Cake Pop Tips

For instructions on how to make cake pops go to:

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/06/pops-for-pop.html

So as I've made them for different things, I've found a few tips that make life easier and help from losing the cake balls in the melted chocolate!:

1. Adding too much frosting is not a good idea. It takes longer for them to set up and they fall off the stick easier.

2. 1 Inch diameter is about as big as you want to get.

3. After GENTLY dipping them in the melted chocolate (you need tempered chocolate for this, the easiest thing to do is purchase the chocolate melts from the store), tilt cake pop up and gently tap on the edge of the bowl while turning the pop. Do this until the excess chocolate gets down to the stick.

4. Have all your decorations ready and waiting - that way right after you make the cake pop you can add them on before the chocolate hardens.

You can use anything really decorate the cake pops - just make sure that you don't ever make something for the sake of looks that you DON'T like to eat. My philosophy on this is that I will not make something that I don't like to eat for the sake of how it looks. I used marshmallow fondant (I flavor my MM fondant with Almond Extract) for both the flowers and baby blocks. The recipe I use for that is at:

http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-marshmallow-fondant

Hope this helps! I'm still just learning cake pops myself, but it's been fun so far. Don't be confined to what you've see other people do, if you have an idea for what you want to see, just try it! I definitely had some issues with my first square shaped cake pops, but I'm getting better each time I make them. :-)