7 days of christmas : Day one

So last Sunday I decided that since there were 7 school days left before break, I was going to bake something for each of those days. Monday I figured would be cake pops and my goodness did I have my work cut out for me! 6 hours and 100 cake pops later, I had something that I was really really proud of. I made two kinds of pops; one of the pops was a tree, the other was a snowball pop. Everyone really loved them and it made me so happy to know that they enjoyed them.

For the cake base I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe :
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C  semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C + 3 Tbs real butter, cut into pieces
3/4 C plus 2 Tbs sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt butter and chocolate in 30 second intervals. Let cool to room temp.
2. Mix in sugar until just combined.
3. Add in egg, and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.
5. Mix into wet ingredients.
6. Put into pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. When you check the cake don't rely on a toothpick, it'll come out clean even when it's practically goop. Check by applying pressure onto cake with figure, or slicing into it and making sure it's actually done.

For the butercream I used one I found in the bakerella book (where I also got the idea for the tree pop). However, I can't find it online but any basic chocolate buttercream would work (aprox 2 cups worth).


Now once you bake your cake, make the buttercream, let the cake cool (thank god it was sub 30 degrees outside! I just set the pan outside and within a half hour it was cool), shred the cake up, mix in the buttercream, and let that cool more, you're ready for some real fun!

I made cute little trees (the first couple are hard, but it gets easier!), and then decided on a traditional ball. After I molded all of those I just set the trays outside for an hour until they were nice and firm. Cake pops are quite easy but if they aren't firm enough, coating them is a pain.

Once the cake pops are firm, melt the candy coating according to the directions and dip away! The trick with coating is dipping the stick into the candy coating first before you put them into the cake pop. I did a couple not coating the stick firsst, and the cake pop fell right off.

I did the balls first and here's what I ended up with :

I loved how simple, and graceful these were. I tinted the white with a little blue, and they felt very icy and pretty.

Next were the trees and these were a pain. I burnt the candy coating and it seized up on me. Oh what an up hill struggle they were! I'm really proud of what I ended up with. Here they are post coating, pre final decoration.

 Overall, these were a blast! I really want to experiment with them again in the future. Day two was sugar cookies, look for that post tomorrow!

S