Cake Pops

 I love cooking, but especially baking so when my friend Sophie, who blogs over at SophieSays suggested spending an afternoon making cake pops there was no way I could say no.

If you have no idea what cake pops are they are basically small round sponges on sticks dipped in candy melts or icing and then decorated. This American trend has really started to spread in the last couple of years and cake pops and baking sets are just appearing everywhere. I've watched TV programmes where chefs have made cake pops and I always thought they were too difficult to make at home but I was proved wrong.

What you'll need

• Cake pop molds - these are available in most cooking shops or you can buy them online
• Cake pop sticks

Ingredients (enough for 16 cake pops)

Sponge Mix

• 70g margarine/butter
• 70g self-raising flour
• 70g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp milk

Coating

• 1/2 bag of candy melts
• A variety of sprinkles and toppings (we used chocolate ones)

Recipe

• Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth
• Beat in the egg and then add the flour and vanilla extract. Combine all the ingredients together until you have a smooth batter, if the mix is too thick then add the milk to make a dropable batter
• Spoon the mixture into one half of the cake pop molds,  place the other half of the mold on top and bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-18 minutes
• When the cake pops are completely cool, gently melt the candy melts in the microwave until liquid. Take a cake pop stick, dip into the candy melts and stick into the bottom of the cake pop. Stand them unpside down until the candy melt is dry

When the cake pops are completely cool, dip a stick into the candy melts and insert into the cake pop. Leave stood upside down to dry
Photograph: SophieSays

• Take the cake pop and coat it in candy melt and decorate with sprinkles, leave stood up to dry (this will take up to 5 minutes)

Our finished and decorated cake pops - delicious
Photograph: SophieSays

Of course, you can get really artistic with your cake pops and buy different molds, use food dye to colour the sponge, use different flavourings and decorations. It's all up to you.

 

So what do you think? Will you be making cake pops any time soon or have you already made some?

Beth & Sophie xx