I tried out the cake pop pan this weekend (recommended by a friend) and wanted to share my results. I love traditional cake pops that are prepared by crumbling cake and mixing with a little prepared frosting, however they are a bit time consuming to make (and can be a little too sweet and dense for some folks). So, I was excited about making the cake balls directly in the baking pan and skipping the extra steps. Here are my findings....
The cake pop pan (which I bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond) is overall a great design. It is well made and has a great non-stick surface. However, it tends to overflow as the pops are baking. So you end up with a bunch of cake "cups" on top of the pan. My kids thought this was great, though, because I just filled them with whipped cream and called them mini cake cup surprises. I think that they liked them better than the pops. I could have saved myself a lot of work and just scrapped the balls and served up some cake cup Valentine treats. A few sprinkles on top and I could have called it a day.
I made sure to follow the directions with the pan and added a box of pudding, used less water than the cake mix called for and added an extra egg. This is supposed to made for a more dense cake ball to work with to make sure that they don't fall off the stick. After they cooled, I added a small amount of melted chocolate to each stick and placed inside each cake ball. I placed them into the refrigerator to harden until set.
Dipping the cake pops were a little tricky, because they are larger and more fragile than a traditional cake pop. I used melting chocolate to dip the cake pops and topped them with various sprinkles. I found that a lot of my cake pops turned out great, but some of them wanted to fall off the stick. To keep them all uniform and pretty, I decided to turn them upside down into a cupcake liner and cover them with sprinkles. This way, they all turned out great and they would be super easy to transport to the kid's parties at school.
My verdict....I love this pan for making these upside down treats, but they are not easy to work with for traditional pops. They are larger, more airy and harder to dip. However, the fluffier cake texture is wonderful. I'll keep practicing with my new pan and see if I can't perfect the dipping technique. It was a good investment and these upside down treats are a fun twist on the original favorite.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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