{Cake Balls/ Cake Pops 101}

How to make my ever favorite CAKE POPS! Or in this case, Cake Balls. I had intended to make them two days ahead of time for Courtenay's baby shower, although, Baby Cash came pretty early and she actually delivered him on the day her shower was supposed to be. I know I have posted the recipe before although it was a long time ago so I'm trying my hand at it again.

{1} Get yourself your favorite Latte or Tea Misto or in this extra early morning case, a jam packed smoothie with oats, cranberry juice, blackberry, blueberry, flax seeds, and a little peach yogurt. Then I drink it with a bright purple straw just to make it extra fun. 

{2} You will need  ...
Cake Mix (any flavor really, but most times I stick with chocolate or vanilla.

One Can of Frosting (any flavor but I prefer the regular vanilla frosting. This time around I used the Whipped Cream Cheese flavor and it wasn't quite as yummy as I thought).

Melting Chocolate (Tip: Go to Walmart and buy the exact bag pictured below for $3 or so rather than buying it bulk. This chocolate melted WAY easier than any other I've bought and it was far cheaper. You can find it in the back isles where all the Cake decorating and Martha Stewart stuff is. P.S. Buy the white if you plan to dye it or buy the chocolate if you don't).

Colored Dye for your White Melting Chocolate if you plan on coloring it.

A baking sheet lined with parchment paper (just to make your life a little easier, although you could technically  lye the balls on a plate if you needed to). 

Pot for boiling water plus a mixing bowl to heat over the boiling water for melting your chocolate.

{3} Bake the cake as directed and be sure to let it cool completely. Don't worry about making it pretty because you're about to destroy it once it's done!

{4} Once the cake is cooled, using your hands, crumble it to tiny pieces. This is the best part! Transfer it all into a big mixing bowl. 

{5} Begin adding your canned frosting. Start with half the can and if it's still looking pretty dry, add a little more. I used 3/4 of a can for this batch and it was perfect. (Tip: Homemade frosting would be delicious as well. Whatever you have time for really). Use your hands to mash the 'dough' all together. It's a messy job but your hands are your best tool for this treat. It should look something like this below! If your dough is feeling a little too moist, pop it (bowl and all) in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes while you get things together for your next step. The harder your dough, the easier your dipping job will be so a little freezer time is usually a good idea either way. 

{5} Depending on how moist your dough is, you may want to do this next step now or wait till it's sat in the fridge or freezer for half hour or so. In any case, you will need to use your hands to form ball shapes like this! It is a little time consuming so this is why I suggested putting the dough in the freezer to harden it up so it gets soft a little less quickly. 

{6} Get together your double broiler or in this case, just a small heat resistant bowl sitting above a pot of simmering water. Keep the temperature on medium. Not too high, not too low.

{7} Add a handful of your Melting Chocolate at a time and stir until melted. It should look super soft so always start with your temperature low!

If you are using Lollipop Sticks, you'll want to stick them into the Cake Balls now. If you are sticking to the simple Cake Balls, you'll go ahead with dipping one ball at a time in the chocolate. This use to be the trickiest part for me. It can be a little tough until you find what works for you. I usually use one big spoon (like the one I was stirring the chocolate with pictured above). You need to do this all pretty quickly, so that your ball doesn't get too mushy. So you want to place the ball in the chocolate, and GENTLY pour lots of chocolate over top of it until it appears to be covered. You then transfer the chocolate covered ball to your wax covered baking sheet. This is also when I would add your sprinkles if you are using them! If you decide you want to drizzle another colored chocolate or sauce on them, that can be done at any point so letting them dry first is actually better. They come off of the wax paper perfectly so don't worry about them sticking even though they look as though they will. 

Place them on a pretty platter or cake stand to make them extra presentable. I wound up not going all out because we found out we were needing to cancel Courtenay's shower. So I got off easy and just popped them into a container and brought them to her hospital room for them to snack on. Of course, I saved a few for us. They are to die for ... I added coconut shavings to some just to try something new. I had planned on dying some of them light blue, but by that time, I realized I was out of blue. Keep in mind, you can make your dough ahead of time, days even. In fact, because I found out we were cancelling the shower, I wound up stopping my Cake Ball production that day and I rolled the rest of the dough into a ball and packed it into the freezer for the next time I want to make some. Hopefully the next time will be for Courtenay's REAL shower which I'm assuming will be sometime when Cash comes home from the hospital. He is doing so well so I'm sure he is well on his way!

I hope someone found this helpful!

xoxo