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Baby Girl Cake Pops for Amy and Heidi



Really, go to the Bakerella site as she is definitely the master. For making a cake pop the first time, this is about as easy as it gets.... but it is not easy. Even as easy as it gets. So, I did include my learning in this post and here.
Course Sweet Treat
Cuisine American
Servings 48 cake pops
Author Valerie Lugonja via Bakerella

Ingredients

Supplies Needed:

  • 520 g box cake mix
  • 9 x13 cake pan
  • Two baking sheets
  • Parchment paper
  • Large mixing bowl
  • 455 g homemade icing
  • 1.365 K or 48 oz candy coating (colour of cake pop ball
  • Wide tall glass or cylindrical Wreck canning jar (microwave proof)
  • 48 lollipop sticks
  • Styrofoam block

Ingredients for Homemade Icing:

  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Ingredients for Decorating Baby Faces

  • 48 round pink flat cake sprinkle discs for cheeks
  • brown and black edible pen
  • 24 Wilton mini daisies for hair
  • 24 pink beads from candy necklaces as part of soother
  • 24 teeny tiny miniature marshmallows as part of soother
  • pink ribbon

Instructions

Timeline:

  1. Day One: bake the cake
  2. Day Two: make the icing and the cake balls and freeze them
  3. Day Three: dip the cake balls
  4. Day Four: decorate the cake pops
  5. Day Five: play with them a little before storing them for the big event

Preparation for making the Cake Balls:

  1. Bake cake as directed on box using rectangular cake pan; cool completely
  2. Line baking sheets with parchment
  3. Gently crumble cooled cake into large bowl until completely "crummy"!
  4. Add 3/4 homemade icing to crumbled cake; set aside remainder for another use
  5. Combine thoroughly into crumbled cake with hands; cake balls must remain "cakey" not wet or doughy in texture, so avoid the urge to use the remaining icing

Making the Icing:

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until thick and voluminous

Rolling the Balls:

  1. Roll into 48 balls 1 1/2-in in diameter; place each on parchment covered baking sheets
  2. Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap; chill for several hours in the refrigerator: balls must be firm, but not frozen

Preparing for Dipping:

  1. Place 455g or 1/3 of candy coating in the tall deep microwave-safe glass or jar (for dipping the cake pops); tall narrow containers enable complete immersion of the cake balls into candy coating without burning fingers (coating should be at least 3 inches deep)
  2. Melt candy coating, following instructions on package (microwave on medium power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each interval) Make sure you do not overheat

Dipping the Cake Balls:

  1. Take a few cake balls out of fridge at a time; keeping rest chilled
  2. One at a time, dip about 1/2 inch tip of lollipop stick into melted coating; insert straight into cake ball, pushing it no more than halfway through
  3. Hold lollipop stick with ball attached; dip entire cake ball into melted candy coating until completely covered
  4. Remove it in one motion
  5. Make sure coating meets at the base of the lollipop stick (this helps secure cake to stick when the coating sets); completely cover cake ball and remove it without submerging it in coating more than once. (If you resubmerge cake pop, it will be top heavy enough to drop into coating and need to be fished out): see Notes Section for thinner coating

Tips to Avoid Drips and coax the coating to the Lollipop Stick:

  1. When removing cake pop from candy coating, excess coating may drip: hold pop in one hand, using the other to gently tap the first wrist. Rotate lollipop stick if necessary to allow excess to fall off evenly, so one side doesn’t get heavier than the other. If you didn’t completely dunk the cake pop, this method of tapping and rotating generally takes care of that. The coating will slowly slide down the surface of the cake ball until it reaches the lollipop stick.

Too much Coating on the Base:

  1. Wipe excess off by placing finger on stick right under cake ball, rotating the pop, allowing any excess coating to fall off and back into the bowl. When most of the excess coating has fallen off and no longer dripping, stick the cake pop into the Styrofoam block to dry
  2. Repeat with the remaining cake balls and let the pops dry completely in the Styrofoam block.

Decorating the Cake Pops:

  1. Ah!!! I am tired of writing instructions and I am certain you are tired of reading them! I will add a link for the hair flower in the notes section. Biggest advice: Start with the smile. Keep in mind you will glue one pink rosy cheek on the end of each side of the smile.
  2. While using the brown pen, continue with a curl in the middle of the forehead coming from the top centre of the ball down to above where a nose might be
  3. Prepare the soothers before placing them on each ball: glue tiny piece of marshmallow into centre of each bead; set aside
  4. Glue the cheeks onto each face while the soothers set
  5. Once all soothers are done, glue one in the middle of each mouth; at the same time, glue the flower on each head, a little to the side
  6. Leave the eyes for last; breath, and place one tiny little dot per eye (don't go back to do anything with that dot!)
  7. Tie little pink bows around the top of the stick just under each little chin to finish each pop
  8. Enjoy the individual little personalities that emerge from homely to adorable: such fun!
  9. Arrange them in a vase filled with styrofoam and garnished with green paper Easter grass; use tissue paper to hide the styrofoam.

Recipe Notes

About the Cake:
Bake the cake the day before, and let it cool overnight. Then form balls the following day; refrigerating them over night
Make pops following day
Other Tips
Use toothpick to encourage coating to cover exposed areas
Make sure cake balls are chilled and firm when dipping; if at room temperature, they will fall off sticks into candy coating
The thinner the consistency of your coating, the easier it will be to coat cake pops; add some vegetable oil or paramount crystals to thin it
Poke holes in Styrofoam block 2 inches apart before dipping
Skin Colour
For 24 pops, 200 white melts, 3-5 pink melts and 2-3 orange melts will be perfect and do them all; I added brown which was definitely a mistake
Wilton Hair Flowers
These can be found in all colours here and in white, as used in these cake pops, here.