Rainbow Cake Pops

I have a friend who wanted rainbow themed cake pops for a party. I was up for the challenge and got my inspiration from these two blog sites: Brooke McClay's Rainbow Cake Pops on Babble and Sue's Munchkin Munchies Blog. I wanted to surprise people with a rainbow cake center than just an outer rainbow design. I had a lot of fun making these pops.

I took two boxes of vanilla cake mix and tried to divide them evenly the best I could into six bowls. Then I added food coloring to each bowl. They turned out a bit lighter than I wanted. Then I baked them in cupcake form.

After they cooled I put the cupcakes in a bowl and broke them up till they were crumbs. Then I mixed the frosting in to bind them together. I had to guess the right amount. Too much frosting and they'll end up mushy and will fall off the stick. Too little and the cake will not stick together.

I placed them in a cake pan and layered them so they had the rainbow pattern. Then I placed it in the refrigerator overnight to firm up. They are a lot easier to roll up in balls when they are right out the the refrigerator.

Here they are after I rolled them into cake balls. It came out real nice with a tie-dye effect. Then I proceeded to dip the sticks in some chocolate and placed them in each cake ball. Then I placed them in the refrigerator for just a few minutes and then took them out while I had my candy melts in my Babycakes Chocolatier getting melted. When the chocolate was just the right consistency I proceeded to dip. NOTE: I alway have issues with my candy melts getting too thick so I always add a tablespoon of melted shortening.

I was also able to find a rainbow mixture of M&M's at a candy store in the Los Cerritos Mall. This candy store is one of the best places to find what I need to decorate my cake pops. I originally wanted to use the M&M's to make a rainbow design but they were a little too big and looked funny. So I decided to use them around the pop. I piped a little bit of chocolate to use as a glue when I added the M&M's and voila!

Other cake pops that I've recently made...

These are Hawaiian themed cake pops made out of red velvet cake. I tried my best to pipe hibiscus flowers on the white ones.

These were a huge hit! My famous Minnie and Mickey Mouse silouhette cake pops. Also made with the rainbow cake center. Too pretty to eat!

A little help goes a long way

I recently bought the Babycakes Chocolatier at the local Kohls. I had wandered in over a week ago looking for a double boiler. Unfortunately, they had none and I stumbled upon the section of Babycakes products and seen the chocolatier. I did another look around for a double boiler just incase I had missed one. Then I went back and stared at the box, opened the box, looked inside and placed the box back on the shelf. After a few seconds I decided to get it.

I placed the candy melts inside and plugged it in. It took a while for them to melt, around 30 minutes.

After I got the right consistency I was ready to dunk the cake balls in. I liked how it kept the chocolate warm and I didn't have to worry about it getting too thick. I did remove the ceramic pot from the base before I did my dunking. I noticed it was too hot if I just left it in the base. Since I had my cake balls in the refrigerator I had to take them out 5 minutes prior or I would have horribly cracked cake pops.

Here is a close up of one of the cracked cake pops. I had 3 of these in the second batch I made.

The first batch of cake pops I made were red velvet and covered in sprinkles. These didn't crack. I read online that air bubbles can cause cracking and I think the sprinkles helped prevent air bubbles in the chocolate.

My second batch of cake pops were vanilla flavored. I did a cute design with butterflies that I made from a chocolate mold.

I made the cake pops for a 5 year-old's birthday party. She adored them and they were a huge success.

Cake Pop Maker

A few weeks back I had an order for 100 cake pops. Luckily, it got reduced to 30 pieces but before that happened I decided to get a lil help. I went online and found the Tasty Top Cake Pop Maker from Amazon.com. It was a few dollars cheaper and included free shipping compared to if I were to get it from the actual website. I tried it today and baked some red velvet balls. I wasn't impressed. After baking, some of the balls weren't too round and the taste was boring. I prefer the old fashioned way using frosting. I have an order this week for 50 cake pops but I decided to ditch this cake pop maker and make it the original way. I might use this again if I have to make a huge order but it's too late to get my money back...hahaha!

This is what the cake pop maker looks like. I just took them out of the oven.

This is what it looks like after I removed the top.

Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with the shape. Most weren't round enough and I didn't like the texture.

After popping them out of the mold there were excess on the sides. It looks funny but it sure was a fun experience.