Cake Pops for Baby Shower

It's a boy!
Just a few weeks before the birth of her baby boy, a baby shower for my friend Richa was arranged. I got the task of making Cake Pops for this event. It turned out more complicated than I expected but the cakes were an absolute crowd-pleaser so it was worth it.

Cake Pops are so American… unusual shape for the cake and a lot of decoration. As a typical European girl I did not want to use a shortcut so I made everything from the scratch… no cake mix and canned icing. Also, decoration with weird colors was out of the question, I stuck to the classic one.
 
In Starbucks they sell cake pops under the name Petites. They cost at about $1.50 each. Using this recipe you can make around 70 balls, the same size as those in Starbucks, so that is quite a good value.

And they are quite tasty. Actually addictive. Recipes for the cake and icing were taken from the net.



The ingredients for the cake:

195g (1 ¾ cups) flour
85g (3/4 cup) good quality cocoa powder (Ghirardelli)
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
225g (1 cup) sugar
2 eggs
235ml (1 cup) milk
170ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
235ml (1 cup) boiling water

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Place the parchment paper in the pan. 
In a bowl sift flour and cocoa. Add baking powder and soda and salt. In another bowl with an electrical mixer beat eggs, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Then add the dry to the wet ingredients, spoon by spoon. Finally, stir into the batter boiling water. Pour the batter into the pan and bake it for 30-35 minutes.
When the cake is done take it out, and then place it on the rack to cool down completely.



In the meantime make the cream cheese icing.

Ingredients for the icing:
 
60g butter, at room temperature
225g (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
200g powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Mix everything with the electrical mixer on low speed.




Below are the most important stages in making cake pops. I took photographs of them to be easily followed.

1.    After the cake was baked and cooled

2.    and the cream cheese icing was made too,

3.    Crumble the cake with your hands and add it to the icing.

4.    Mix it well using your hands.

 

5.    Scoop the cake mix with an ice cream spoon to get the same sized balls, and roll the balls with the palm of your hands. Put them on the lollipop sticks. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for a few hours.

6.    Melt 350g of good quality chocolate (Ghirardelli) in a heatproof glass bowl over a pan with simmering water, as shown. I first tried white chocolate which was not a good idea because it was too transparent. So I switched to the dark one.

7.    Before we cover the entire balls with chocolate, dip the tops of sticks in melted chocolate and put them back in the ball holes. Return the balls to the freezer for at least 1 hour. This way, the balls won’t fall from the sticks when dipping into the chocolate.
Warm the chocolate. Dip each ball in the melted chocolate (cover it completely), and swirl it around and tap with one hand until the excess chocolate falls off. Place the chocolate balls with sticks on the Styrofoam, as shown.

8.    When the chocolate has cooled, swirl royal icing over the balls. You can decorate them in so many ways, this is my version.

9.    For the rest of decoration you need: Styrofoam, colored shiny paper, border, yellow flower and a blue ribbon for bows (because it is a boy), as shown.

My friend Ana has made chocolate mustaches on a stick. And if you think that cake pops are too complicated, then mustaches are right for you. I found them very sweet.

Below is the picture of Richa ... going through the things she got for her boy who will be born soon.