A little something sweet

I may not consider myself much of a chef, but I will admit that I’m a pretty damn good baker. I enjoy following the recipes, measuring out the teaspoons and level, packed cups… the structured nature of the beast that is Baking. And when Courtney invited me to her Halloween Party, I decided that I wanted to bring a little something sweet for all of her guests to enjoy in between bites of chips and salsa and swigs of beer.

A quick perusal of my Google Reader provided the answer: The Pioneer Woman’s Halloween Cake Balls! Ree does an awesome job of breaking down the steps in the creation of these little wonders, so I’m not going to walk you though the entire recipe… but I would like to add a few lessons learned!

Don’t bother refrigerating the cake balls once you’ve rolled them up. Stick the sticks in and throw ‘em in the freezer. I only gave ‘em about 30 minutes, but when I make these again for Catelyn’s 2nd birthday party, I’m going to make the balls larger and I’m going to leave the balls in the freezer overnight. (FYI – one red velvet Duncan Hines cake mix yeilded me 46 cake balls.) By the way, this may seem like a no-brainer, but if you have a side-by-side freezer don’t place the cake balls on a tray that is wider than the opening into your freezer!

But seriously, find that smaller tray because frozen cake balls won’t twist on the lollipop sticks once you attempt to apply the candy coating… which brings me to another helpful hint. If you have a wonderful friend who’s much more talented than you are at things involving FOOD and SKILL, invite her over. Promise her cake pops and lots of flattery if she helps! (Thanks Sarah! You’re the awesomest candy applier and friend EVER! You’re muy pretty, too! And smart.)

You can place the candy-coated pops on a baking sheet covered in wax paper, OR you can do as I did and cover some flower arrangement foam with aluminum foil. Then, as each pop is coated you simply press the lollipop stick into the foam so that no pop has to suffer from “trayhead.”

When the pops have all been coated in melted candy goodness, stand back and admire your Sarah’s handiwork. Marvel at how it only took her four pops to come up with a process for getting a smooth application, except on the two green ones that she wanted to look like wrapped mummies. Allow to dry completely.

Later, when you apply the decorating gel please note that the gel will remain tacky for a while… so if you’re in Michael’s admiring all the extra supplies you can get to really take this project the whole nine yards, make sure you give yourself enough drying time before attempting to put the decorated cake pops into little individual plastic bags — or you’ll smear their sweet little faces right off! I do have a sneaking suspicion that if you freeze the pops again after decorating them, that they’ll set up enough to put in the bags (but I haven’t checked this out… yet).

Take the pops to their final destination, listen to your dear friends rag on you for being a “Betty Crocker,” but then make sure that you eat the one you like best before anyone else snags it. Me? I chose that green one up there that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Yummeh! You might have to explain to some of the guests just what, exactly, those things on the table are… or you can challenge them to try one without any hints at what they’re getting themselves into. Either way, enjoy eating your cake pops!