Cake pops

It's cake pop time! :D

On my personal list of top desserts, cake pops are second (right behind cupcakes) cutest desserts in the world. I bet most of you already know the undeniable cake pop queen - Bakerella, who made them (and herself, too ;)) famous through her book and website. Basically cake pops are small balls of cake set on a lollipop sticks, covered in coating :) Bakerella makes them in almost all the shapes in the world: not only balls, but also hearts, mini-birthday-cakes, animals, cartoon characters - to name just a few - and my favourite of favourites - cupcake-shaped cake pops (surprise, surprise ;)). Her ideas are endless...

Yeah...so below you can find a basic cake pop recipe. Since Bakerella uses ready made cake mixes, I used the proportions for the "raw" ingredients from here and here. I did need a bit more chocolate for the coating, though. Oh! And do watch Bakerella's video on how to properly coat a cake pop. Trust me, just do it.

Serves: 20 cake pops. Preparation: about 45 min. Refrigeration: 45 min.

Equipment:

- bowl,

- small bowl,

- baking tin,

- 2 saucepans,

- mixer (optional),

- 20 lollipop sticks,

- glass or mug (best if narrow at base),

- cling film,

- baking paper,

- teaspoon,

- Styrofoam block

Ingredients:

- 400g of your favourite (dry) cake (it can be sponge cake, chocolate cake, etc.),

- 120g cream cheese,

- 80g chocolate peanut butter,

- 250g chocolate (milk or dark) for the coating,

- 1 tbsp sunflower oil,

- sprinkles

Method:

Make some room in your freezer :)

Crumble the cake into a bowl.

In the smaller bowl, mix together the cream cheese and chocolate peanut butter.

Mix thoroughly the cake with the just made icing (a mixer might come in handy), form the mixture into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and put into the freezer for 15 min.

Line the tray with baking paper.

Take teaspoonfuls of cake and form into balls of about 3 cm in diameter; place them on the tray.

Put the tray into the freezer for 15 min.

Fill one pan up halfway with water and heat it until it begins to simmer.

Finely chop the chocolate and put into the other pan, along with the sunflower oil.

Stir the mixture over the pan with gently simmering water, making sure the water is not touching the bottom of the saucepan. Stir until all the chocolate melts.

Pull out the cake balls from the freezer.

Dip the tip of a lollipop stick in the chocolate coating and insert it in the cake balls (a little less than halfway).

Place them again on the tin, and again put them into the freezer for 15 min.

During this time the chocolate coating will probably cool, so you'll have to melt it once more.

Pour the chocolate coating to a glass/mug.

Pull out the cake pops from the freezer and dip them in the coating (hope you watched the video before doing this ;)), NEVER stir, and delicately tap off the excess.

Sprinkle each cake pop immediately after covering them in coating.

Place them in a Styrofoam to dry.

It's best you keep them in the fridge.