Creating Cake Pops for a festive time

     'Tis the season to do something festive and wish fulfilling with few calories. No snow? Make snowballs. Make snowball cake pops.

      The grandchildren will arrive tomorrow and I am sure they would like snow to sled and ski. Also, I had given my beading group cake pop equipment for a holiday present and I wanted to learn a few more tricks to pass on. It is not a quick craft, so I decided to make the cake pop SNOWBALLS  (vanilla cake, melted Nestle white chocolate chips topped with coconut) before the children got here rather than craft with them.

       I had two kits: Nordic Ware and Telebrands The Bake Pop. I have made the chocolate pops from the recipe on the Nordic Ware box and followed instructions from The Bake Pop to use an ordinary cake mix. Bake Pop suggests you add an extra egg to a cake mix, "substitute milk for water and use half as much as the recipe calls for." You need a baking spray that contains flour and don't skimp. Fill the half spheres of the pan without holes liberally with batter. Use chocolate to glue a pop stick into the cooled cake sphere. Have some styrofoam handy to stick your pops into to move them to the fridge for solidifying the melted chocolate icing. I couldn't believe how long it took because you have to melt the chocolate, thin it a little with oil, wait for it to drip to a thin coating, cool it until solid...a few at a time. Maybe I should have made a smaller batch! 

        I prefer the Telebrands pop sticks but I would have to order them on line. I like the smaller, rather that larger popsicle sticks that are available at craft and cooking stores. If you follow the Nordic Ware and Telebrands links above, you can read up more about cake pops to see if you want to make them. Wrap your creations with about a foot of plastic wrap and they will be delicious for days. It is fun to have a small treat to hand out liberally.