A Foray into the World of Cake Pops...

Don't you think the Cake Pop is something that seems a bit Willy Wonka inspired ?  The thought of eating cake... on a stick!   OK - I'll be honest here I am approaching the much lauded Cake Pop with as much trepidation as the Whoopie Pie (and remember how much I loved those...NOT).

I have only been prompted to finally make them as I received a baking pan set designed for Cake Pops for Mothers Day.  In addition, I had asked my Son to try one of these recently at a cafe to see what he thought.  I didn't have one as it wasn't gluten free.  Imagine what a difficult request that was for him to fulfil.  One of the very few times I didn't need to ask him three times to do something...hahaha.  Well he LOVED it and has been begging me to make them ever since.

I have whipped a really basic chocolate cake recipe together and thrown these little gems into the oven.  Now theres a couple of different ways to bake these little babies.  You can bake them in moulds as I am doing today or you can make your cake then crumble t up once baked and cooled mix with some buttercream frosting then hand roll them into balls.  Either way we ultimately arrive at a ball shaped piece of cake.  The latter method however will result in a sweeter Pop as you're getting a mouthful of cake and frosting altogether then coated in chocolate.

My Pops will be cake only coated in chocolate so a little lighter.  I am also making mine Gluten Free.  See - anything can be made GF - no need to miss out on anything.  Thank goodness I have made them chocolate so I shan't be tempted to polish them all off.

Basic Chocolate Cake recipe
Ingredients
1 Cup Self Raising GF Flour
1 tsp GF Baking Powder
1 Cup Caster or White Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
3 Tbsp or 60g Unsalted Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/3 Cup Milk

1. Preheat oven to 160 Celsius and lightly grease and line your cake tin or spray your CakePop molds.
2. In a large bowl place all ingredients together making sure butter is slightly softened.
3. Using an electric mixer use it to combine all ingredients together until well mixed.
4. Pour into your cake tin or into your CakePop molds.
5. Bake for approx 30 minutes - check for done'ness by inserting a wooden skewer.  If it comes out clean you're good to go.

I used this recipe to make the cake pops pictured.  VERDICT :  Can't lie - they look really pretty.  Impressive even for what they are.  Fiddly ?  Without a doubt.  Able to make money from them ?  Weeeeeeelllll....possibly depends on how they want them decorated.  They are deceptively time consuming - I think I made Spongebob in the same amount of time it took me to make 15 cake pops so go figure.   They are however nice to be able to offer something a little bit different and I think u could have real fun with them for parties or christmas etc.

If you give them a go - good on you.

Enjoy!
Lx