4th of July Cake Pops

This is my second attempt at cake pops and they turned out much better this time thanks to a few 'lessons learned' during my first attempt!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Cake Pops - go check out Cakerella and her book Cake Pops!  They are so cute for birthday parties and any gathering!  

Supplies you will need: box cake mix of any flavor, can of cake frosting, lollipop (or even better - cookie) sticks, two bags of chocolate candies to melt and any decorations you want to use (sprinkles, extra candies to melt and color for decorating, M&Ms - whatever you would like)

Bake a cake mix to the instructions on the back and cool almost completely. When it has cooled about 15-20 minutes, break the cake apart into thirds or quarters and start with one piece in a large bowl.  **Lesson #1 I learned - use a bowl that actually fits in the freezer!  

Using two forks - break apart the cake into crumbs.  (Think of the motion of the guys at Pat's or Geno's who cut the steak up combined with the motion of using chopsticks to add wasabi to soy sauce)

Continue adding cake pieces and crumbling with the forks until all cake is crumbled in the big bowl.  **Lesson #2: Add 1/2 to 3/4 of the cake frosting of your choice to the bowl and continue "forking" the crumbs until all frosting is combined and blended into the cake.  The first round I added the whole can and the texture of the cake pops was too gooey!  The mixture should be a sticky mess but not gooey.

**Lesson #3: Once you have the frosting and cake combined - FREEZE the mix in the bowl for at least 20 minutes!  This will make forming the balls much, much easier!  I skipped this step the first round and it was difficult to form the balls into nice shapes.

Freeze the cake balls (I love that term and will continue to use it as frequently and immaturely as possible!) for at least 6 hours.  I left them in the freezer overnight.  One box of cake mix makes about 30-40 CAKE BALLS hehehe

Later, or the next day, when  you are ready to decorate your cake balls make sure you have all of your supplies out and ready because the next process needs to be speedy!

I melted the chocolate candies in a double-boiler (aka a glass bowl over simmering water) 

To thin the candies down you can add Crisco as some other blogs mentioned but I didn't have any so I didn't do this step!  

Remove 5-10 cake balls from the freezer at a time to keep the rest frozen!  Dip the cookie/lollipop stick in a bit of chocolate and then stick it into the cake ball.  Continue with the rest and let them set before you dip the cake ball into the candy coating.  

Using the lollipop stick and a spoon, completely coat the cake pop and swirl it around to get an even coating.  

NOTE:  if you are going to stand your cake pops up in styrofoam you will want to put the stick in the flat part of the cake ball.  Otherwise, if you are going to use cupcake papers stick the stick (haha) into the top, rounded part of the cake ball so it will still sit on the flat part in the paper.  

Immediately after coating, sprinkle with decorations of your choice or stick M&Ms onto the cake pops.  The candy will dry fast so you won't have a chance later - DO IT NOW!  

Continue until all cake pops are done!

I love the presentation you can make with cake pops!  For this one I used a piece of styrofoam inside a popcorn container, covered with M&Ms and I added the American flags for extra effect!  

Regardless of the holiday or occasion, I encourage you to make a great display!  It just makes all the work to make these cake pops that much more worth while!  

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!!