Cake Pops!

Have you ever been walking through a coffee shop and see “Cake Pops” in the display case? Follow this recipe, and I’ll show you how to make these DELICIOUS cake pops at home! These are a super great treat for a birthday party for kids! They aren’t very big and don’t require a LOT of cleanup either. . .

Ingredients:

1  9-inch vanilla cake layer ( I use Martha Stewart’s Vanilla cake) 

c. 1 ½ C of my Brown Sugar Buttercream (1 stick butter's worth) 

6- 8 oz. semi-sweet candy coating chocolate, melted

½-1 t. vegetable shortening

Other Stuff:

Popsicle sticks (I use 6 in.)

Heated pot for melting candy, I have This one

Large bowl

1 T kitchenspoon

Ungreased cookie sheet

Silpat or parchment

Oasis Foam

Tape

Wrapping Paper

Instructions:

Line an ungreased baking sheet with parchment/silpat.

The order of operations is malleable for sure, BUT if you’re baking the cake the day of this project, be sure that it has time to cool completely before using.  You will have to have part of the chocolate melted to help put the pops together, so I start with chopping and melting about ½ of my chocolate. Meanwhile, you can make the Brown Sugar Buttercream (only about 10 minutes) and break up the cake. Once the cake is broken in to crumbs, you can start to incorporate the buttercream a little at a time. It’s important not to add it all at once, as you may not need it ALL depending on your cake.

Once your cake is incorporated and you have a dough that holds together with what appears as “layers” when some is broken off, you’re ready to form the cake balls. I use a large kitchen spoon (c. 1-1 1/2 T) to break off a bit of the dough; then between cupped palms of my hands, I roll each ball out into as smooth a ball as possible. Take one of the popsicle sticks, dip in the melted chocolate, and put into the bake ball. Place this stick side up on your parchment lined baking sheet. I can get 7 rows of 5 on my sheet. Place your pan into the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill.

While you’re chilling the dough balls, you can work on chopping the rest of the chocolate and thinning it with shortening; you want it to be runny as to help form a smooth layer on the cake balls. Also, you can now prepare your oasis by taping 3 standard blocks together and then wrapping like a present. I had to pre “puncture” my holes just because of the tape. . .

Once your dough is chilled, you can begin dipping the pops! Tip the reservoir and submerge a pop far enough for the melted chocolate to cover all of the dough (my benchmark is if it’s touching the chocolate just around the stick). THEN, pinch the stick with two fingers almost in the chocolate reservoir, with your other hand on the farthest end of the stick from the reservoir, spin back and forth as to get the excess chocolate off of the ball. Invert the stick with the ball up and stick it in your wrapped foam. Let these stand at room temp for about 5 minutes after the last one is finished and then refrigerate for about 30 minutes before a final storage of lying them flat in an airtight container.

IF you want to decorate with a different flavor/color of chocolate with swirls or flowers, they will need to chill again before that time. You will have some that crack. I found that the shortening does help with this response of the temperature change . . .

And in just a couple hours, you have delicious cake pops better than the coffee shop version! Enjoy! 

Will Bake 4 Food RSS

Tart Crust

Have you ever been walking through a pastry shop and for sale is this gorgeous tart with ridges up the side that looks not quite like your average pie? It’s a delicate flaky crust that’s not that hard to make! Here’s how you make this wonderful Pâte Sucrée pastry shell!

Ingredients:

DRY:

10 oz (c. 2 cups not leveled/not heaping) All Purpose Flour

1 oz (c. 1/4 cup) Confectioner's sugar

8 oz Butter (2 sticks-- cold and cubed)

WET:

1 large egg yolk

2 T COLD water 

Other Stuff:

11 inch removable bottom tart pan

rolling pin

large bowl

cling film

baking beans/rice

In a Large bowl, sift and whisk together the flour and confectioner’s sugar

Rub butter into the dry mixture with fingers until the mixture looks like wet sand.

Beat the egg yolk and water together until all “lumps” of yolk are broken, then make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add wet mixture. Incorporate quickly just until it sticks together.

Flatten dough into a disk or a ball, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.  

If dough has chilled longer than than 45 minutes, it will need to sit at room temp for about 3-4 minutes before rolling. Liberally dust a surface with flour and dust your rolling pin as much as possible. Remove disk from fridge and then "wake up the dough.” For the traditional tart, it needs to remain 1/8-1/4 inch thick then rolling back on the pin lift the dough and place over the 11" tart pan then pressing into the form.  Chill for at least  10 minutes in the refrigerator.

During this final chill is when I like to preheat my oven to 375Deg F.

Just before baking, place a two pieces of cling film in the bottom and into the corners edges of the tart shell as much as possible. Make sure to gather all of the cling film to the center over the baking beans (as to not tough any metal) and "blind" bake for 20 minutes, remove your film filled with beads and bake to brown the bottom (about 5 more minutes).

Let cool 15 minutes in pan on a wire wrack before removing. Let cool completely before filling with beautiful pastry cream or whipped cream and fruit. 

Brown Sugar Buttercream

We’ve all known about brown sugar for a while, but have you ever considered applying it to a buttercream before? This is like adding a spice cake to your buttercream repertoire! This is a ratio sort of recipe. I’ve multiplied this by 2 or three depending on need. For a batch of 36 cake pops, this amount goes will with a 9-inch cake!  For Pineapple Up-side-down macarons, you'll only need about half this much. . . Here’s HOW:

Ingredients:

1/2C (1 stick) of butter (salted is what I prefer), room temp

¼ C of dark or light brown sugar, packed, sifted

1 t vanilla extract

* ½ t ground cinnamon

2 C confectioner’s sugar, sifted

* 1-2 T milk

*optional

Other stuff:

Handheld mixer with beaters or stand mixer with paddle attachment

Sifter

Instructions:

Bring your butter to room temperature; it needs to be soft enough to hold an indent when pressed. Break up the butter with the beaters/paddle just a bit so that it’s no longer a stick and then in the bowl. Sift the brown sugar discarding any that may have clumped up. Blend in the brown sugar for 3-4 minutes so that some of the sugar crystals have the opportunity to dissolve in the liquid from the butter. It will remain a little “grainy,” but the flavor, is AMAZING!

Here's a piped version of this buttercream in a French Macaron

After you’ve blended the butter and brown sugar, it’s time to add the vanilla and cinnamon. If you have an allergy to cinnamon, you can totally leave it out. I like to mix these in for a minute or so and then wipe down my beater and my bowl. Now, in the bowl, sift in the confectioner’s sugar. Beat slowly at first until incorporated and then turn the speed up until fully combined and the butter cream is fluffy and smooth (about 2 minutes). Depending on how you’re to apply this buttercream (or eat it out of the bowl), you won’t need any milk! When I use it in macarons or cake pops, I don’t use any milk, because I like it to be a bit more stiff; however, once using it to fill a naked cake, I needed it to be a more “spreadable” consistency, so 1 T milk/stick of butter is what I ended up adding. . . 

That’s all you need for a simple brown sugar American Buttercream! 

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