Cake Pop Winter Wonderland

I am a little lacking in the christmas spirit this year. I have no clue why, but it just doesn't feel christmas-y around here. I have the tree up, the candles burning bright, the oven is churning out goodies, Vince Guaraldi is playing on loop, and yet it is still not sinking in.  Perhaps thats how I ended up with pink and silver holly and christmas trees...

Maybe all I need is some snow, but the forecast here in Chicago is not cooperating with me on that front. From the looks of these pictures I took matters into my own hands and made myself a little snowy wonderland filled with cotton candy pink and shiny silver christmas trees. It seems as though I am only a few years away from a little christmas village taking over half of my living room. 

Thats not good. 

I figured since I was using gingerbread cake, that I should probably make some gingerbread people. I must say I had trouble deciding which would be less vulgar, to put the sticks in their heads or up their butts...heads it is. Now they look like a cross between the Michelin man and a tele-tubbie. Either way, they were tasty little buggars. 

Oh I also decided to go the more traditional route and make some green and red ones. 

But we can all agree the glittery pink disco trees are way more fun right?

Right. 

Gingerbread Cake Pops with Caramel Buttercream

adapted from La Cuisine d'Helene

makes 2 - 9 inch cake layers

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted then brought to room temperature

3/4 cup dark molasses

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup whole milk

Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and ginger.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the molasses, sugar, and butter until well combined. Add the egg, and beat until combined.

Slowly beat in the milk and buttermilk. It will look like it has curdled, but don't worry, this is supposed to happen. It will fix itself when you add the dry ingredients.

In a few additions, beat in the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto a baking rack and cool completely.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

4 oz egg whites

8 oz granulated sugar

2 oz water

12 oz unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup caramel sauce, room temperature

Place your egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 

Heat the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over high heat. Using a candy thermometer, bring the sugar to a boil and continue cooking until it reaches 230 degrees F. When it hits that temperature, turn your stand mixer to medium to begin mixing the egg whites until they are foamy. When the temperature hits 240 F, remove from heat and slowly pour into the egg whites on a medium speed. As soon as all of the sugar is in, turn the mixer to medium high and mix until the meringue is cool to touch. Add the butter a few tablespoons at a time and whip until thick, which may take a few minutes. Pour in the caramel sauce and mix until combined. 

Cake Pop Assembly

To make the cake pops, see my original post HERE on their assembly. For the Christmas tree and holly shapes, I pushed the cake dough into a mini cookie cutter and then gently pushed it out. There is enough butter in the frosting to make this quite easy and not sticky at all.  Once the shapes are formed, chill them and proceed as you normally would for round cake pops. 

Happy holidays, whatever color your trees happen to be this year. 

Spring Has Sprung...or Popped?

A cake pop and a gin and tonic totally counts as dinner right? It may be a Tuesday night, but with a new job comes a new schedule and mid-week has become my weekend. It may have been apparent that I haven't updated here in a while and I have a good reason for that.

A whirlwind of a month and an amazing job offer that materialized out of thin air meant little time for sleep, free time, or even time to catch my sanity. Life is starting to settle into its new groove, but unfortunately my body and mind are lagging a bit behind. So on my Friday, all I want to do is curl up on the couch have a strong cocktail and enjoy a sugar bomb that is the cake pop.

When Easter rolled around this year, I found that I actually needed to think about where to go and what to make. The last two years, I have been out of the country, most likely underwater doing some scuba diving or laying on a beach on a tropical island. Sigh...not this year, I guess that's the price I pay for working in a restaurant kitchen. Instead, I was able to spend a lovely afternoon with my boyfriend's family and found an excuse to make some cute easter-y desserts.

I think I have found my new favorite cake pop flavor, and from the sounds of pure satisfaction coming from all who ate them, I think most are in agreement; banana cake pops are a winner. The banana lends a nice rich flavor without being overly sweet, the candy coating takes care of that. Combined with a buttery and once again, not overly sweet, italian meringue buttercream, the banana cake pops will definitely be making more appearances on my cake pop flavor roll.

Banana Cake
recipe adapted from the Food Librarian
(makes enough for about 40 cake pops)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter (4 oz., room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment and lightly coat with non-stick spray.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the egg. Scrape the bowl down very well after each addition.

On low speed, mix in the mashed bananas. Add half the dry ingredients, and mix just until incorporated, then add the sour cream, followed by the rest of the dry ingredients, again scraping the bowl in between each addition.

Pour into your prepared cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or a finger pressed gently on the top of the cake springs back fully.

Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then let cool completely on a wire rack.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

4 oz egg whites

8 oz granulated sugar

2 oz water

12 oz unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed

1 tsp vanilla

Place your egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 

Heat the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over high heat. Using a candy thermometer, bring the sugar to a boil and continue cooking until it reaches 230 degrees F. When it hits that temperature, turn your stand mixer to medium to begin mixing the egg whites until they are foamy. When the temperature hits 240 F, remove from heat and slowly pour into the egg whites on a medium low speed. As soon as all of the sugar is in, turn the mixer to medium high and mix until the meringue is cool to touch. Add the butter a few tablespoons at a time and whip until thick, which may take a few minutes. 

To make the cake pops, see this post for detailed instructions! Happy Spring!! 

Will Starbucks Kill the Cake Pop?

**This post was originally published on HonestCooking.com, a brand new online food magazine, for which I am a contributor. The website launched in March, and it is a great new resource for recipes, travel, restaurant reviews and foodie opinion pieces. Check it out here!**

I can’t tell you how many people in the past few weeks have asked me “did you know that Starbucks sells cake pops now?”. Some say cake pops are the new cupcake, and they seem to be everywhere you look. They are taking over food blogs, they are replacing cupcakes at weddings, and now they are being sold at the international coffee chain, Starbucks.

A cake pop is essentially cake, crumbled and mixed with frosting, formed into a ball, popped on a stick, and dipped in a super-sweet candy coating. I made cake pops for the first time for a friend’s wedding last spring (about 350 of them to be exact) and since then, virtually everyone I know has become obsessed. Certain friends (who shall remain anonymous) have been known to hoard them in their freezer and ration them out until the next batch of leftovers is delivered. It’s madness I tell you.

Will the appearance of cake pops at Starbucks mark the beginning of the inevitable cake pop backlash? The overexposure and obsession with a new food trend can quickly turn it from hip and current to passé and cheesy. With their new home at a coffee chain that many people already love to hate, will 2011 be the year of the death of the cake pop trend? Only time will tell I guess.

Until then, we can still delight in the near-sickeningly sweet treat that is the cake pop. Here are instructions for some bright colorful pops, perfect for a spring celebration or a fun Easter treat.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake Pops
Makes about 50 pops

Cake Pops:
1 batch lemon-buttermilk cake, baked and cooled
1 batch cream cheese frosting (recipe below)
1-2 packages white vanilla candy melts (if you cannot find candy melts, you can use white chocolate, or almond bark the same way)
candy melt coloring (optional, but you cannot use frosting coloring, or liquid coloring unfortunately, the candy melts will seize from the water content)
sprinkles (optional)
50 4-inch lollipop sticks

Crumble the cakes into a large bowl with your fingers until broken up into pea-sized bits. Mix in about 2/3 of the frosting to start with, using either a large wooden spoon, or your hands if you want to get messy. Mix until the frosting is evenly dispersed. Take a small amount of some of the cake mixture (approximately 2 tablespoons or so) and try rolling it into a ball with the palms of your hands. If it stays together, continue to roll the rest of your cake mixture into balls and place them on a parchment or a wax paper lined baking sheet. If they fall apart or do not hold together, add a little more frosting until the mix is moist enough to allow you to roll an intact ball. You may not need to use all your frosting. I like to use the least amount of frosting possible, as it helps keep the texture of the cake pops more cake-like, and less mushy.

Once you have rolled all the cake mix into balls, place in refrigerator and chill for about 30 minutes. When the cake balls have been chilled, melt a small amount of the candy melts in a microwave safe bowl according to package directions. Take one of the sticks, dip about 1/2 inch of the end into the melted candy and stick it about half to three-quarters of the way through the cake ball. Don’t go too far into the cake ball, or it will fall apart. The candy melts will help adhere the stick to the cake.

Place the cake pop (we can officially call them pops now since they are now on a stick) back onto the parchment and repeat process with all remaining balls. Place the cake pops in the freezer for 30-60 minutes before coating. This will save you a lot of headache when trying to dip the cake pops into the hot candy melts. If they are mostly nearly frozen, you will have a much easier time getting them to stay on the stick while dipping and tapping the excess coating off, so don’t rush this step!

Once the cake pops have been chilled, melt the rest of the package of candy melts according to package directions, and add your candy coloring, if usingdesired. I kept the majority of the cake pops in the freezer and took them out about five5 at a time. This way, the whole pan of cake pops doesn’t come up to room temperature while you are dipping the first batch.

One at a time, dip the cake pops into the melted candy coating being making sure to get the coating all the way up over where theon to the stick is attached to really seal it into create a good seal. GENTLY tap off the excess coating on the edge of the bowl while rotating the cake pop, to get a nice even layer all the way around. You will want to do this quickly in order to make sure to reduce any excess of the candy coating off before it starts to set.

At this point you can do one of two things. If you want lollipop-like cake pops, you can stick them in a piece of styrofoam, let them dry pop side up, and serve them just like that. If you do it this way, you may want to reshape the tips of the balls a bit with your fingers before dipping them, as they may have a flattened bottom from sitting and chilling.

I tend prefer to to place them pop side down with the sticks up in the air. They are still just as cute, but easier to make in large quantities. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the flattened bottom since you are just putting it back in that same position anyway.

While the candy coating is still wet, feel free to go crazy with sprinkles, edible glitter, or even crushed nuts. If you are piping or dipping another color onto the pops, wait until the base layer is completely dry before doing so. You may need to melt more candy melts depending on how thick your coating ends up. , it’s always good have a few extra bags on hand.

Let your cake pops dry for at least an hour or two before packaging them up. I placed mine in a paper towel-lined ziploc baggies and put them into the refrigerator. You can leave them at room temp for a day or two, or even freeze them for a few weeks.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake:
3 1/2 cups (349 grams) cake flour

2 cups (383 grams) granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, 459 grams) room temperature

1 cup buttermilk (3,5 dl) room temperature

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 large egg whites, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

zest of one large or two small lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter and flour two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, sift or whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Add the butter and half the buttermilk. Beat with the paddle attachment on a medium-low speed until combined and smooth, about 3-4 minutes.

In a medium sized bowl, with a fork, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, the rest of the buttermilk, and the vanilla and lemon extracts to combine, just until eggs are broken up. Add the egg mixture to the batter in 3 additions, mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes after each addition, being sure to scrap down the sides of the bowl frequently.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans, and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans until they are cool to the touch, then turn out of pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
16 ounces (454 grams) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter (230 grams) room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups (325 grams) confectioners’ sugar

pinch of salt

In a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese and butter, and beat on medium high speed until smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until incorporated. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.