Does your cake pop?

In case you're wondering what has happened to this royal maid, not to worry, I'm still alive and kicking, which I think is a good sign. :)

I haven't really stopped all my cooking and baking and devoted my life to just housework. Neither do I intend to stop blogging (hey, this is one of the few ways to keep my sanity, so don't rob me of that). But you'll probably be expecting more of such lengthy consolidations once in a blue moon as I sneaked some time to put all the backlogs up.

I am browsing through the stack of pictures in my camera to recall what are in my backlog list and found this, one of the earlier pictures. Can you make out what they are?



Lol...to tell the truth, I don't have a name for them. These are just modifications of a dish my ex-helper did for the children one fine day when I wasn't around. I didn't even have a recipe to begin with. She just told me what she did and I used my imagination to make this up. I guess the closest match I can think of is probably Begedil. It's basically a mixture of mashed potatoes, egg, corn flour, mixed herbs and some seasoning. The mixed herbs really added a touch to the patties.

Next I found this, my favourite Bacon & Beef rolls. Did them for dinner one of the nights. They really cost quite a bit (over $17) for a single dish, so it's one of those "once in a blue moon" dish in my recipe.



Did sushi (consisting of egg mayo, japanese cucumber, carrot shreds, chicken floss and red dragon fruit) on Sat for lunch.



And the Grand Finale today is Royal Prince's birthday. Royal Prince turned 9 this September. I didn't had much proper planning this year (not that I had any in previous years) as everything was decided rather last minute. Did these for his "goodies bag" this year (sorry kids, aunty only have time to make one for each of you, a little ermm....small, but hope you all like them as much as my kiddies do).



In case you're wondering if they're lollipops, nope, they're not. I first get to know these cake pops from Bakerella. I thought it was a real cool idea and had put them down on my to-do-list. It wasn't really too difficult, just time consuming. But once you get the hang of it, it gets easier.

I chose to bake a Nutella Cake (omitting the nuts) as the cake base for this project.





This was the first time I baked this cake, pretty daring, I know, for a "can't afford to fail" mission. Luckily this was quite an easy recipe to follow and the cake turned out fine though the top looked a little burnt. Not one of my favourite though as I prefer moist cake. This is more of a fluffy kind of cake, perfectly right for cake pop.

After the cake cooled down, the next step was to crumble it up and mixed with cream cheese frosting. Don't ask me how much frosting I had used, I just mixed it with the cake crumbs till the mixture can be shaped into a ball without falling apart (a little dough-like in texture) and store the cake balls overnight in the fridge.

The decoration of the cake pops started out rather challenging. I need to insert a lollipop stick into each cake ball and dip it in chocolate before decorating. Almost didn't make it with the numerous hiccups. Firstly, the cake balls were too soft. When the lollipop sticks were inserted, some of the balls fell apart! Those that managed to stay ended up cracking when I tried to dip them in the coating. Then the coating wasn't of the right consistency. I was using Wilton Candy Melt and it was far too thick to be "coatable". So I had to start adding cooking oil into it to dilute the coating (learnt this trick from one of the comments in Bakerella's blog). I told Royal Prince that if I can't get it right, he may have no goodies bags to give to his class. You should've seen the un-hidable disappointment in him.

Well, he didn't have to be disappointed for too long. Finally I found a way out. The trick is to freeze the balls for about 15-20 mins, stick the pop stick into the harden balls, dip into the coating and quickly add on the decorations. You can't wait for too long to add the decorations. The candy melt set rather quickly when in contact with the cold balls. I didn't have time to do complicated decorations, had to settle for the simplest.



Packed and ready to go


The cake pops tasted great. After mixing with the cream cheese frosting, it tasted very much like non-baked cheesecake. Together with the peanut butter candy melt, it is definitely a yummy treat (I'll go without the colored beads if not for the look). You can try this if you need some ideas for kids party.

I think this entry is getting a little too long. So I shall post the birthday cake in the next entry. Keep a lookout for it and thanks for reading.


Mood: pleased