Red Velvet Cake Pops!

This is a slightly delayed post but is still a new recipe that I wanted to share that is an excellent idea for party favors or a simple dessert. Today I'm talking about cake pops! Specifically Red Velvet Cake Pops.

A couple weeks ago my room mates and I hosted an engagement party for our friends Doug and Sarah and we had a nice cookout for them a couple of our close friends. I asked as the avid amateur chef if there was anything I could make for the party and the bride-to-be Sarah requested a dessert but without any real preference. So I settled on cake pops! I'm not quite sure why I chose cake pops over any other dessert but I thought it would be a fun idea and they have a myriad of decorating options. This post today will not include a recipe but focus more on the technique and hopefully act as an inspiration for future baking ideas! 

Cake pops were incredibly trendy 2-3 years ago and I still remember walking into Starbucks and seeing them sold for 2-3 dollars per pop. Now adays they are not as popular but you can actually find kits that contain most of the accessories needed to produce your own with some cool decorating tips!

I make my cake and icing from scratch but this is completely doable with boxed cake mixes and canned icing if you wanted to cut down on prep time. All you need is cake, icing, and melting chocolate (those little discs you melt in the microwave).

Step 1: Bake your cake and allow to cool completely. Once cool use a spatula and turn the cake into crumbs. While the cake is cooling melt your chocolate according to the directions on the package adding a tablespoon of shortening to help thin the consistency a little bit.

Step 2: Mix in your frosting until you get a smooth malleable dough/paste.

Step 3: Continue mixing and it will eventually pull together.

Step 4: It should pull together and form into a solid ball that can be formed and shaped into little spheres.

Step 5: Shape your cake balls into quarter sized spheres. If you make them too big they will fall off the stick. 

Step 6: Take your lollipop sticks and dip it into your melted chocolate so that the cake balls will have something to adhere to on the inside of the cake ball. Be careful not to insert the stick too far (aim for about halfway through the cake ball) or else the cake ball will slide all the way down the stick.

Step 7: Dip the rest of the cake ball into the chocolate to make a thin even coat. Allow any excess to drip off back into your chocolate bowl.

Step 8: Allow the chocolate to harden but be careful to not allow the sides of the cake balls to touch anything or else you will track chocolate everywhere.

Step 9: Decorate as you see fit. I was cutting it close so I simply piped on small bow ties and buttons for tuxedo cake balls!

I know this blog post was a little less informative but was a new experiment for me. I simply wanted to give people a new idea and concept to try that isn't as hard as it may seem. Next week I should be returning to the recipe based instructional format. Thanks for reading!