At the end of this past summer, a friend an neighbor of mine approached Lara and I and asked us if we would be willing to make her cake pops for her wedding which was going to be in October. We said yes and were very excited to help her our. After making cupcakes for my cousin's wedding in May I felt prepared to try something new for another wedding. There was only one slight problem with all of this though, I had never made cake pops before. I wasn't too worried about it, I knew I could figure it out, but there was still some apprehension about the whole process. After doing a test run in August on cake pop making, I felt ready to go and just had to wait until October. In the end the whole process went very smoothly, and the cake pops turned out great. Congratulations Stacey!
In case you don't know, cake pops are basically cake that you destroy and then mush up with frosting, form into balls, place on a stick and dip into chocolate. It's not a complicated process, but it is time consuming and somewhat labor intense, well at least when you are making over 200 at one time it is! The nice thing about cake pops is that they keep very well for at least a week or two meaning you can make them ahead and not worry too much about them losing quality. Because they are full of frosting they are super moist, and once you dip them in the chocolate this moistness kind of gets sealed in, they don't dry out or loose flavor very quickly. This was nice for me because I didn't have to make them all in the one or two nights before the wedding, I actually started about two weeks before the wedding and was done several days before they were needed. This took some stress off of me which was very nice.
When it was all said and done I think I ended up with about 220 cake pops. There was a little bit of a learning curve with how to dip them in the chocolate, my first few weren't so pretty, but by the end I was a pro at it. Stacey wanted white cake with pink white chocolate and pink sanding sugar, all of which I ordered online. I really had no idea how much of the chocolate or the sugar I would need. In the end I used about 6 pounds of the white chocolate and 2 pounds of sanding sugar total, and this was for cake pops that were 30 grams each.
To be honest, I never could have done this all alone. Having a built in baking partner at home was a must for this project. Trying to study the anatomy of the head and neck and make 200 cake pops all alone would have been difficult. But with a partner, it wasn't so bad at all! Thanks Lara, we make a good team!
After dipping, letting the chocolate dry
All lined up, ready to wrap
200 cake pops later
Cake pops, the perfect wedding favor
Simple White Cake
Adapted from Annie Eats
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk, divided
- 6 large egg whites
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups (11 oz.) cake flour, sifted
- 1½ cups (10.5 oz) sugar
- 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 12 tbsp. (¾ cup) butter, at room temperature
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. In a liquid measuring cup, combine ¼ cup of the whole milk, egg whites, and vanilla extract. Whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix briefly on low speed to combine, about 30 seconds.
Add in the butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles wet sand, about 30 seconds. Mix in the remaining ¾ cup of milk, then increase the speed to medium and beat for about 90 seconds more.
With the mixture on low speed, add the egg white mixture in three additions, mixing for about 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
Pour the batter into a greased 9x13-inch pan. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
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