Cake Pops - for South Africans

This, my friends,is for my fellow South-African-bakers-who-would-like-to-scream-at-the-total-lack-of-baking-supplies-for-anything-in-South-Africa. Yes! Its true. It makes me mad, it makes me sad - well, it used to! Until I met Carla. I know, you hear about her ALL the time, but I am thankful for her ALL the time. She has really helped me in 2 BIG ways: the items I have SEARCHED for and cannot find here in South Africa, she sends me (thanks my sweet friend!) AND she answers ENDLESS questions about items that I have found to substitute for their American-counterparts. And because all of us South African bakers can't have a Carla (no, I won't share her :) ) I thought I would share a few tips and tricks for getting the stuff needed to make cake pops. So here it goes:


One sunny afternoon I had my sweet little nieces over to 'play' and in between watching Tinkerbell, we decided to make some cake pops. They were such great little helpers and we had so much fun!

PS - For the quantities, recipes and more gorgeous cake pops - go on over to Bakerella's blog, she is the cake pop queen! She also has an awesome new book out, which I am sure will hit the stores soon here, but in the mean time you can grab her first book here, here or here - its totally worth it! Be sure to watch her awesome video that she has made to show just how easy it is to make these scrumptious creations!

It all started with some Oreos and a food processor...


 and some vanilla butter cream


 and then this got mixed and rolled to form these


and then these get popped into the freezer for about 15 minutes (but NOT longer - they mustn't freeze or they go almost brittle and they break and crumble when you try and put the lolly stick into them)

Once they are cool - its time for dipping. Up until this point, I am sure that you have mentally checked off all these ingredients - and you can just grab them when you do your everyday grocery shop. But the following things you may have to go out of your way to get (but not too far out of your way :)):

Lolly pop sticks: 
have found a couple places where you can get these from:

Party Themes Classic - they have no web page (boo hoo) but they do have the BIGGEST range of absolutely everything you need to bake and craft! They are in Peters Road in Springfield Park (Durban) and their number is 031 577 0202. Its worth a visit!

Bake A Ton - they have a web page, but you cant order off it just yet. But the awesome thing about them is they deliver, from Port Edward on the south coast to Ballito on the north coast, check their web page for more info.

Learn to Craft - totally web based - and totally awesome! I use them A HANG OF A LOT!

Yuppie Chef - also web based and also totally awesome and they have just started selling candy melts (a bit pricey - but so cool!)

Chocolate Coating:

 
 I always get my chocolate rounds at Bake A Ton, they sell a bag of 500g for about R25ish (I think!) and they stock them in dark, milk and white. They also sell powdered coloring to colour the chocolate (they have an entire rainbow of colours *swoon*)

Candy Melts are just awesome - and I have bought some from Learn to Craft.


Sprinkles:

The best place for sprinkles is Party Themes - wow. They just have SOOOOOO many!

And that's it! If you know of other places - please leave a comment below - I am ALWAYS on the prowl for cool places to buy nice baking supplies from!



So - back to the cake pops...

Get everything together, all within reach, because once you are on a roll - you can't just dash here and there - melted chocolate waits for NO man (or baker!) and then melt your chocolate. You can do it in the microwave, or on the stove top in a double boiler (which I prefer). Once its melted, dip the tip of a lolly stick in the melted chocolate and insert it into the cake ball (not too far in, just about half way)


Then dip it! Bakerella suggests you use a deep bowl, it makes dipping easy and keeps thing neat. Watch her video to see the best way to dip and gently shake off any excess chocolate coating.

Now is when you add sprinkles...


(this is Livi's cake pop - hers was neat and precise)

 Its great to do with little kids - they can just go wild here!


Then pop it into a Styrofoam block  for the chocolate coating to harden. and that's it! Shane made me a really awesome cake-pop-drying-block which I will show you in my next post (I made some cute lady bug cake pops - I cant wait to share them with you). Its makes things so much easier!




 Once they are nice and dry - go ahead and gobble them up!


 (this is Shauna and her cake pop - she was all in with the sprinkles! Was so cute to see each little girl adding their own personality onto their cake pop! :) )


Anyhoo - I hope that, given all this info, that you will attempt these. They are so much fun! They are also really tasty - Shane loves them (and he is not always that fond of cake!)

Just to let you know - these are all my own opinions, I was not sponsored in anyway to write the things I did, I just wanted to make things easier for those who wanted to try these out! (and i just ADORE Angie from Bakerella!)

For this particular recipe - go to Bakerella's blog

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