post

Easter Cake Pops – Easter Baskets

March 6, 2012 By 6 Comments

A few weeks ago the girls and I spent a whole day making and decorating Cake Pops from our Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.  Now, if you have been a MoscatoMom Reader for long, you know that my favorite part about the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker is that you can make so many more things than just cake pops – like cinnamon roll pops, corndog pops, and blueberry muffin pops.  But this day we wanted to make true cake pops – and decorate them all up for Easter.  It was a blast.

The first ones we made were the Easter Bunny Pops which were sooo very simple.  The Easter Sheep Pops were not quite as simple but still just as cute.  While we were perusing online we saw a picture on Wilton’s page of Easter Basket Cake Pops.  We knew we just had to make them.  These were – by far – our favorite.

Easter Basket Cake Pops

Ingredients:

  • Cake Mix – I recommend Pillsbury Funfetti
  • Blue Candy Melts
  • Chocolate Candy Melts
  • Green Candy Melts
  • Small Multicolored Jellybeans
  • Green Sugar Sprinkles
  • Piping bag with Small Tip
  • Babycakes Cake Pop Maker
  • Cake Pop Sticks
  • Cake Pop Stand (optional)

 

Mix your Funfetti Cake Mix as directed on the box.  Spoon one teaspoon into each spot in your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.  Let cook four minutes.  Use Babycakes fork to put onto a cookie sheet and put into the freezer for one hour.

Melt three or four candy melts and dip the ends of your sticks into the melt and into the cake pop.  Set upside down on a cookies sheet and put back into the freezer for another hour.  You should then have a cookie sheet that looks like this -

Next, melt your chocolate candy melts and coat each cake pop entirely.  Set in your Cake Pop Stand (check this one out!!) to let the candy harden and cool- about an hour.  DO NOT PUT INTO THE FRIDGE – if they get too cold the candy will “sweat” and the next part will not work.

Once the chocolate is completely hardened, melt your blue candy melts and gently dip the Cake Pops upside down half way into the blue candy.  Set them back into the Cake Pop Stand to harden again.   Your Easter Basket Cake Pops should look like this:

After the candy has completely hardened around the Cake Pop, melt your green candy melts and put into your piping bag.  Pipe a line of candy around the edges where the chocolate and blue candy meets, and quickly dip into the green sugar sprinkles.  This makes your “grass” inside of the basket.

Next put the rest of your chocolate candy melts into a piping bag, and pipe the “handle” for your basket.  Since I had a very small tip I put four lines together to make it a bit thicker.  You could also use a wider flat tip for this.

For the “Easter Eggs”  cut the ends off of small Jelly beans, leaving some in the middle – in other words you should have three pieces from each jellybean – two “eggs” (each end) and a middle to snack on… because let’s face it, by this time you are probably starving… or ready to eat the cake pops – eggs or not!

Pipe a dot of leftover candy melts to help them “stick” and place them randomly on the “grass.”   Let your finished cake pops set for at least 20 minutes to make sure your eggs stay put.

These Easter Basket Cake Pops took much longer to make than any of the other Easter Cake Pops – but they were still a blast!  The girls had fun helping – and eating – the leftover decorations as we were making them.

Love these?  Check out my Easter Bunny Cake Pops, Easter Chick Cake Pops, and Easter Sheep Cake Pops!


post

Easter Sheep Cake Pops

February 28, 2012 By 14 Comments

Last week when I decided to make Easter Cake Pops I hit up the internet and found tons of cute ideas – my favorite being these little “sheep” cake pops.  I already had the pearl sprinkles so I thought this would be a fun way to use them up.  These were not near as simple as the Easter Bunny Cake Pops but they still turned out very cute.

Easter Sheep Cake Pops

Ingredients:

Mix your Funfetti Cake Mix as directed on the box.  Spoon one teaspoon into each spot in your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.  Let cook four minutes.  Use Babycakes fork to put onto a cookie sheet and put into the freezer for one hour.

Melt three or four candy melts and dip the ends of your sticks into the melt and into the cake pop.  Set upside down on a cookies sheet and put back into the freezer for another hour.  You should then have a cookie sheet that looks like this -

 

Melt the remainder of your candy melts and gently dip your cake pop into the melts coating the entire cake pop.  Immediately set into cake pop stand (I use large pieces of styrofoam that I poke holes in with a screwdriver – cheap and easy) Place the jellybean in place for the head and hold a new seconds to secure.  Then gently begin putting sprinkles on and kind of “tapping” them into the candy melt to gently secure them.  Do this slowly to make sure the weight of the “wool” does not slide off the other side.

Like I said this took a bit of practice and a bit of time but was fun nonetheless.  Each “sheep” takes about 5 minutes to complete applying the “wool.”  Once you are happy with the wool, place back into your cake pop stand and let set for at least 20 minutes.

Once the candy has completely set and the pearls are secure you can use a dab of candy melts to apply the pink heart “nose” and chocolate ship “ears” (eyes!?) to the jelly bean.   Then put them together in their own little “herd.”

These were the most difficult of the Easter Cake Pops that we made, but they were also the favorite at the party.  We also made them with different colored candy melts which were cute – we had some yellow sheep!

Love these?  Check out my Easter Bunny Cake Pops, Easter Chick Cake Pops, and Easter Basket Cake Pops!

 

 


post

St Patrick’s Day Chocolate Mint Liqueur Cake Pops

February 28, 2012 By 10 Comments

Yesterday while playing on StumbleUpon I ran across this awesome recipe for Mini Chocolate Cake Donuts that just totally flung a craving on me.  I have been wanting something chocolatey for a few days, so this seemed perfect.  I planned on making them in the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker of course – making donut “holes” but with the same recipe.  The only ingredient I was missing was the Cocoa, so I headed up to Winn Dixie and planned to make them for dessert.

Then, Mike came home with a box of crack Thin Mints.   My chocolate craving went from just chocolate to a chocolate-mint craving… but the only “mint” I had was Peppermint Schnapps in the liquor cabinet and I was not about to go to the store a second time for just one ingredient… SO – the result?   Quite possibly the BEST tasting Cake Pops I have ever made.

St Patrick’s Day Chocolate Mint Liqueur Cake Pops

Ingredients:

  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1/4 c cocoa powder
  • 2 c all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 c Peppermint Schnapps
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 c milk

It is probably best to mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet ingredients in the other and then mix together – but I didnt do that.  I just threw everything in together which made for about 20 minutes worth of stirring to try to beat the lumps out of the batter.   I didnt get them all – which turned out to be ok – but just sayin.

Once your batter is mixed spoon one teaspoon into each cup in your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and cook for four minutes.  I was highly impressed at how well these puffed up and made perfect little balls – much like how well Pillsbury Funfetti (my favorite cake pop batter) does.  Pop your little yummy bites out onto a cookie sheet and let cool.   You can choose then whether to stick them on sticks or just have “cake balls” – we actually did both.

This recipe yields SIXTY cake pops…

St Patrick’s Day Chocolate Mint Liqueur Cake Pops Icing

Ingredients:

  • 3 c powdered sugar
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 1/4 c milk
  • 1/2 c Peppermint Schnapps

 

 

The icing takes some time and patience – and sometimes adjusting – to get just right.  The measurements above are very close to what we used, however to get the desired consistency you can add as much powdered sugar as you want.   Obviously the less powdered sugar the thinner the icing is – and the more you taste the Schnapps.   Using a piping bag you can pipe stripes on to your St Patrick’s Cake Cake Pops or use a spoon to drizzle it on.  Either way they taste absolutely beyond fantastic.


post

St Patrick’s Day Swirled Cupcake Pops

February 26, 2012 By 5 Comments

Last week I did a review on the new Equal Sucralose – an alternative to sugar that measures like sugar and is comparable to Splenda. (but with much better packaging)   I wanted to really give it a thorough “sweetness” test so I decided to replace the sugar in some vanilla cupcakes as well.  Since I had the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker already heated up I decided to use it to make St Patrick’s Day Swirled Cupcake Pops!  They were great!

St Patrick’s Day Vanilla Swirl Cupcake Pops

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/3 c butter softened
  • 3/4 c sugar (or Equal Sucralose)
  • 1/4 c sour cream
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/3 c milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • green food coloring

Mix all ingredients together except for the food coloring.  After batter is mixed well with no lumps, add food coloring and gently mix in letting the color “swirl” – do not over mix.

Spoon swirled mix into your Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and let cook three and a half to four minutes or until cooked all the way through. The batter will be “swirled” both inside and out making for a pretty little pop!

The great part about these is that they taste fantastic without any icing or anything!   They are sweet like cupcakes and are the perfect “poppable” size for snacking!   These did not last long before they were gobbled up.  The flavor was great – I was impressed.  I have never made cupcakes “from scratch” but we really enjoyed these!

I will be making more of these for the girls to take to school, and also going to make the Pancake Pops on St Patrick’s Day morning – just adding some green food coloring to the mix.

Do you make a “green” breakfast on St Patrick’s Day?


post

Easter Bunny Cake Pops

February 26, 2012 By 12 Comments

This week I began practicing my Easter Cake Pops with my Babycakes Cake Pop Maker- making Easter Bunnies, Chicks, Sheep, and even Easter Baskets.  They were all relatively easy – which surprised me – though some took many more steps than the others.   My favorite – or the ones I think turned out the cutest – were the Easter Bunnies. 

Easter Bunny Cake Pops

Ingredients:

  • Babycakes Cake Pop Maker
  • Pillsbury Cake Mix of your choice (Pillsbury works best in the Cake Pop Maker)
  • White Candy Melts
  • Sweet Mallows Marshmallow Confetti
  • Pink Heart shaped candy sprinkles
  • Chocolate Piping Icing with bag and small tip

Begin by making your cake pops as usual with the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker.  Pillsbury mixes work best – my favorite being the Funfetti style.  Mix your cake batter as usual by the directions on the box, and spoon a teaspoon of mix into each hole and cook for four minutes.  Place cooked cake pops on a cookie sheet and run into the freezer for no less than an hour.  Then “stick” your cake pops using a bit of candy melts on the tips of your sticks and run into the freezer for another hour.  Now your cake pops are ready to decorate.

I have seen pictures of these guys where the baker had used Spring Candy Corn for the ears…  I looked at four different stores and was unable to find them.  I was about to give up and ditch the entire idea when I saw these near the marshmallows in Walmart.  I decided to give them a try, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.  I did use scissors to snip the very ends off  – both to make the proper size for “ears” but also to give some added “stickiness” to help them stay on the bunnies heads.

For the Easter Bunny Cake Pops you will use the white candy melts which can be found in just about any grocery store.  Almond Bark works as well but I have found it to be a bit thinner than the candy melts so it doesn’t stay smooth quite as well.  Do NOT try to use cake icing – its a totally different consistency when heated. Melt the white candy melts in 30 second increments and stir – making sure you do not burn it.

Dip your Easter Bunny Cake Pop gently into the white candy melts and place in your cake pop holder.  While the coating is still good and warm, stick the Marshmallow Confetti with the snipped ends into the melts in the place for ears.  Hold for a few seconds until the candy begins to set and the ears and secure.

Let the candy coating set for about 20 minutes or until completely cooled and hardened.  Do not put into the freezer or refrigerator as that will cause the candy coating to “sweat” – making the next steps virtually impossible.  Simply let the cake pops sit room temperature.

Using your piping bad and icing, put a tiny dollop of icing onto a pink candy heart sprinkle and place your “nose” in the center of the Easter Bunny Cake Pop leaving room for both eyes above and the mouth below.  I found that since I have acrylic nails that it was easier to lower the cake pop onto the sprinkle than trying to hold on to the teeny little heart and stick it on there.  I think I dropped about 15 of them before figuring this out. Then pipe on eyes and a mouth to complete your Easter Bunny Cake Pop.   The finished result:

These were not just the cutest, but by far the easiest as well.  This one was great to let the girls help with – whether it was placing and holding the “ears” or the “nose.”   They also love helping me with the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker – I put the batter in, Taylor is in charge of the timer, and Sami pops the cake pops out onto the cookie sheet when they are finished.  It’s like we have our own little assembly line… and it is CLEAN!!  No messy hands!