Cake Pops!

I'm so excited to be able to finally write this post! After what feels like months of looking at various food blogs, I finally got round to making my own cake pops - yaaaaaaay! Cake pops are originally an American specialty, but the trend has caught on in the UK, and now people are really starting to get creative with various shapes and coatings. For those of you who are unaware, cake pops resemble old fashioned lollipops, with sponge cake inside and coated with either chocolate or candy melts. Yum!

My friend Beth (From The Pastel Girl) and I decided to spend a lazy day off from University baking, and got so carried away we forgot to take plenty of pictures. But here is the general gist of how they turned out and how we made them!

For 16 cake pops you will need: 

Sponge
 - 70g softened butter or margarine
- 70g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 70g self-raising flour
- A drop of milk

Coating
- Half a packet of candy melts
- Cake pop moulds
- Candy pop sticks
- Whatever decorations you like!

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and lightly grease the cake pop moulds.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, followed by mixing in the egg and vanilla extract.
3.Fold in the flour using a large spoon, and add a tiny drop of milk to ensure the mixture is the right consistency to be spooned into the moulds.
4. Spoon the mixture into the bottom half of the moulds*, and pop into the oven for 15-18 minutes.
5. Once removed from the oven, pop a skewer into the hole in the top half of the moulds and if it comes out clean, remove them from the moulds to cool.
6. Gently melt the candy melts in the microwave, dip one end of the sticks into the melt mixture and insert into the cake pops. Wait five minutes for the melt mixture to dry.

7. From there, you can go a bit crazy! Gently coat the cake pops in the candy melt, followed by adding any decoration you like (We used sprinkles, chocolate flakes and chocolate drops!). Leave to dry standing up.

And there you have it! I don't think it could have gone any better. It was so simple to do, and so much fun to make. I'm now tempted to buy different mould shapes and experiment with different coloured candy melts to create presents or just as a treat for myself! If your stuck for something to do one rainy day or need a simple activity for the kids over the weekend, this is something I definitely recommend.


*You are able to make cake-pops without moulds, simply cook the sponge as you would for a regular sponge cake, and crumble up the cooked cake in a bowl with the buttercream/icing (which will act as the glue to hold the balls together!), then simply mould into balls and leave to set!