In the mean time, I'll fill you in on my newest undertaking, pie pops and cake pops!
First we'll start with pie pops. How cute are these!!!
When I saw them on Bakerella, I just HAD to make them. There were no if's, ands, or buts about it. For my first attempt, I just used store bought pie crust and cherry pie filling. I did take note of what Bakerella had to say in her post about these - she wanted more filling. I decided to chop up the cherries in hopes I could get more filling in the pop. A valiant effort, I must say. Next time I make these cute buggers, I'll go up a size in my cookie cutter so I can get more filling inside and still chop up the cherries. I'll even try them with pecan pie filling. Mmmmm...I can taste them now. This may be a Sunday to-do if I'm bored.
They're simple to make and quite self explanatory. Once I got into the groove of things, I got them together fairly quickly. As suggested, the best way to seal these pops was by using a piece of the lollipop stick. All you have to do is cut, stick, fill and seal! Bake for about 12 minutes and voila...pie pops!
Now, I've done cake balls before, so cake pops weren't totally new for me. I may even like making them better than cake balls because I think it's easier to get a smoother and more even coating. The flavor of the day was mocha! I made these for my good friend Kortney, who was moving out to California last week. She loves my mocha cupcakes, so mocha cake pops were an obvious choice! I have to send her off properly, right?
I had recently bought Bakerella's "Cake Pops" book, and appreciate all the tips she provided:
- Adding in some Crisco when melting the candy coating - this allows for a thinner consistency that's easier to work with
- When dipping, tap the wrist holding the cake pop in order to cleanly drip off any excess coating
For this batch, I used dark cocoa candy coating and white vanilla candy coating. Since Kortney's slightly obsessed with sprinkles, it was a given these were going to take a dive in those! I used small candy bags to cover them and tied them off with purple ribbon. In a linen covered box filled with purple paper grass, I laid the pops nicely, alternating directions so they weren't too piled on top of each other. I tied off the box with a good amount of purple tulle as a reminder of our tutu obsession, and called it a day!
I'm very happy with the outcome of these and can't wait to make more, in different types of shapes, of course! I will be sure to keep you all posted on my cake pops progress. :)
Happy baking!
