Monday, December 19, 2011

Babycakes Cake Pop Maker

Kristi and I exchanged Christmas gifts last week before she left to visit her family in OH. I thought that I had given her some pretty spot on gifts... until I opened mine. Homegirl knows meway too well!

She gave me a Babycakes cake pop maker, a double tier collapsible cake/cupcake carrier, a cupcake/cake decorating icing kit (with tons of tips, etc. -- pic to come later), and a giraffe wisk!

(Can you guys tell that I like to bake?)


While Kristi is away, I am watching her furry child, Carter.

Sir Carter


Anyways, since it was cold and I didn't really want to do much, I decided to crack into the Babycakes box and make some treats for my coworkers. And boy was this an adventure! I will preface this post by saying that the cake pop making was the easiest part of all. The maker really does make it so quick and easy.

The maker came with a recipe book (other recipes are also found online) and I, of course, chose to make red velvet cake pops. The batter was simple to make and yielded about 3 dozen pops. I also made some chocolate pops but those weren't as tasty as the red velvet, in my opinion.


Chocolate balls, post baking.


Red velvet balls cooling in the tray.


Red velvet balls preparing to be stuck!


Balls become pops.


Notes:
1. It says to place one tablespoon in each divot. I found that to be a little too much so don't go crazy with the batter in there. If it overflows, that is ok. As you can see from my pictures, the overflow easily detaches from the balls.
2. I highly recommend using the removing tool that comes with the kit! It's a little wired prong instrument that doesn't look like it can do much but trust me - it does!
3. In order to get the sticks to stay inside of the balls and not move around when icing (more on that in a bit), dip the sticks in melted chocolate/icing before placing the stick in the ball. Once you have a few balls with sticks, place them in the fridge/freezer for about 5 minutes.

Now, on to the icing...

You can make your own icing if you want. If you're crazy. Or you can just buy the Wilton candy chips and melt them like I did.


In sticking (haha, no pun intended) with the holiday theme, I chose green candy melts (vanilla flavored) to coat my red velvet pops. I placed about 1/3 of the bag into this small little pot that came with my larger crock pot. I'm not even sure what it's called but I know that it was made specifically for me to melt chocolate and candy. It's just so cute!



This pot only has one setting but it doesn't get too hot; just hot enough to melt the candies and keep them melted. I do, however, recommend stirring this occasionally - especially if you're not going to use it right away. Also be sure to keep adding chips as you use the icing. I found that when you only have a few chips in the pot that it gets too hot. DUH.

So now you can remove your pops from the fridge/freezer and dip them in the icing/melts that you have in your pot. Because the sticks are frozen into the cake balls, you won't have to worry about the sticks spinning inside of the balls while you're trying to coat them.

I also added sprinkles to my pops just for giggles. Plus it made them prettier :)



Then I decided that I needed to package these suckers if I was going to distribute them to coworkers. I took pieces of saran wrap and cut them into 4x4 inch squares and wrapped the pop in them. I then took some thin red ribbon and tied a bow at the base of the pop.



Now, aren't those just the cutest things that you've seen in your entire life?!?!

No? Ok, well, I bet they're at least close.

I've only talked to one worker about these pops and she was pretty excited about them. I don't think she ate it yet but she at least liked the packaging. If I weren't such a dessert fanatic, I would think that they were almost too pretty to eat.

Tonight I plan on icing the chocolate cake balls with white Wilton candy melts. I'll be sure to let you know how those turn out (because I know you'll be up all night wondering...).

Happy holidays, y'all!



2 comments:

  1. OMG. I make these red velvet cake balls for every event/party I have (but I don't have that fancy new piece of equipment - I have to do it by hand). I love them so much, which is probably why I'm such a fatty! They are soooooooooooo good!!!

    ReplyDelete