DIY Cake Pops (What to do with Left Over Cake)

There is RARELY left over cake in my house.  After a birthday party, I usually substitute most meals (meaning ALL meals) with any "left over" cake.  However,  I decided to use some left over cupcakes from my Classy Kitty "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Party to make a Classy Thanksgiving treat:  Cake Pops!  


I LOVE cake pops because they allow guests to enjoy a small treat without the hazards of cake crumbles from a piece of cake or wrapper from a cup cake.  Also, I knew that being Thanksgiving most of my family members would be too full of turkey and pie for a whole piece of cake, a little pop of cake is the perfect solution!  

How To:  Cake Pops

Bill of Materials:

Left Over Cake (or make a cake if you wish!)

Icing

Lollipop Sticks

Chocolate and/or White Chocolate

Plastic Wrap

Tooth Picks

Sprinkles (optional)

Decorative Flags (optional)

Step One:  Put your already iced cake into a bowl.

Step Two:  Use a mixer (hand held or counter-top) to mix up the contents in the bowl until it is completely unrecognizable   Make sure there are no cake chunks.  You want the consistency to be sticky enough to create balls, but not so sticky that they are mushy.

Tip:  Start with more cake and less icing.  It is easy to add icing, but not take it away.


Step Three:  Use mixture to create truffle size balls.  I would have used a "ice cream scoop" (which most people use for cookie dough) unfortunately mine broke and I was forced to use the ol' two spoons trick.

Step Four:  Put cake balls into the freezer for about twenty minutes to firm up.

Step Five:  Use tooth picks to dip cake balls into chocolate and place on to plates covered with plastic wrap.  Put these in the freezer so they harden faster.

Tip:  The plastic wrap helps to release the hardened chocolate from the plate after it is frozen.  Otherwise it might break when you try to lift it from the plate.


Step Six:  Dip the  top of the already chocolate dipped cake balls into white chocolate, stick a lollipop stick into the top, and cover with sprinkles.  It is important to do all of these steps at the same time for each cake ball because other wise the white chocolate will harden and it will be near impossible to stick the lollipop into it.

Step Seven:  Add flags as a decoration to the cake pops!

Ta-Da!  All Done!

I realize that some people make their cake pops as actual 'lollipops" however I have found that if you put the cake pop at the top of the stick, it will fall down the stick after a few hours unless the perfect consistency of cake and icing was made in step two.  That's why I like the cake pops on the bottom of the stick!


Also, be creative when using different kinds of chocolate.  I used two colors with sprinkles as decoration, but you could use one color as a base and another as a drizzle over the tops!  Get creative!

Happy Cake Popping!