I remember the first time I saw a cake pop. It was at Starbucks. I never eat at Starbucks with the exception of the sourdough pretzel; which I’ve only ever seen in New York. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by these little confections. I started looking up cake pops online and of course I found Bakerella. For those of you who don’t know Bakerella, she is the cake pop queen. She makes it all look so easy. In my experience it really wasn’t. I hate throwing out leftovers. I’m just racked with guilt and have to find a way to use up all the extra cake after coring cupcakes. Even if I have a few misshapen cakes in a batch I have to resurrect them. That’s where cake pops made an appearance in my kitchen. It was in my experimental phase when a batch of red velvet cupcakes wouldn’t hold together despite everything I tried. This tends to happen when your trying recipes with egg substitutes.  My frosting was ready and the cake was delicious, well the crumbs were at least, there really wasn’t any cake. I mixed the crumbs and the cream cheese frosting, rolled them into balls and dipped them in some white chocolate. YUM. They were really messy because the chocolate wasn’t meant for coating. It didn’t matter the cake balls were over by the end of the day. Next time I try them I will tone down the sweetness in the frosting because it becomes too much with the white chocolate on the outside.

Cupcake Bite

This gave me the confidence to try making cake pops; for real this time. I perused through Bakerella’s website trying to find something that appealed to me. There it was, cupcake pops. But I didn’t have lollipop sticks or a flower shaped cutter so I had to improvise. I also only had one color of candy melts, blue, which doesn’t really go with much. After all my hard work baking the chocolate cake, Bakerella suggests using a cake mix but since I do everything from scratch, I baked. I froze my cake balls and set them in a little chocolate cup that I made with semisweet chips and a mold. They just needed to be topped off with the candy melts. What a disaster!  I used the Wilton brand blue. It’s very hard to work with. No matter what I did I couldn’t get it to the right consistency and my cupcake bites looked horrible. I tried butter, shortening, oil, everything they suggested on message boards and blogs; nothing worked. I was so frustrated I had to take a break. I was about to give up on Bakerella and her unfair promises. After a good nights sleep and some distance from the cupcake bites, I was finally feeling better.

Cupcake Bites with Chocolate Cups

It was time to muster up the confidence to complete the bites. A lot of patience and some crisco later, I was finally done! I decorated them with sprinkles and M&M’s and accepted them for what they were. My husband wasn’t a fan because he didn’t like that you had to work through the candy outside to get to the cakey centre. Everyone else I parceled them off to seemed appreciative. I even got a text saying they were the best cakes they’d ever tried. I wouldn’t go as far as that, but they were cute and different. Next time they’ll be neater. They also last really well in the fridge. If you’re a new baker like me, cake pops and bites take a lot of patience so give yourself time. Or just call me and I’d be happy to give it a whirl. How adorable are these?

Bakerella’s Apple Cake Pops