Strawberry Cake Pops

I was given the new Bakerella cookbook by my good friend from work. It was very sweet of her and since today was her birthday, I decided what better way to pay her back then to make her something yummy to sample from the book.

I decided that these delicious strawberries would be perfect.

These are somewhat time consuming, you definitely need to plan ahead, but they are so worth it! That's an understatement. It's the most amazing bite of cake you will ever eat! Promise.

Strawberry Patch Pops

Ingredients and materials needed:

this is a slightly adapted recipe than the one in the cookbook

1 cake mix, your choice of flavor

1 tub of frosting that pairs well with the cake flavor

1 bag of red candy melts

1 bag of green candy melts (or enough white chocolate with green food coloring to make the green tops)

2 microwave-safe bowls

48 paper lollipop sticks

White sugar pearls

Styrofoam block

Large squeeze bottle or plastic bag

Wax paper

Baking sheet

Green Sour Punch Straws (optional)

Preface: If you want to make less cake pops at a time, like I did, you can actually cut the cake into sections and freeze the leftover sections until ready to use. Just let thaw out before crumbling. Make sure to portion everything else appropriately. I used a quarter of the cake and made 13 cake pops.

Step 1: Choose 1 box of cake mix and 1 tub of frosting to your liking. I chose a Golden Butter cake mix paired with Funfetti frosting. Bake the cake as directed and let cool completely. With a fork, gently crumble entire cake into fine crumbs. Mix tub of frosting in with cake thoroughly until it can be easily molded.

Step 2: With your hands, mold cake balls into the shape of strawberries. Place on wax paper on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator until they are firm enough to dip.

Step 3: Melt green candy melts, or melt white chocolate and add green food coloring (do not add food coloring to candy melts! It does not work, I found out the hard way). Pour into a squeeze bottle or plastic bag. If you use a plastic bag, snip a very small portion of the corner to squeeze the chocolate through. Squeeze flower shapes onto wax paper and place in fridge until hardened.

Step 4: When you are ready to dip, melt red candy melts in a tall, skinny bowl. Get white sugar pearls ready to grab. Get a lollipop stick and dip about an inch of it into the candy melts, then stick it into the bottom of a cake ball. Remember to do this next part quickly. It took me one time to get it right, so I had one casualty, but it tasted delicious.

Back to the dipping. Dip the cake ball down into the candy melt and pull it back up quickly or the cake ball might fall off the stick. Very gently tap the wrist of the hand holding the stick to remove excess chocolate white turning the cake ball slowly. This way the chocolate will coat the cake ball evenly. Use your finger to wipe off the chocolate at the base of the cake ball as you spin it around.

Before it dries, stick the sugar pearls in the chocolate as you continue to slowly turn the cake ball to make it look like a strawberry. Stick the cake ball in a Styrofoam block to dry completely. Any excess chocolate can just drip off onto the block.

Step 5: Using a small dab of the red candy melt, stick the green tops onto the cake pops and let dry.

If you can help it, don't eat them all at once. Take time to savor the deliciousness!

If you want to give them away as gifts or store them for later, just wrap them in plastic wrap and tie with ribbon.

Thank you, thank you Brynne for my wonderful gift. It inspired me to make such delicious and exciting treats! I don't know if I can accurately describe how delectable these were!