Macaroons so 2011...the Cake Pop is here

Yes a cake pop... essentially a cake on a lolly pop stick.  It's taking the place of the macaroon and the cup cake, and is popping up all around Melbourne.

Made famous by bakerella in the US a few years ago and now you just need to you tube "Cake Pop" and you will see how popular they have become.  My personal fav publication is "Top of the Cake Pops" by April Carter ....feat. Lady Goo Goo, Crumbye West, Britney Sponge and Elton Bun among others...brilliant.



Here they go this weeks first attempt... they look super cute all together

I went in search of both these books but my local readings had sold out, so I decided to give these things a go at home.  I cheated a little, bought a plain sponge cake and made my own ganache...well icing.  Most of the recipes say to use the Betty Crocker Frosting, good if you are in a hurry but I prefer homemade. 


So far so good

I blitzed the cake in the food processor lightly to get a fluffy crumb then mixed the icing through.  I then rolled into balls and refrigerated until they were set.  It was time to put the sticks into the balls (actually they were straws) and then I dipped them  in white chocolate, so they were ready to decorate.



And this is when it started to go pear shaped

There are cake pop moulds out there if you want to get fancy and uniform, but for the novice like me I didn't mind a little un-uniformity, gave them a bit more character.  However, don't make them too big as they fall off the stick (see above)

So I imagined myself making Britney or Justin Bieber just focusing on celebrities.... not so easy there really is an art to it....  I thought I would start with someone I knew pretty well.



Self Portrait

Perhaps on the first try I should have stuck to hundreds and thousands and some glitter sprinkles.


Is it appropriate to eat your own kind......?

I had to do some some quality control on myself, just to make sure it tasted okay!



The Usual Suspects...

Here are the finished products, some of you might recognise Sinckers (or Courtney love), myself, Freida, an angry Chinamen and a brunette K Rudd (pushing it I know!).
 One lucky man got to have his pic of the cake pops....


"Mmmmm Sinckers.....she sure is tasty!"

They are great fun to make, when the book arrives I might be able to refine my technique!  Or I could just leave it to the experts! There are also heaps of accessories out there for your cake pops, if you are serious check out bakerella  and local places such as Cake Deco off Flinders Lane.  I went to kit myself out with the basics after my first attempt above.



Lego Men....could also pass for emoticons!

A day later I made some lego pops....thank goodness for the candy melts and the practice run a day earlier.  I worked out how to keep the cake pop on stick (dip it in chocolate and let it set), then dip it in the candy melts (essentially a coloured compound chocolate). I made these for a friend son Charlie's 5th birthday, the lego cake pops had the faces of his favorite lego men (and women) painted on them.

Tip for Novices!  Watch out for the food dye if feeding to Children!

Johnny Depp?