Sunday, 21 April 2013

Paid Cake Pops! (How to make them!)

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So a couple of weeks ago I made some cake pops and took them into an office that I work at a couple days a week. I made pretty standard ones with chocolate cake, cream cheese butter cream and covered in white chocolate. One of the guys who works there ended up asking me to make a batch for him and his family and so here they are!

All wrapped up and packed ready to be delivered!

He actually asked for them to be just plain and since they were for his kids I thought that I would cover them just in milk chocolate! I took some photos whilst I was making them so I could do a bit of a 'how to' on how to make them =)


Cake crumbs with the buttercream mixed in

You can either make the cake yourself or if you want to save some time then just buy a ready made cake. Next, make the cake into a big bowl of cake crumbs! I usually do this with a fork and mash it all up but I know that a food processor would be much faster and you could get much finer crumbs.

For the buttercream again you can make your own or feel free to just buy it already made. I don't actually measure out how much buttercream to cake I use so what you want is to make sure you put in enough to cover the cake and bind it together, but add it a bit at a time but too much will make the cake too moist and heavy to stay in one bit on the stick.

I usually use about a tablespoon of the cake mixture and you want to roll it about in the hand in order to get the shape that you want- obviously the standard would be a circle! In order for the cake ball to stay on the stick easier, melt a little of the chocolate first and then dip one end of the stick into the chocolate and then push it into the centre of the ball. Usually I put the stick about half way/ 3/4s of the way into the cake. I bought a couple of the cake pop stands so I normally put these in there whilst making the others just so they stay up right. If you don't want to buy a cake pop stand then you could get a cereal box and pop some holes in one side of the box that will fit the sticks in.

 



Obviously I made this happen for
educational purposes to show
what a fail cake pop looks like!

In the fridge, just chilling!

You can either pop these in the fridge for a couple of hours or the freezer for about 10-15 mins until the cake pops get hard- this just makes it easier to dip them into the chocolate.


Next, covering in chocolate! I melt my chocolate usually in a mug, because it is narrower than a bowl and with taller sides because it is easier to dip the cake pops in and out and being able to cover it all. When you melt the chocolate add a bit of oil, a little at a time. This helps to thin out the chocolate which means it is easier for the excess chocolate to drip off the cake and gives it a bit of a nicer shine. I used sunflower oil for these.

Keep in mind when dipping them that you should cover all of the cake and even cover the top part of the stick so that there are no gaps. I have found that if you leave a little of a gap then some of the oil/liquid from the chocolate or buttercream tends to come through a little. While this is really not so much a problem, it doesn't look as pretty! Once most of the chocolate has dripped off, put the cake pop back in the stand and wait until dry. If the chocolate is too thin then you can put on another layer if need be.

When I make these for friends or family, I usually just pop them in a box just as is but since it was a commissioned order, I bought some of the cellophane wrappers with ties, just to make them a little more professional!

 

Let me know if you guys have made these before and any other tips that you have!

 

 

 

 



 

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, cake pops | 1 comments

Monday, 1 April 2013

Marbled Cake Pops!

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I made these when I was meeting my boyfriend’s sister for the first time and I wanted to make something yummy to take with me! At least then she might enjoy my baking if she didn’t like me =P 

 

 

 

 I wanted to try and make cake pops, just without the sticks, to see if that was possible because I was concerned about how to get a smooth finish on the chocolate if they had to dry on a baking sheet. I made a chocolate cake with a cream cheese icing. This combo in cake pop form seems to be a favourite as everyone seems to really like it!

I decided on a marble finish to it just because I wanted something funky looking that I could try that I hadn’t done before. I found a couple different photos of other peoples marble cake pops so I gave it ago. It is pretty easy!

 

 

 

 

 

Make the cake pops in the standard way by crumbling a cake up and then mix through some buttercream so it binds it together.  Take about a tablespoon of the cake mix and shape it into a ball. Pop them on a baking try and pop them in the freezer so that they harden up- usually takes about 10-15 mins. While that is happening, melt the chocolate. I used white chocolate but in 2 different mugs- one just plain and the other with blue food colouring in it. I usually add a bit of oil to my chocolate so that it goes a bit thinner and it is easier to cover the cake pops. Since I didn’t put these on sticks I used a fork to lower the cake pops into the chocolate and while the first chocolate colour is running off of the cake I then drizzled on the second type of chocolate. Move the cake pop around so that it creates different shapes and lines and it should start drying quite soon. Then pop them back on the baking tray and leave until they are dry!

I didn’t like that they ‘smudged’ a lot when they came off the fork and were put on the baking tray so I am going to have to figure out how to stop that from happening- any tips then that would be much appreciated =D

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, cake pops | 0 comments

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

15th Anniversary for Mum's Boss!

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At the end of October I finally got my first paid cake job! My mum’s boss was celebrating her company’s 15^th year and they asked me to do the cake which of course I was so excited to do! I was left to my own ideas about what to do with the cake but my mum gave me some ideas to go with which would relate to the company. The company is a counseling company so my mum thought it would be fun to incorporate different faces of emotion in it so I decided that I would try cake pops for the first time!

I made the cake pops a couple of times prior to the event just so that I could get a feel for how to make them and how to decorate them but this was the first time making them so I actually managed to cross two things off of my list! As well as the cake pops I made a cake to go along with it with the company’s logo on it, the leaf. I decorated the cake pops and the cake with food colouring.

Normally I would use vodka with this to dip the brush into and this will help to dry the colouring faster and the vodka will evaporate however since I didn’t have any at the time because I made this at my mum’s house instead of mine, it was a lot harder to dry but a night in the fridge did solve that!.

So, the cake pops were made out of chocolate cake, mixed with a cream cheese vanilla buttercream and dipped in white chocolate. Then the actual cake I made was a lot plainer- a vanilla cake with a vanilla cream cheese buttercream again and covered with some marshmallow fondant.

Me with my mum's boss!

Overall I was pretty happy with these cakes. There were some things that I wish I was better at doing as I am not too artistic the faces could have been better and my fondant I had some problems with! But the client did like it and I even got my photo in the local paper! =D

My mum is on the right and the 2 other ladies and man are her work mates!

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, anniversary, cake, cake pops | 0 comments