How to make good looking cake pops?
I've tried to make cake pops a few times but they never came out as beautiful and tidy as the pictures I found on the web. I would love to try more and more to nail the goal but I think I must know some rules or what-to-do's to make progress. So please anyone who has the experience share the important points here, I really appreciate it. Please note that for me, the taste is as important as the look.
The following questions are what I'd like to know:
- Does it matter what kind of cake you use, greasy or sponge or something else?
- What about the icing? Here the question is, do I have to add less sugar in my cake batter to make it less sweeter so that I can use any kind of icing without worries?
- Does it make a big difference what kind of lollipop stick?
I tried googling the subject "how to make cake pops" and read a few search results but most of them used special brands for different uses (e.g. candy melts) which are not available in my country.
Here is an example of some amazing cake pops:
Best Answer
There are two ways to get the shape. One way is to bake them spherical, the other to crumble the cake and to roll the crumples with icing.
To bake them spherical, you need a mold that goes into the oven, or an appliance for the task.
Your basic cake recipes are what you want here, nothing fancy. White cake, yellow cake or chocolate cake, there's no reason to make it more complicated, considering that your presentation is going to be novel anyway.
A simple buttercream frosting would be fine for rolling the balls (if that's the way you choose to go), but you would want more of candy shell on the outside. Sure, Wilton brand candy melts are an option, but you might find almond bark easier to find. That comes in chocolate and white, and will set more like the candy melts, less soft and melty than real chocolate would be. White bark could be colored how ever you want (use gel coloring, not liquid). Here's an article you might find helpful about better choices than real chocolate for this kind of shell: Love from the Oven
The sweetness of your cake and icing is totally up to you. One thing to consider instead of reducing the sugar would be to possibly add a bitter element, like lemon zest.
The best thing you can use for the sticks, if you can find them. would be the plain paper ones:
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What is the trick to making cake pops?
Stirring will help distribute the heat. Working with one cake pop stick at a time, dip one end of the stick into your melted candy (about \xbd an inch). Push this stick into a cake ball about halfway. You don't want to push it the whole way through, because it will poke out of the top of the ball.How do you dip cake balls perfectly?
Dip each cake ball by holding them upside down by the toothpick and submerging the ball into the candy coating. Gently lift out and shake off excess while still upside down. Turn right side up and stick the toothpick into the styrofoam block. Let dry completely.How to Make Cake Pops | SO Easy and Delicious!
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Answer 2
It's an enormous amount of work, but I made a batch a few years ago for a friend's daughter's wedding by mixing the cake and frosting and pressing it into two small cookie-cutters (one round and a slightly smaller fluted one), then pushed them out, stacked them to form a wedding cake shape, added the stick and then dipped them in candy melt and decorated them. The only problem I had was that the candy melt has a tendency to not be as thick at the edges, and would often crack as it hardened, so I had to dip many of them a second time. That probably isn't a problem with spherical pops. Still, they were a big hit.
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