Baking trends

As with every other stream of life, food goes through trends. From fusion, to small plates, and now onto cupcakes and cake pops - you can't escape them.

So I guess it's as they say: if you can't beat 'em - join 'em!

This weekend was a friend's birthday and I was asked to make the cake. I thought it was going to be a simple chocolate, or vanilla cake. Or maybe something as fancy as cheesecake. But nope! It was cake pops. 

Now, I've tried making cake pops before and hated them (and I'm not exaggerating here). I first tried to make cake pops near the beginning of my baking career (so almost three years ago) and the recipe I found said to make a boxed cake mixed, crumble it, add an entire tub of icing and dip balls of this cake goo into chocolate. It was like eating mushy sugar shaped like a ball. As you can tell, it left me with a terrible impression of cake pops. So I avoided making them for a long time.

However, the time had come for me to face my fears, so I decided to do cake pops my way. I wasn't going to follow any recipes, and I was going to make it all by scratch (minus the chocolate) so that I knew I'd like the taste of everything going in. I was told the birthday girl liked lemon, so I decided to do a lemon cake with lemon frosting, dipped in yellow candy melts. I got the recipe from a friend, after trying her cupcakes and falling in love with them. So thanks Shelly for the recipe! This recipe makes approximately 18 cake pops.

Lemon Cake Pops
Lemon cake 
Recipe courtesy of Shelly. Makes 10 cupcakes

1 cup of all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

2 tbsps grated lemon zest, plus the juice of half a lemon

3 tbsps unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 milk

1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners
2. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and butter with an electric mixer on a slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in the milk and beat until just incorporated. Mix in the lemon juice.
3. Add the egg to the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the batter is smooth. Do not overmix.
4. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when touched. Let the cupcakes cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Frosting

1 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tbsps unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsps grated lemon zest

1 tbsps of milk

Directions:

1. Beat together the confectioners' sugar, butter, and lemon zest. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed. Slowly pour in the milk, then when it is all incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy (~5min).

Chocolate Dip
Yellow Candy Melts (about 2 cups worth maybe?)

To construct cake pops:

1. Crumble cupcakes into a bowl and mix in frosting.
2. Roll the cake mush into any shape you want (balls, lemons, etc.) to make cake balls.
3. Cool the the fridge for half an hour, or more.
4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 15 second increments and transfer to a container deep enough to dip your cake balls into.
5. Take a stick (I used lollipop/chocolate sticks) and dip the tip into the chocolate about 1/4 of an inch. Then push the stick halfway into the cake ball.
6. Then dip the cake ball on a stick into the melted chocolate. Note: do not stir it around in the chocolate - to coat it completely just tilt it forwards, backwards and side to side.
7. Tap or allow any excess to drip off. I suggest you slowly rotate the cake pop to allow even coating of the chocolate. Allow to dry upright (you can punch holes into a piece of cardboard, or use a cheese grater).

I decided to do a trial run of my cake pops, before I made them for the day of the party, to make sure I was happy with them. I was actually really impressed with how they turned out! Except for the fact that I had to cut back on the lemon (because I didn't want to run out of lemon for the party recipe), they were delicious! Not too sweet (the tartness of the lemon helped with that), and the perfect size. I'm also glad I cut back on the amount of icing I used. All of my Quality Control testers enjoyed them as well!

As for the party itself, everyone seemed to really enjoy them! And for a lot of them, it was their first cake pop. I think I may try to make cake pops more often. It was fun to try and come up with the idea, making lemon cakes and shaping the balls to look like lemons. I think the possibilities could be endless!