Have Your Cake & Eat it Too!

As a Mommy of three and wife of 11 years, my daily routine is a whirlwind. In an effort to carve out some "me time" and explore a creative outlet, I have picked up a new hobby. Baking! This blog highlights my journey into baking and chronicles my sporadic adventures.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Red Velvet Bakepop Cake Bites with Chocolate Coating

My Bakepop pans arrived! 

I think there is a little learning curve to this.  I may have overfilled the pan a little which made my cake balls look like mars.  I also overcooked them a bit as an unexpected visit from the carpet cleaning man took place as my cooking time was nearing the end.  But since they weren't officially charred, I decided to go ahead with my first chocolate candy coating dipping of the bites.  I only made about 10 and threw out the rest of the batch because I thought it would taste awful.  As it turns out, everyone was oblivious to the overcookage and this was the most attention I've received over my baking in a LONG time.  Love these pans, the lighter consistency of the cake seems much more tasty than a frosting laden gooey hand rolled cake ball.  WAY cleaner process too.

A few tips:
~ Use cooking spray made for baking with flour in it.
~ Add a complimentary box of pudding to your cake mix (Ie, I added chocolate to go with my red velvet cake mix).
~ Use water instead of milk on the cake box instructions, and half the amount of liquid.

Spray pans, and also spray the top where cake will ooze out.

Add your doctored cake mix.  Use the bakepop instruction booklet.

Close with these little yellow clasps.

Mine seriously oozed out the top.  But, it pops off very easily with a push from a rubberized spatula.

See, ooze is gone.

Wow, they're really balls.  See the bottom left ball?  They almost all had that ridge.  I used a kitchen scissor to quickly trim that off. 
Less tedious than crumbling an entire cake and mixing icing into it.

Finished cake balls.  A bit too crispy and slight smell of burnt cake but not really DARK brown. 

1pkg chocolate candy melts

microwave for 30 second intervals, and stir.  you can add a little crisco if needed but I didn't find it necessary.

My first cake ball ever!

I used a toothpick for all of these.  Not very durable, but doable.

Added some sprinkles.

Dessert is served!

Gooey Chocolate Cranberry Squares

I decided to try these the instant I found the recipe in the 2012 "Got Milk" calendar that arrived in the mail this week.