, but it was totally worth the effort because they were SO cute!! I received many compliments on the cake pops; the flavor and the aesthetics.

I didn't actually take pictures of the process of making them because it was so messy, but I can tell you how I did it. I got the recipe from a blog called Bakerella (what a great name for a blog, I might add). If you look around her site, you'll see that she's a baking genius and does wildly creative things with cake pops. I, however, just rolled my cake into balls and put them on lollipop sticks that I purchased from Michael's Craft store.

1. bake cake as directed. I bought a strawberry cake mix and followed the mixing and baking directions for a 13 x 9 pan.
2. after the cake cools, crumble in a large bowl. I used my trusty large spatula (from Pampered Chef) - it does every job in my kitchen.
3. mix in a can of frosting. I used pink vanilla frosting - the kind that comes with the sprinkles. In hind sight, I probably shouldn't have used the whole can as the cake pops were really sweet tasting. Next time I'll use a bit less and see how that turns out.
4. roll into balls and place on a baking sheet covered with wax paper.
5. freeze. I froze my cake balls for a couple of hours (RE: did steps 1-4 during nap time and finished my job after the kids went to bed that evening).
6. melt the candy melts (or you can use chocolate chips or almond bark).
7. put the lollipop stick in the cold cake ball and dip in the melted candy.
8. stick the cake pop into a styrofoam block and sprinkle.
9. refridgerate until ready to serve!

This is what the centerpiece looked like: