CHOCOLATE CAKE POPS

Have school started for your family yet?  If not, this Apple Cake Pop would be a great treat to celebrate the first day of school!!  Which lucky teachers or kiddos are going to get this delicious Apple Cake pops??

First day of school.  It either makes you happy or makes you sad.  And I’m not talking about the kids!!  ?  A long time ago, I used to be a preschool teacher.  And let me tell you, it was very rewarding (when those kiddos was able to write, high five all around!), it was fun (“The Bear hunt” was one of my favorite song!!), it was tiring (you don’t want to lose any kid!!), it was a cute fest, all wrap into one job.  Being a teacher really makes me appreciate my own kid’s teacher and I love bring treats to school and sharing it with them.  It’s the least I could do for all that they do for our kids!!

So to kick off the new school year, I was thinking of doing a recipe that would be fun and theme-y.  Apple cake pops!!  Aren’t they cute?   They are easy to make but they do need some time.  You have to make the cake and frosting, roll them into balls, dip the balls into chocolate or candy melt, and voila!!  Cake Pops!!  I’ll do a play-by-play on how to make them so let’s start!

First, the cake!  First you put all the dry ingredients in the stand mixer bowl and combine.

Once it’s the dry ingredients are combined, add the eggs, vanilla, milk and oil to the bowl.  Mix again until it’s combined.

Turn off the mixer and add the hot water.  Be very careful and put the mixer on low so the hot water won’t splash on you.

Take the bowl out of the machine and using your spatula, mix it again and scrape from the bottom of the bowl.  Bake it for about 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Now the frosting is also very easy to make.  You need butter, cocoa,powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract.

Mix together the melted butter and cocoa powder in a stand mixer until it’s all combined.

Alternatively, add the powdered sugar and milk and mix again.

After it’s combined, add the vanilla extract at the end.  If you see the frosting is too thick you can add a tablespoon of milk to thin it out.  However, if you see that the frosting is too thin, you can add a bit more powdered sugar until you have the right consistency.

Now that the cake is cooled off and the frosting is ready, it’s time to mix the two together to make the cake pops.  In a large bowl, break apart and crumble the cake into small pieces,  Add the frosting and mix everything together.

Using a mini scooper, scoop the cake mixture and roll into a ball.

One recipe usually makes about 54 cake pops.  Now before you coat it with candy melt, I usually put it in the fridge for about 1 hour to let it set.

It’s decorating time!!  The first thing you want to do before dipping the cake balls into the red candy melt, you want to make your leaves first.  Microwave the green candy melts in 30 seconds increments while stirring in between.  Put the candy melt in a plastic frosting bag or ziplock bag and make little leaves on the wax paper.  Ta da!!  Leaves!! Put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes to harden.

To coat the apple, put together red candy melt and shortening in a bowl.  Microwave again in 30 seconds increments and stir the candy melt in between.

Dip the stick in the candy melt, put the cake ball on and dip in the red candy melt.

Put the cut-up pretzel sticks on top and add a leaf on each cake pop.

Aren’t they adorable??  I like to use floral foam board to put the ready made cake pops.

It was so fun to make these cake pops!!  It’s a great treat to share with our teacher or your kiddos to kick off the new year.  So to all Teacher and Students, Here’s to a great school year!!!

Tips for making Cake Pops:

• You can make the cake and frosting in advance and make the balls the next day.
• Make sure that you refrigerate the cake balls before dipping them.  This will make sure that they will firm up and not fall apart when you dip it in chocolate.

Happy Baking!!