Cake Pops

I've never made cake pops before so this was a bit of an experiment. I have a silicone cake pop mould which has never been used until now (and I've had it around a year or so) so I figured I would finally use it! I couldn't manage to find any specific recipes to make cake pops with a mould as most of them involve baking a cake then mixing it up with frosting, but I find these kinds of cake pops a bit too heavy for my tastes so using the mould definitely works better for me.

I decided to use a Madeira cake recipe for the pops, as I figured the denseness of this cake would mean they could withstand being put on a stick and dipped in chocolate. I also had a lot of fun decorating these, due to my endless supply of sprinkles!

This recipe would make around 40 cake pops, which is quite a lot so you can reduce it to make as many as you wish. I made the full mix then made 9 cupcakes on the side as well.

These would make a really cute present for someone's birthday, and if you're feeling adventurous then you can ice "Happy Birthday" into individual cake pops. 

Ingredients

175g butter

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

Few drops of vanilla extract

200g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

Recipe

For the cake pops:-

1) Heat oven to 170C/Gas mark 3 and butter the cake pop mould thoroughly.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy then beat in the eggs one at a time.

3) Add the vanilla extract and almonds and beat until you get a thick batter. If it seems a bit dry then add a splash of milk.

4) Fill half of the cake pop mould to the top. Don't worry about overfilling it as you want it to rise fully to the top half and you can always cut around the balls if there's excess mix.

5) Place the top half on and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

6) Allow to cool fully before removing the cake pops from the mould.

To decorate:-
150g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
Sprinkles of your choice

I used chocolate to cover my cake pops, but you can use candy melts if you prefer. The method for decorating is the same whichever you use.

1) Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

2) Dip one of the cake pop sticks into the chocolate then into the cake pop. I thought I'd show a picture of what they're meant to look like here in case it's a bit confusing. Dipping the stick into chocolate first means that they stick to the stick a lot more.

3) Place the pops immediately in the fridge to allow the stick to fully set in the cake.

4) Carefully cover the cake pops with the melted chocolate then add sprinkles if required.
5) Allow to dry then store in the fridge to give them an extra crunch when you bite in.