Disclaimer: Before you read this, you should probably get one big "that's what she said" out of your system. I apologize in advance.
The pumpkin spice cupcakes were a HUGE hit! Everyone who had one basically gobbled it up one one bite. (Get it? Gobble? Turkey? It's almost Thanksgiving? Okay fine.)
Following a process I learned at Yum Cupcakery, I decided to make some extra cupcakes to turn into cake truffles. Then I had this stroke of genius. Why not make Bakerella's famous Cupcake Pops?
(Source - Bakerella)
Uber cute, right? And she makes it look SO easy! Well, our cupcake pop attempt was a miserable failure. I made at least 3 big mistakes. Don't get me wrong, the cake pops we made were DELICIOUS, but they did not look anything like the adorable cupcakes on a stick above.
I wish I could give you a specific recipe for what I did. Bakerella recommends one 13x9 baked cake (from a box or from scratch) and one can of frosting for her cake balls. I tend to just eyeball it. I think I had about 9 cupcakes leftover and about 1/3 of the container of cream cheese frosting -equal proportions as above. I added a little extra powdered sugar (maybe about 1/4 cup) to try to stiffen it, called it done, and rolled the filling into balls to be dipped in melted chocolate and candy.
Well, I was wrong. Looking back, because of how moist the pumpkin spice cupcakes were, I should've added much more powdered sugar and/or frozen the filling for longer. Bakerella's method of using the cookie cutter to shape the balls into cupcakes just didn't work out for me, partially because of the consistency of the candy and partially because of the size I was trying to use. My lovely sous chefs, Jungle M and Jungle K, told me I should give up and just make round cake balls instead.
Just chilling.
(man, I am punny today)
It wasn't stiff enough, so they weren't quite round (okay fine, you're allowed another TWSS here). I didn't melt enough chocolate, so they weren't quite cake pops. The chocolate didn't cover the entire filling, so they weren't quite sealed. Lucky for me, literally no one I served them to knew the difference. We dipped the pumpkiny goodness in melted chocolate and/or orange candy melts (available at Michael's).
Festive! Jungle K was not pleased.
And then we added sprinkles and/or M&Ms. Someone had the wonderful idea of dipping the cake pop into a bowl of sprinkles to make sprinkle-coated pops!
One of the most important food groups.
Cake pops drying in my makeshift candy holder
(on my incredibly messy kitchen table)
Then we wrapped them in little plastic candy wrappers and tied orange ribbons around them... precious! Overall, it was a delicious disaster. But I am not discouraged! I fully intend to try the cupcake pops again the next time I make a batch of cupcakes. I really think the key to pop success is stiffer filling, longer freezing time, and deeper dipping chocolate. But they were a crowd pleaser nonetheless, even if I was kind of disappointed with them. Until next time!
