This is the latest rage in “desserts”….you can even buy them at Starbucks!

Of course the Starbucks version is much prettier than mine!

I’ve made them before, as Cake Balls….when I was making a birthday cake for Riley and something went awry and the cake was destroyed- I stumbled upon Cake Balls as a solution to not throwing away an entire cake!  Basically you bake a cake, crumble it, mix it with a bit of frosting, then roll tiny balls so they become cake “truffles”, and dip them in chocolate coating.  YUM!  I had made a strawberry cake and dipped the cake balls in chocolate and served them as a dessert for the adults.

I had forgotten all about them until recently when a friend was experimenting with different combintations- like pumpkin cake dipped in chocolate, spice cake dipped in white chocolate, lemon cake, red velvet cake, etc.

And as I’ve been frequenting Starbucks a little more than usual, I’ve been eyeballing their pastry case (because they so cleverly put it in plain view of the drive-thru) and the only thing that ever tempts me is the Cake Pops.  They are Cake Balls on a stick!!  At $1.50 each…and 170 calories each…they are easy for me to avoid.  I have never purchased one.

One of my daycare kiddos had a birthday this week and I’ve learned to NOT serve cupcakes to the under 4 crowd.  First off they only eat the frosting….secondly the cupcakes crumble and leave behind an incredible mess.  Everywhere.

Cake Pops to the rescue!

I made a Funfetti Cake in a regular cake pan, when it was mostly cooled I grabbed chunks of it and tossed it into my food processor to chop it into tiny crumbs.  I then used 2/3 cup of premade frosting (leftover homemade buttercream frosting that I had in the freezer for emergencies- thank goodness!) and mixed it all together and made 36 balls.  I ate 4 of them.  I calculated the undipped balls to be 100 calories each.  What a pity.

I refrigerated the balls for several hours, then melted white chocolate chips and dipped the pops in the white chocolate (tinted with food coloring) and dusted them with sprinkles.  What a  F I A S C O.  White Chocolate Chips do not melt well, they are quite temperamental and easily overheat to become a solid mass of goo.  Grrrr….

PLUS, I didn’t have a foam core I could use to keep the sticks upright….this was the next best thing I could think of:

Stacking baking racks on a towel!  Ha! 

But look how yummy these are….

And if you want to make some yourself, here’s a good tutorial.  I also recommend getting one of those melting pots that she uses, and using candy-melts or searching for a fool-proof chocolate dipping recipe/method because simply melting chocolate chips via microwave or stovetop simply isn’t good enough!