Let me start out by saying, "I am NO Bakerella!" If you don't know who I'm talking about, you are missing out on one of the neatest and sweetest crazes of the baking world.
Bakerella has developed an amazing new technique to put cake on a stick with her Cake Pops.
And she has caused an addiction in my family! My kids LOVE cake pops. We look for any excuse to have them.
"It's your Birthday! Let's make Cake Pops!"
"It's your turn to bring treats for soccer. Let's make Cake Pops!"
"It's a Monday. Let's make Cake Pops!"
It's an addiction. They are a little time consuming and messy, but OH SO worth it in the end.
Since we are having a Super Bowl football party, we had to make cake balls in the shape of footballs. What better way to enjoy the game than with a little cake, frosting, and chocolate?
So, I'm going to share how I made these yummy treats today, but just remember, we make these to eat, not always for looks. And I've realized that making and decorating these is a talent that you need to practice to get better at. (Oh shucks, is that a reason to make more Cake Pops?)
Start off your cake pops by making a regular cake mix from your favorite box cake. Let it cool.
When it's cool, cut it in to fourths. Take each section of cake and crumble into as little pieces as possible. Bakerella recommends rubbing the two pieces of cake together so they crumble apart from the friction.
Once crumbled, add about 1/2 a can of your favorite frosting to the cake and hand mix it in. You don't want to add the whole frosting can as it will make the mix too wet.
Now, comes the fun part.
Take out a small section of cake dough. It depends upon how big you want your cake balls, but a 1 inch section is pretty good. (I'm not very regular with my sizes, so go with the flow!)
Now roll your cake and frosting section into a ball.
For footballs, I then take my ball and roll it into a cylinder shape by rolling it as if you were making a snake. You don't want to make it too thin, just enough to give you less of a ball shape and more of a cylinder.
Now flatten your cylinder just a little, and press the ends into the shape of a football.
I like to place my footballs onto a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer for a few minutes. This firms the cake ball up and is easier for the next stages.
While the pops are in the freezer, melt your chocolate. I use chocolate wafers and melt them at 50% power in my microwave for 2 minutes at a time.
When your chocolate is ready, remove the cake balls from freezer.
I don't usually put my cake balls on sticks, since it just slows down the eating process for my kids and seems like a waste, but since we are making them for a "REAL" party, I went ahead and added them.
To do this, dip the end of your stick into a little bit of chocolate and push into the underside of a football cake ball.
Then dip into the chocolate. (Since I don't have any fancy deep dipping bowls, I usually dip one side and then turn it over to dip the other. If I am running low on chocolate, I spoon the chocolate onto the sides and bottom areas.)
Now tap off the excess chocolate back into the bowl. Although it wears on your hand after a while, the best way to do this, is to hold your stick over the bowl and tap your hand. This keeps the pressure down on your cake ball so it won't fall off the stick.
When you've got as much off as you can, place your cake pop in a Styrofoam block to let it dry and firm up.
Once the football is firm, you can use white chocolate or more frosting to add the laces. I used a Betty Crocker frosting tube because it's what I had on hand and made it pretty easy.
Once your footballs are done, you can place into individual bags to keep them until the BIG day (if they last that long) or in an air tight container.
At your Super Bowl party, serve these to your guests with little pennant banners on the bottom for a fun extra touch!
I think I DEFINITELY need to go practice more. (YUM!)
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