I made my first cake pops today.

Some red and green Christmas cheer via cake pops

I may be a bit behind the trends but at least I bought the trays a little while ago!

My son’s birthday is next month and I am planning some themed cake pops for his party so I figured I should have a trial run or two first. Thus, I made some cake pops today.

Of course, as a test run, I didn’t touch his birthday theme and gave them a Christmassy touch instead!

They were fun to make and easy enough with my children so this could be a fun activity to build up the Christmas excitement during December.

My cake pop tips…

So here’s what I learned today…

1. fill the holes to about level. On the plus side, if you over fill them you simply get cute little mushroom caps that easily come off the tin to leave perfect cake balls.
2. cake pops cook quickly which was great for my three year old helper. She wasn’t so keen on the waiting-for-them-to-cool-down phase though! Use that time to prepare any decorations. If you want lots of cake pops, the quick cooking time would be a bonus.
3. make sure your icing is quite thick (and maybe even starting to set). Mine was pretty thick I thought and it covered the balls well but as they sat to set, much of the icing slowly dripped away…
   

   Initially, the icing stayed put but after a few minutes it pooled onto the plate…

4. think ahead of time and have a means of standing your cake pops upright as they dry. An old bit of packaging could do the trick or some firm cardboard with holes poked through. Although you can lay the cake pops on a plate or some greaseproof paper, the finished result is less even.
5. a little icing on the stick will hold it in place better than just putting the stick into the cake ball. This is almost instantly better actually.
6. you will probably not be able to have the stick placed to best show off each ball (ie seams will be amongst decorations at the top) if you have little people helping you insert the sticks… My four year old was very proud to help but he couldn’t care less where he shoved the sticks!

My Christmassy Cake Pops…

I made a batch of my usual easy cake mixture and had left overs from the cake pop tray. That is, a batch of cake pops needs less cake mixture than a standard sized cake.

Simply mix 1 cup self-raising flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons milk, 125g butter (melted is easiest) and 2 tablespoons of cocoa.

As cake pops, cook for 15-20 minutes at 180.

Remove from oven and trays. Let cool.

Insert stick.

Coat in green icing (I used yoghurt, icing sugar and green food dye) – best results by tipping the bowl on its side and rolling the cake around.

Decorate with small pieces of red lolly snakes.

Voila!