More and More Cake Pops!!!
Just sharing some assorted cake pops I made for my friend’s birthday last weekend. With just a few different types of sprinkles (sanding sugar, red nonpareils, silver sprinkles) and 2 types of chocolate (white and dark) you can make tons of different and easy designs. Stripes, dots, swirls…. just have fun.
They made a great centerpiece, conversation piece and snacking piece.
Assorted Cake Pops
Cake Pops!!!
So either you are excited by reading the title, OR you are like… what the heck are cake pops?!
Cake pops are the hottest trend in the cake world. They are what would happen if you crossed a lollipop with cake! Cake on a stick, formed into a ball and dipped in chocolate. These are not for your diabetic friends.
My foray into the world of cake pops started last week when my friends told me they wanted to have cake pops for their wedding favors… and could I make them. Well, I had never made cake pops before, I had never even eaten them, but I figured I could give it a shot. I offered to do a test run to see if I even could successful make a cake pop. Then I got busy reading blogs, posts and watching videos online to see what I needed to do.
Anyone who knows anything about cake pops has heard of Bakerella; she literally wrote the book on cake pops and she makes the most creative and innovative pops I have ever seen. She has them in every shape, size and Disney character. It is amazing to see what she has done to elevate the simple cake pop.
The basic elements you need to make a cake pop are cake, frosting, melting chocolate and lollipop sticks PLUS anything you want to use for decoration on the pops (sprinkles, chips, etc). Cake pops are a great way to use excess cake that you trimmed off another cake while leveling it, or a great use for that cake that you broke and couldn’t use for anything else. You can also use a cake mix cake. I personally used my own homemade frosting, just because I had a batch on hand, but again, you can use store bought frosting. This is a messy game and you will certainly get your hands dirty, but it is a fun project that you can try to do with kids on a rainy Saturday.
Again, you will need:
Cake, Frosting, Melting Chocolate, Lollipop Sticks, Decorating items (ie assorted sprinkles) Plus a willingness to get your hands messy! (Optional, but highly suggested would be an small ice cream scoop, a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or tin foil, and a Styrofoam block.)
Take your cake and crumble it into a bowl. Just totally wreck it! (This is the therapeutic step) Crumble it up until all you have a cake crumbs. Once you have a nice bowl of crumbs, add in your frosting. If you have a store-bought frosting, use about 3/4 of the container. Now mush it all around until it is evenly distributed. (Some recommend a mixer with a paddle attachment for both these steps, but I was perfectly fine hand mixing the mush) The mixture will look gross, really. But don’t worry, it gets better!
Now that you have your mixture you need to form it into the cake balls. Take your ice cream scoop and scoop out balls, finishing the forming in your hands. If you don’t have an ice cream scoop, just form the balls with your hands. Put the formed cake balls on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Once you have filled the sheet with balls, put it into the freezer for 15 minutes. (If they will be there for longer, take them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge after 15 minutes, to avoid freezing them)
While the balls are chilling, prepare your chocolate. Put the chocolate in a deep microwavable dish and microwave it in about 20 second increments until it is melted. Stir after each increment to help the melting process. You want nice, smooth chocolate. Additionally, get out your lollipop sticks and your Styrofoam block.
Now there are two ways you can proceed. I have tried both and I preferred Bakerella’s one step method, rather than the popular two-step process.
My preferred method- Take your pops out of the freezer and put them next to the chocolate. Take a lollipop stick and dip it into the melted chocolate about 1/4 inch to-1/2 inch. Then immediately put the stick into one of the balls until it is about half way into the ball. (Do not pre-drill and do not push the stick all the way through). Then immediately after this, take the stick with the cake ball on it and dip it straight down into the chocolate. Do not swirl it around to coat, instead tilt the ball to each side so it is fully immersed and covered in chocolate. Then pull straight out in an upward motion. Once the ball is out of the chocolate, you can tilt it and let the excess run off. You can also tap you arm as you are holding the ball, to help the excess chocolate drain off. Put the cake pop in the styrofoam block by piercing the block with the stick. Let the pop dry. (If you want to decorate the pop with sprinkles, you should hold the still wet pop over another bowl and sprinkle the sprinkles on the chocolate before it melts, rotating the pop to ensure maximum coverage.)
Alternately, if you don’t have a styrofoam block, put them stick-side up on a cookie sheet and let dry. They won’t be perfectly round on the top, but it is still a nice way to present them.
Option 2: The other chocolate finishing method- Instead of making this a one step process, the other method turns it into a two-step process. In the method, you melt a small amount of chocolate first, dip the stick into the chocolate and then put the stick into the pop. You then let that dry fully before dripping the entire ball into the melted chocolate. The issue I had with this method was that in some cases the chocolate wasn’t melted enough or warmed up and the ball fell off the stick into the chocolate. I then had to rescue the ruined ball and make sure no stray cake bits ended up floating in the chocolate) Whatever method works for you- Use It!
Last, once the chocolate is dry if you haven’t already decorated it with sprinkles, you can do it in this step. Take the melted chocolate with a spoon (or whatever works) and drizzle it on the cake pop. You can make different lines, or straight, thin lines across the pop, then take your glitter sprinkles and sprinkle them on the new chocolate, creating glittery lines on the pop. Use different patterns and sprinkles for different, unique looks.
WHAT CAN GO WRONG – Ok this all sounds simple enough, but let me just point out some things that can go wrong, so you can try to avoid them.
So now you know how to make sweet, fun cake pops. I hope you have fun unleashing your creativity! Enjoy!!!
Retirement Cake: Life's A Beach When You're Retired
This year, after over 30 years of teaching, my mom decided to retire.
And I decided to surprise her with a Retirement Cake! (My Most Ambitious Cake to Date!)
Now, when I was younger I used to think of retirees as old people with gray hair who lived in Florida and played golf. My mom is none of those things. She doesn’t play golf, cards or tennis, and she doesn’t particularly like Florida. She likes to travel, drink wine, cook dinner parties, make jewelry, not the typical “old people” things.
So I wanted to make a cake that would suit her personality and incorporate things she likes to do. Because what is the point of making a specialty cake if you can’t make it special for the person you are giving it to?!
My mom likes swimming and is a former lifeguard and swim instructor. So I thought I could do a beach or pool themed cake. Since she enjoys reading, traveling and drinking wine, I wanted to incorporate those elements as well. The concept would be a person lying in the sun, near a beach or pool, with a bottle of wine and surrounded by books. To incorporate the travel concept I would include travel books.
I started out with just the idea of a red and white striped towel, a classic beach pattern. Since the last time I tried to dye fondant red I looked like I had committed murder, I decided to BUY red fondant. I had also never tried to make a person or figure out of fondant, so to save some additional exasperation, I bought the “Wilton: Rolled Fondant Natural Colors Multi-pack.” This helpful package comes with pre-colored pink flesh colored fondant as well as light and dark of brown and black. (and I knew it would save time and aggravation).
The first thing I did was create a base for the towel out of white fondant. Just a white rectangle. Then I rolled out the red and white fondant and, using my ribbon cutter, cut strips of each color. You could also use a pizza cutter or any cutting tool, but since I had the ribbon cutter and it makes keeps the lines consistent, I just used it. I then adhered the strips to the towel base, alternating the colors. And cut off the ends with a pizza cutter. Now, I am making this sound easier then it was. The red fondant bled color if I used too much liquid adherent. And then it cracked- for no reason. So I found myself pulling up some strips and using new ones, just to make it look decent.
For the wine bottle, I dyed a small amount of fondant green. Then I rolled it and shaped it into the form of a wine bottle. I left it to dry before adding other details. Later, after it was dry, I took a combination of white fondant and gum paste and rolled that out. I then cut it into a small rectangle that fit onto the wine bottle and adhered it with edible glue (combination water and gum arabic). Then, after THAT dried, I took edible markers and drew on the bottle’s label- featuring scribbles for writing and the faint image of hills.
The books were really easy, and the most fun. I just took white fondant, gum paste- whatever I had around- and shaped it into a rectangle. I then rolled out colored fondant to at least twice the width of the square and put the white square on top of it. I trimmed it to size and wrapped the color fondant around the white square, leaving the top, bottom and one side of the white fondant exposed. I took a toothpick and pressed lightly on one side to create the look of a book spine. I then used the toothpick to create lines on the white part to look like pages. Later when the books had dried, I used edible markers to write down book titles on the tops and spines. (I put titles like “Travel in France”, “Beaches of the World”, and “Just for Fun”.)
For the figure, I started by making a sunhat, just by shaping light brown fondant. I then took light blue fondant and shaped a top, and brown fondant to shape the pants. I added the appendages using the pre-colored flesh colored fondant and gum paste. (50/50 mix) The gum paste made it more pliable and let it set-up quicker. I made simple shoes using the black fondant and put them directly on the legs. For the head, I decided I would rather use an illusion then create an actual person’s head. So I shaped the outline of a head and used a round cutter jut to press in a semicircle for the mouth. For the hair I took some brown fondant and some yellow and mixed them together briefly, just so it would retain both colors, to look like highlights, rather than have just one color. I then used a toothpick to create some texture in the hair, by roughing in lines. Last I put the hat on top of the person’s head, as if they were blocking the sun.
For the cake, I made a basic two-layer yellow cake and filled it with chocolate butter cream frosting. Then I frosted the entire cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. (I actually ended up making four cakes, just so I could put them together to form a larger cake.)
To make a beach-themed cake you need two basic elements- Sand and Ocean. For the sand, I took Nila wafers and put them in the food processor. Then I took the crumbs and just pressed them onto the frosted cake. (I know some people use crushed graham crackers but I think Nila wafers make lighter looking sand, plus my mom likes Nila wafers for nostalgic reasons.
closer view of the Nila wafer "sand", figure and books
For the ocean a started with the white frosting and created the line for foam. The I took some more white frosting and put some blue coloring. I didn’t mix it thoroughly so it still had some lighter and darker blue in it. Then I frosted that on the rest of the cake in wave-like patterns.
close up view of the "frosting ocean"
I added the elements on top of the cake. Then the last thing I did was create a 2 signs for the Cake out of gum paste (because it dries faster) and wrote on them with edible marker. What could be a more appropriate saying for than, “Life’s A Beach When You’re Retired”
My mom LOVED the cake, as did everyone at the party. And what a great way to help her celebrate her long deserved retirement in a very personal way.
NYC Skyline Cake
Recently a friend of mine moved to New York City from abroad. He just hosted a party at his Upper East Side apartment to launch summer and let us all enjoy his balcony. His one request for me…. Can you make a cake?
So what kind of cake do you make to celebrate this occasion? A NEW YORK CAKE- of course!!!
First I had to decide on what kind of cake. I know one of his good friends loves Red Velvet, so I decided to try another red velvet cake. Since I wasn’t sold on Martha Stewart’s recipe, I decided to call my brother for his recommendation. (He really is the best baker I know) He suggested I try the recipe from Baked, a fantastic bakeshop in Red Hook, Brooklyn (check them out: bakednyc.com) The recipe (listed below) came out thicker and more like a batter than the Martha Stewart recipe. It looked better and I figured I was on the right track. It also tasted a bit more chocolaty, always a good thing.
But frankly, even though the recipe was from a NYC bakery, red velvet is generally considered a southern cake, and I wanted to make mine ring of NYC. Plus, it needed to feel masculine since it was for a guy- no pretty flowers or pinks and purples. So I decided to go with a simple line design in a dark, gray color, reminiscent of the general color of New York. I thought of the iconic buildings in the city- The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, etc… I decided to do a simple skyline featuring a select few buildings around the edge of the cake. I could then intersperse them with generic buildings and highlight it a bit with some greenery to symbolize parks. They needed to be somewhat recognizable from a basic line drawing, so I selected The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, Citi Corp, The Flatiron, Grand Central, and The Arch at Washington Square.
I did a basic sketch to get the overall look and feeling, and then mixed some frosting a dark but muted gray color. Then, with just a basic round tip, I piped the key buildings around the cake. Then the smaller ones and last the bits of green just to have some color. As you can see from the finished product, it is simple, iconic, and masculine.
My friend loved the cake, and I was happy that it tasted even better than my last red velvet! We had great fun at the party divvying up the respective buildings and offering them to various people at the party! Anybody want to eat the Chrysler Building?
Red Velvet Cake (from Baked)
1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons red gel food coloring (see note below)
1/4 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
In a bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside to cool. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture. Sift the flour and salt together into another bowl. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, to the egg mixture in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until combined. In a small dish, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir until the baking soda dissolves (I love the way it bubbles up). Add to the batter and stir until just combined.
Bake at 325 F about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely before frosting.
*This recipe yields 3 cakes in 8 inch rounds. I only used 2 cakes from smaller rounds and used the rest of the batter for cupcakes. Additionally, Baked uses a cinnamon frosting whereas I prefer a traditional cream cheese frosting.
So, this is a little story of how to totally mess up and frustrate yourself in the medium that is- Royal Icing.
First of all, what is Royal Icing… Royal Icing is a mixture of powdered sugar, meringue powder or egg whites and water (sometimes lemon juice is added as well). It is commonly used for piping flowers, and is the most-used icing in the Wilton Course 2 classes. If you have ever eaten those hard, sugary flowers (violets, rosebuds, etc…) on top of cupcakes, they were probably made from royal icing. There are other uses for royal icing that I can get into another time, including using it just to cover cookies, but this is really about royal icing for piped flowers.
So with essentially just THREE ingredients in the recipe, one of which was water, I figured how hard could this be to make?! Well, a lot harder than it should be, and a lot more frustrating than I realized. But this is also a little tale of redemption and how I recognized and fixed the disaster that was my first royal icing nightmare.
Royal icing is much more fickle than you would expect. The instructions I received were as follows:
1 lb sifted powdered (confectioners) sugar
3 level tablespoons Meringue Powder (I use Wilton’s Meringue powder available at Michaels or any baking store)
4-6 tablespoons of lukewarm water
mix at low speed
Sounds easy enough, so how did it all end in tears? (ok, not really, but almost)
First you need to sift your powdered sugar- twice! Ok, a bit of a pain, but not too hard to manage. I had done that- check. Add Meringue powder, again simple enough. Now this was the part I was warned about… the water. You don’t want to add too much water, otherwise you will have watery royal icing and you will not be able to pipe with it. I still ended up using 6 tablespoons. And after I had all three ingredients in the bowl, it was time to mix. I took my trusty hand mixer and mixed away. It didn’t last that long, the royal icing gets hard, and it gets stuck in the beaters. I thought I had mixed it enough according to my directions. So before my hand mixer broke, I stopped, colored it and put it in airtight containers. And THAT was my critical error.
This is what the royal icing looked liked.
This is what royal icing SHOULD NOT look like
When I went to class, my teacher told me my icing was too dry. She added some water and stirred it in. When I went to pipe it, it was fairly stiff, but then the shape did not hold, so I ended up getting flowers that looked as if they had melted in the heat.
This is what flowers look like when your royal icing is not the right consistency
Of course at this point I did not understand what I had done wrong. I thought the teacher had just added too much water. So I made the recipe again, this time making it worse (yes, this is possible). Instead of using my hand mixer, I tried to mix the entire batch of icing by HAND.
Somehow something I thought was bad, got even worse! Have you ever tried to pipe cement? Because frankly, this felt like PIPING CEMENT! I burst 3 bags and had massive cramps in my hand. I swore and thought I would never pipe a flower again. It was the most frustrating day of my short-lived baking days. I felt defeated and incompetent and frankly I couldn’t understand why anyone would use this stuff- – -ah, the misery.
But then I got a bit of sleep and did something clever…. I googled it. Thankfully some others had written blogs and responded to online questions before me and it turns out you really do need an electric mixer to make royal icing. But I would say not only do you need an electric mixer, I would GET A STAND MIXER! I REPEAT- GET A STAND MIXER!!!
So, I dumped my cement mixture (aka disaster of royal icing) into my trusty Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Using the PADDLE ATTACHMENTS I just let the glorious mixer do its job. My advice to anyone in this process is to SET THE MIXER ON AND WALK AWAY (really)… go to the bathroom… do SOMETHING that takes about 5 minutes or so. (But if you do go to the bathroom, please don’t forget to wash your hands!) EVENTUALLY the icing will mix well enough to look smooth, almost fluffy and it will form stiff peaks.
Redemption! Turn off the mixer and check the icing. If the peaks droop, mix a bit more, if they stand up without drooping (stiff peaks) you are golden.
almost ready, but not quite
Finished mixing and ready to go!
(Tip: If you have in fact added too much water, just toss in a bit more powered sugar and that will help to fix the icing)
Fill your bag with this soft, luscious, easy-to-pipe icing and make your favorite flowers. They will be much easier to pipe and will stiffen up and look beautiful.
Assorted flowers piped with royal icing
Tip: While piping, I would have a zip-lock bag nearby. When you are not using one of your bags, put it in the bag and seal it to prevent the icing from drying out, becoming hard and unusable. If your tips have hardened icing in them, just put them in a cup of hot water and the icing will dissolve and the tips will be clean in no time and with little effort.
The Cake Cutie 