Cake Plops

Marquette signing in. I first saw cake pops at my cousin's cookie shop in Hershey, PA, and I thought they were genius. All that next year I saw cake pops popping up all over and I still just loved the idea. I'm not a big cake fan, but these...I could eat them all day. So when it came time for our Halloween party, I knew that I wanted to try my hand at them. They looked pretty simple. I looked at pictures and jumped into the project.

Some Pinspirations

http://www.lovefromtheoven.com/2012/02/15/how-to-make-cake-pops-with-the-babycakes-cake-pop-maker-tips-tricks-resources/ 

http://www.cupcakecrazyincincinnati.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=11 

http://www.ontobaby.com/2011/03/handmade-bird-themed-baby-shower/ 

Don't they just look pretty! I thought so. Well, mine tasted good, but they definitely were plops rather than pops.   

The Pinstrosity

And those were the best ones...

What Went Wrong?

Coating the cake pops didn't go so well. They fell off the sticks into the melted chocolate, they crumbled, the chocolate stayed soft too long (and my house wasn't too warm, that's never an issue in the fall/winter), and I couldn't get the coating smooth on the pops. Here's a few ideas of why I think this all might have happened: 

• I got impatient and pulled the cake pops out of the freezer before they were frozen solid. 
• I used wooden craft sticks instead of the candy sticks.
• The wooden sticks were way cheaper
• There was only one package of the candy sticks left. 
• I don't know if this made a difference or not, but I used different melting chocolate than I normally do. I usually use Almond Bark, but this time I got the little colored chips from the cake decorating aisle in wally world. 

How to fix this:

• Let the cake pops freeze all the way. That will reduce crumbling and (I think) falling of the stick. 
• Use candy sticks. The wood craft sticks didn't work well I think because of their shape (flat and skinny) and maybe cake just adheres to paper better. 
• In the future, I'm going to just stick to the chocolate coating I know and love...Almond Bark. If I want different colors, I'll buy the candy coloring.