Cake Balls (and Pops too!)

Tonight I am making a tried and true favorite of mine: cake balls.

I have been a huge fan of bakerella since way back in the day. (AKA when I was in high school.) Tonight when I was out shopping I found a cherry chip cake mix and thought, I have red candy melts at home. LET'S DO THIS! So here I am making cake balls/pops.

Cake Pops!

I had bought a machine to try and make them because before I thought that the process was tricky and possibly to fattening. So the idea of making just cake balls with no frosting seemed like a good idea. Let me tell you, in my opinion, this machine was a waste of my money. The balls didn't bake right and tasted smokey and we a far cry from the delishness of an original cake pop. So if anyone wants this machine, let me know. I used it once and I don't plan to use it again!

Making cake balls (or pops) is worth the extra seemingly difficult steps it may take.

What you will need is:

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 can frosting
• wax paper
• candy melts
• sprinkles (optional)

Next you will need to follow some not so complicated steps:

1. Bake your cake mix like you normally would and allow to cool. Once cooled, cut the cake into 4 even sections. Rub the cake together over a large bowl to crumble evenly. Add in the frosting and stir.
2. Use your hands or a cookie dough scoop to roll the "dough" into even balls no bigger than a quarter. Place the balls on a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet.
3. Place the sheet in your freezer for 15 minutes to cool. After 15 minutes, transfer to your fridge and prepare your candy melts.
4. To make cake balls, place a tooth pick in each of the balls then dip into the candy melts until completely covered. Make sure to tap off any excess. And place on wax paper or into cupcake papers. Remove tooth pick and use tooth pick to fill in the cake ball hole with candy melt. Decorate however you like or allow candy melt to harden.
5. To make cake pops, place pop stick in candy melt to get a tiny bit on the end and press gently into cake ball. Allow to harden. Dip cake pop into candy melts and cover completely tapping the end of the pop stick gently to shake off excess candy melt. Place the end of the pop in a styrofoam block or cake pop decorating tray to allow to harden.

That's pretty much it with endless decorating possibilities! Have fun with it. It really is worth all the steps, so don't try to skip out and use a cake ball maker! These are the ones I made:

I feel the need to show off

In February for my boyfriend's birthday I decided I would make him a cake and not just any cake but a cupcake cake. AND NOT JUST ANY CUPCAKE CAKE! But a MegaMan 8-bit inspired Cupcake cake!

My creation keeps getting me credit with his male friends, co workers, and even fellow bloggers he shows it off too, like Protodude's Rockman Corner. Everyone seems to be so in awe of how many mini cupcakes I baked, frosted, and arranged for this birthday surprise. (By the way, it was upwards of 128+, a few for the cake and a few for the baker.)

Now, this is not the first MegaMan thing I have ever made him. Throughout the almost 10 years know we have know and dated each other, he has had a rather unhealthy obsession with this game and as any hardcore gamers girlfriend knows, there is no end to this obsession... ever. After a few years, you tend to run out of store made merchandise and video games to buy an addict, so you resort to making your own stuff. I've made him hats, embroidered shirts, collages of shirts and pictures autographed by the games creator, pj pants.. you name it I have probably made it or I am making it for the next event.

I had wanted to make a full size cake for him and decided on mini cupcakes. The only problem is I was running out of space to lay the cake out. So a quick change of plans and I arranged a head. If I hadn't run into that little problem of space I probably would have finished quicker, but from start to finish it took me a total of 4 hours! The end result was awesome and yummy and stunned my boyfriend who to this day does not stop talking about it. In his eyes I have apparently won the best girlfriend of the year award. Only problem is now I have to top myself next year. ;-)