minis

Thanks to the numerous “cake” themed cooking shows on TV, one of the hottest desserts around are cake balls or cake pops. They are incredibly easy to make, especially if you begin with cake mix and canned frosting.  Additionally, they are a fun cooking project to get your kids involved in.  Of course, if you want to go the gourmet route, begin with your favorite cake baked from scratch and use homemade buttercream frosting.  Either way, they are pretty darn cute!

Cake Pops

1 baked and cooled cake; made from your choice of boxed cake mix or homemade cake
1 to 1 1/4 cups frosting of your choice; homemade or purchased
Melted semi-sweet, bittersweet, or milk chocolate chips
Candy Sprinkles or colored tube decorator frostings
Supplies
Small ice cream scoop
Lollypop sticks
Large rectangular Styrofoam form or a sturdy empty box, with holes, punched in the bottom with an ice pick

Using your hands, crumble the cake into a large bowl.  Add 1 cup of the frosting and mix, at first with a large spoon or spatula, and then with your hands until it is a dough-like consistency, adding the additional 1/4 cup frosting if needed.  Cover and chill mixture for at least 2 hours.

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of the mixture onto a parchment paper or Silpat lined baking sheet. 

Dip the ends of the lollipop sticks in the melted chocolate and stick them into the cake balls.  Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Remelt the chocolate and dip the partially-frozen cake balls into the chocolate coating, allowing chocolate to drip off and partially set up before sprinkling with candy sprinkles or decorating with colored frosting tubes. 

Set upright in Styrofoam or hole-punched box.  Allow to chocolate to set completely before serving.

Makes about 40

Cake pops will keep at room temperature for days; if you refrigerate them, the chocolate coating will sweat.

Two flavor combination suggestions:

• Devil’s food cake with fudge icing and dark chocolate coating
• Strawberry Cake with vanilla icing and milk chocolate coating