Cake Pops!

Ingredients

• Cake
• Buttercream
• Cake pop sticks
• Candy Melts
• Sprinkles of your choice
• Styrofoam board

Recipe

Add the cake in a large bowl. Crumble it and add a tablespoon of buttercream at a time until the cake is moist enough to roll a ball, yet thick enough to keep its form. Roll the mixture into small tight balls. Chill until needed. Melt the candy melts in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring until completely melted. Make sure you have enough chocolate to completely cover the cake ball when dipping. Dip the tip of the sticks into the melted candy and insert it into the cake balls about half way. Freeze the balls for about 30 minutes. This step will help the ball stay on the stick. Remove and let sit for 10 minutes. Begin by dipping the cake balls into the melted candy in a swirling motion until completely covered. Continue slowly swirling the stick to allow any excess candy to drip off. Tap gently if needed. Add the sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet. It will harden quickly seeing as the cake pop is cold. Stick the decorated cake pop into a styrofoam block or place up-side down on a clean flat surface.

Buttercream for 24 cupcakes

Makes 4 cups (Cover and save any leftover buttercream in the refrigerator until next time. It will last for up to a month)

Ingredients

• 250 gr. butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. milk or heavy cream

Method

Beat the butter on medium speed scraping the bowl frequently until light and fluffy. This could take up to 10 minutes. Add the sugar at once and beat for a further 15 minutes. Increase the speed, again, scraping the bowl frequently. When the mixture turns white, add the vanilla and milk until well combined.

Tips

• Use leftover cake, a ready baked cake or use any cake recipe from Give Me Astoria’s previous weeks
• One small pack of candy melts makes about 15 pops.
• Go easy on the buttercream. Cakes are already moist. Too much cream can ruin the mixture.
• It helps to mix the mixture with your hands so that you can get the feel of it. Make sure there are no lumps.
• Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the mixture so that you will have equal portions.
• Do not dip the pops if they are too cold. Doing so will make them crack.
• Do not dip the pops if they are not cold enough or they will fall apart.
• A block of styrofoam makes a great holder to stick the cake pops in while they are drying.
• Using chocolate chips is also good for this but tempering the chocolate may be tricky. You would need to add fat like oil or shortening to help the chocolate. It is also very difficult to color chocolate. You may end up with a crumbly mess. For beginners, I would definitely stick to candy melts.

And there you have it! Cake pops! Post your pics and tag us @givemeastoria and @auntieelis!