Making cake pops

[bacon]

Cant find much info on british sites.

The cake can be any type but its the binding agent that I need help with - buttercream, melted chocolate etc which works the best?

I'm going to start with just basic chocolate covering - any tips on coverage.

I plan to do a simple birthday cake with pops sticking out of the top.

Can you buy the sticks on the highstreet?

I have no idea what a cake pop is but think i might like them... Is it like a cake lollypop?

Whats a cake pop?(wonders if everyone knows except me)

enlighten us!

www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/

www.popbakery.co.uk/gallery/

Apparently its the "new" in thing - moving on from cupcakes.

hmmmm why don't they show one cut open or did I miss that

Hmm...i'm on phone so can't cut and paste links so still no idea.

But i thought whoopy pie was the new cupcake. Source:r4 food programme.

oh had a nosey, they look good but too fiddly for me

pops/ here

and here

Simon Rimmer made some on Something for the Weekend. Recipe here.

Ooh these look fantastic!!!

DS has a football party coming up next month, how cool would 12 little footballs be??

Do let me know if you source the sticks. I will have a look too.

taffeta you can get the sticks on ebay

Thanks Mister Baker but I have to make them myself otherwise the other mothers will never speak to me again

Thanks Plum, shall have a look on ebay tonight

Thank you so much bacon for putting me onto cake pops. I have just made my first batch for a do this weekend and they are fabulous!

I used bought Sainsbo's madeira cake ( on special offer atm ), mixed in food processor with 2 tablespoons Betty Crocker Choc Fudge Frosting.

Then I formed them into balls and froze for 30 mins. Then I melted white choc buttons and mixed half the melted mix with blue coloured edible dusting colour and half with pink. NB you can't use normal liquid food colouring because the water content seizes up the choc. I then dipped lollipop sticks into the melted choc and then into the ball, halfway. Then I coated each stick and had a whale of a time with toppings, including sparkle dust, white choc stars and multicoloured sugar balls. I stuck them in polystyrene blocks to dry as per a tip on youtube.

They are great!

oh and by the way I got the sticks, polystyrene, sparkle dust and dusting colours from here

My son's birthday party is in 4 weeks' time.

I love MN

Thanks...............

If anyone's interested I found this blog which has a couple of English cake pop recipes on it.

Surely you can use any butter frosting? I wouldnt want to buy a whole tub of the icing (if I remember its pretty discusting)??

Yes absolutely you can use buttercream - I was being lazy. tbh, with everything else thats going on flavourwise, the icing/buttercream gets lost a bit anyway.

The BBC Good Food link is now dead (grrr - day after all my lollipop sticks and bags arrived from Ebay!) here is the recipe (from memory, but seems to have worked okay!):

100g dark chocolate, melted
2 tbs dessicated coconut
2 tbs chopped hazelnuts
100g each of madeira and fruit cake, crumbled

150g-200g of white chocolate for topping.

Mix dark chocolate, coconut, hazelnuts and crumbled cake, form balls. Insert sticks. Refridgerate for 20-30 minutes or until firm. Cover in white chocolate and decorate as required.

Have your drying place ready. And don't accidentally burn your white chocolate in the micro, seems to melt quicker than dark. Yes, I speak from experience - whoops!

Personally, I used a brandy soaked fruit cake and it was perhaps a little rich. Sure you could just use all madeira (or maybe chocolate?) and it'd be fine.

Decorations - I bought some expensive pink glimmer sugar from Sainsburys. Looked really good. Then I made my own blue version (but pink would be easy too) by adding a few drops of food colouring to some preserving sugar and mixing to desired colour - if too pale, add more colouring, if too bold, add more sugar. Granulated would be fine too, but I didn't have any in. Costs a fraction of the price too.

Oh, and worth bearing in mind that the hazelnuts and fruit can make things a bit bumpier than usual - if you're after a super smoooth finish, then you might have to either double dip (before adding decorations) or just use a plain sponge and no bits.

:)

Well, dd will be getting these as a birthday cake! Brilliant!

I made some last week, after reading about them here. I got some lolly sticks from Hobbycraft and used a madeira cake for the sticks with some Betty Crocker frosting as the binding medium - that seemed to work fine as a first attempt. Like the idea of adding dessicated coconut - I think this is one of those things you can really play with.

Happy to share two important tips not mentioned above:

1. Add shavings of trex or veg fat to your chocolate or candy melts to get smoother finish (this makes it way better for dipping).
2. Buy a block of oasis from the florist and wrap in clingfilm to stand your pops in. They're a pain in the backside in mugs or my previous method, son's Play Doh pots.

Happy Cake Popping!!