The art of the cake pop.

You will either roll your eyes at the pointlessness of cake pops... or you might appreciate a few little tips that have made our finished products a little less amusing and wonky.

I had no idea that cake pop construction was an art form. Oh my the beauty that can be created in the form of a little ball of cake on a stick. It's serious business! We will just be sticking with the cute,  yummy and slightly less amusing versions.

No matter how hilariously clumsy they look, my perpetually starving boys gobble them up with a grin. I burst out laughing when I found this photo last week. Bits of chocolate hanging off in odd directions and sprinkles from one end of the kitchen to the other, but eaten with gusto nevertheless.

They did vary a bit from one time to the next....

But we have discovered a few tricks now to help make them look at little less lopsided and awkward.

We bought some cake pop tins that produce lovely, perfectly round balls of cakey goodness. They were in Aldi last week for only $12, so we indulged in having 2 tins. The extra tin meant that one packet mix of batter could all go in the oven at once. Yes, we really are taking this popping business quite seriously!!

We started making batches in advance and putting them in the freezer, which ended up being a handy trick. The chocolate dipping is so much easier with frozen cake. The chocolate sets much faster which saves lots of drippy mess.

We also dip the sticks in the melted chocolate before we stick them into the cake and stops the cake falling off into the chocolate.

We devised this excellent drying stand!!! HAHAHA! Check it out. My resourceful hubby set it on the kitchen bench one day when I was howling about dripping chocolate and had nothing to stick the cake pops into while they dried. It is the foam insert from an old car booster seat and it did the trick.

Thankfully Aldi came to our rescue again last week with these little stands. A bargain too- they were about $3- $4.

I also use the Aldi mud cake mix for the cake bit. (I LOVE Aldi) I use all of the chocolate in the pack, including the extra that is supposed to be used to make the icing. It makes the cake nice and dense which helps it stay on the stick better. I have tried other packet mixes and they just crumbled and fell off the sticks. I also use a little bit less liquid than the instructions suggest. 

I used to sit the chocolate coated pops into the sprinkles which led to the funny, lopsided results. I found it better to twist the cake around until all the excess chocolate drips off and them sprinkle over the top. Much smoother and prettier result.

They still taste the same of course, no matter how funny they look :)