Pink Strawberry Chocolate

During our attempts to make cake balls yesterday we wanted to see if it was possible to dye the chocolate.  We used a few drops of red food colouring in the bowl but I think we may have added it too early, as the chocolate then didn't want to melt and started to resemble butter cream icing. We attempted to coat one ball but it fell apart so instead we decided to just turn it back into a chocolate bar.  I took inspiration from Hotel Chocolate and made a rectangular slab of the stuff and sprinkled it with all the left over chocolate we had from making the balls.  We also added a touch of strawberry flavouring and do you know what it may have looked odd but it actually tasted really nice!!

Bake a Cake Pop

At the weekend I persuaded Graeme to make Cake balls with me (it didn't take much). So we set out to Sainsbury's and picked up some Betty Crocker Devils Cake mix and Chocolate frosting (I looked everywhere for cream cheese like the recipe but there wasn't any so butter cream will have to do).

Making the cake was very easy as we used cake mix but licking the bowl out afterwards did not taste half as good as when I make my own cake mix, so I will do that next time.  Because we knew we just had to crumble the cake up I decided to use a deep baking dish, which made an awesome slab of cake.  This would be excellent if you wanted to make a shaped cake (maybe in the future!).  There is a small bite mark out of the slab because we got a little peckish and wanted to try it out!!

 While it cooled we ordered in Indian and watched Star Wars II in HD which was most excellent, even if Graeme did nod off at the end hehe!!  After dinner we got down to the messy work of making the balls.  And I think for a first attempt they came out very well.  We made half with chocolate frosting and the rest with vanilla frosting that I already had.

The recipe said to leave them in the fridge to harden for a few hours, as by this time it was quite late and I had to be at work for 7am on a Sunday morning yuww!! We decided to leave them overnight and decorate them the when I got home the next day.  Unfortunately this didn't happen as I got stuck at work because of lots of installation problems and ended up doing a 15 hour day and not getting home until after 10am!!  So Graeme and I finished them off tonight, I just hope they haven't gone too stale in the fridge.  Oh and one good thing about yesterday was on my lunch we went to the local farm shop which had lots of American imported food including Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting perfect for next time, can't wait to have a cake pop party!!

So here are our final results...

They are not perfect, coating them in chocolate was a lot harder than we thought.  We also picked up cooking chocolate instead of the normal kind so the coating doesn't taste amazing.  Also I think we added too much frosting to the cake mixture they are so sweet you can only eat one at a time!! For a first attempt they are pretty good and it will give us something to work on next time. Now we know what we did wrong we can try again and make it better next time.  And don't worry I'm sure they will all still be eaten!!

Cake Pops

A while ago I was reading a few articles on Etsy and came across one by a blogger named Bakerella.  She makes the most awesome cake treats called Cake Balls which you can also get on a stick called Cake Pops.  Even better the article had full instructions how to make and decorate them yourself, I couldn't wait to check out her blog for other treats!!

I was not disappointed, these designs are so amazing and the recipes seem quite simple with amazing results (we will have to see!) I have decided that I have to make these when I next have some free time.  A few of my friends would love these Bumble Bee Cake Pops as they are avid supporters of the Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Team.

And these Pink Chocolate Cake Pops will be perfect for Valentines Day, I know Graeme will love them!!

I even found some Lego Cake Pops by one of her fans, totally awesome!!  

I think it's time for a Cake Pop Party!!!