Sweet Tooth Takeover...

So, I’ve been on a on a “sweet” kick lately.  I’ve been trying my hand at all sorts of different confections.  I’ve made some cake pops that were super simple and delicious!  The last few days I’ve been making hard sugar candy.  Again, these are super easy.  I’ve found Hobby Lobby to have the best selection of candy making supplies.  Michael’s has a lot of chocolate candy making supplies, but nothing for hard candies.  Well, they do have a candy thermometer, but that’s about it!

Let’s talk about the cake pops first.  I’ve seen those in grocery stores, bakeries, and restaurants.  They always look amazing with their decorations.  The first thing you think is that has to be a lot of work.  Guess what?  It’s not!  You make a cake, mix in icing, mold each cake ball, and dip it in melted chocolate.  You can get fancier with how you decorate the outsides, but that’s up to you.

My first attempt at it was Funfettit Cake Pops.  The secret to these is that you mix in the can of icing while the cake is still warm so it’ll melt and help hold the ball together.  It helps to freeze the cake pops too before you dip them in chocolate so they don’t break apart in the chocolate.

All you do is pick out a cake mix that you like, and an icing that goes well with that flavor cake.  You bake the cake as instructed on the back of the box.  That means you’ll probably need some eggs, oil, and water.  After the cake comes out of the oven, don’t let it cool down.  Dump the cake into a mixing bowl and pour the entire can of icing into the bowl.  Mix it all together, and use a medium scooper to make as many balls as you can.  Put them on some wax paper to rest while you finish all the balls.  Stick a “sucker” stick into the top of each ball and then stick the sheet pan in the freezer to harden the balls up.  The icing that melted in the cake will help hold everything together.

I ended up melting some white and milk chocolate baking squares that I had left in the pantry from another culinary adventure to dip each cake pop in.  These squares cost a little more, but I used what I had on hand.  The white chocolate was a whole lot easier to work with.  I was able to cover more pops because it didn’t go on as heavy as the milk chocolate squares did.  As soon as I covered the pop in chocolate, I sprinkled some edible sugar on the outside as decorations.

Store these in the fridge so the chocolate hardens back up.  The outside will be crisp and provide a nice “crunch” when you bite into the pop.  The inside remains moist and delicious thanks to the icing that you melted into the cake.

Until next time...Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

Zach