today I'm going to be sharing with you all my tips and tricks to make perfect homemade cake
pops including a few hacks which help to make the process super easy so first up is the cake now for
simple vanilla cake pops you either want to use your favorite white or vanilla cake recipe I'll
post a link down below to my vanilla cake recipe if you want to use that or my first hack for you
guys is to use a cake box mix because cake pops are made by combining cake and frosting you can
totally get away with using a boxed cake mix and it just makes the process so much easier
now my next hack is to amp up your boxed cake mix I've done a whole video on this which I'll post a
link to below but this is how I'm going to amp up mine so simply follow the instructions on the box
my oven is already preheated to 140c with the fan on as stated on my box and now I'm just adding the
cake mix into a large bowl along with 80 grams of melted butter three quarters of a cup of milk and
3 large eggs now in addition to what's stated on the box I'm also going to add in an extra quarter
cup or 52 grams of unflavored vegetable oil I like to use canola oil now usually I would also add in
an extra egg as well as some extra flavoring but because we're going to be mixing our cake
with frosting I feel like you don't really need it for cake pops now I'm just mixing on low for
30 seconds and then increasing it to a medium speed and mixing for a further two minutes and
again this is just based on the instructions on the back of my packet okay so that is my cake
batter all done so easy and now I'm just going to grease or line an eight inch cake tin so the
cake box that I used today makes 1 8 inch or 20 centimeter cake as always I'm using my homemade
cake release to grease my tin okay and now you just want to pour your batter into your cake tin
and now I'm just going to bake this for 50 minutes as stated on my cake box or until a
toothpick comes out clean so my Cake's been Cooling in the cake tin for about 15 minutes
it smells really good and now I'm just running a thin knife around the edges to release the cake
from the cake tin and then I'm turning it out into my big bowl that I'm going to be making
my cake pop mixture in now we just need to let this cake completely cool but to help speed up
the process a little bit what I like to do is once it's at a point where it's not too
hot to touch then I like to just crumble up the cake with my fingers and then leave it
to continue to cool and this just kind of helps to speed up the process a little bit
now while the cake is cooling let's make our frosting now the next tip that I have for you
guys is if you are using a cake mix then do not use the frosting that comes with it because yeah just
never tastes as good as homemade so let's just put that aside for now and
you know use the frosting for something else and let's make our own super easy
frosting so in a bowl add in 113 grams or half a cup of room temperature unsalted
butter 120 grams or one cup of icing sugar one teaspoon of vanilla and one teaspoon
of milk and then using a hand or stand mixer you just want to mix that together for about
four minutes until it's light and creamy and you want to do this on a medium speed
okay and that is basically our frosting all done now grab your cold cake from earlier put about
three quarters of your frosting in and then mix it on a low speed with your hand mixer or
if you're using a stand mixer then you want to do this with the paddle attachment once it's mixed
if at this point you feel that the cake is soft enough to roll into balls you can leave the rest
of the frosting out otherwise add the rest of the frosting in and mix now I usually add all of mine
in but you know each cake recipe as well as cake box is slightly different you don't want to add
too much frosting if you don't need to because you don't want the cake pops to be mushy so just
until it's moisty enough to roll into balls on the other hand if you feel like your cake
is still too kind of crumbly and you won't be able to roll it into balls then what you can do
is just add in a tablespoon of milk and then just give it a mix and then yeah just keep adding in a
little bit more milk until you think it's at the right consistency so this is the consistency of
my cake now and now the next thing to do is to grab heaped tablespoons of the mixture at a time
roll them into balls and then place them on a lined tray they don't have to be super perfect
just yet because I have another tip coming up to show you how to make them super nice and round
okay now once they are all done you should have about 40 cake balls and now you just want to pop
this into the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 10 minutes because we just need
them to firm up a tiny bit now once you take them out there should be a little firmer and now we're
going to do a second roll and what this does is it helps the cake pops become really nice and round
okay so these are really nice and smooth and round now and now they need to go back into
the fridge for another hour and a half or in the freezer for 30 minutes because they need
to be really nice and cold before we coat them with chocolate now in the meantime we're going
to melt some chocolate now the type of chocolate that you use is very very important and I would
highly recommend using chocolate or candy melts so there's a few reasons for this first being
when this chocolate is melted it's nice and thin which means that it's going to be a lot easier to
coat our little you know cake balls secondly it sets way faster and so you're not going to have
all this kind of leftover chocolate dripping down your cake pop stick lastly it sets nice and firmly
so you're going to have this nice crack when you bite into your cake pop so you want to melt about
580 grams of chocolate you can either have white or dark or even milk but today I'm using white
and dark so I've got half of each so I'm just placing some of the chocolate into some microwave
safe mugs and I just like to melt mine in the microwave for 20 second bursts at a time giving the
chocolate a little mix in between each burst until it's fully melted you can also do this
over a double boiler if you prefer and I just like to top up my chocolate and
melt more as I need it as opposed to kind of melting it all at the beginning
so my cake balls are nice and cold now and the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm
going to grab a cake pop stick dip the tip of it into the chocolate and then place it
into a cake ball about halfway through the cake ball and then I'm just doing the exact
same thing with the rest of the little cake balls this is going to help secure the cake
balls to the stick so that they don't fall off and then we have some nice cake pops
now next I'm going to grab a cake pop and dip it into the melted chocolate and kind of swirl it and
then lift it up and tap it lightly on the side of my cup to allow some of the excess chocolate
to drip off and then just give it a little twirl once you're done and this just helps to wrap the
dripping chocolate around the cake pop and set and then before the chocolate sets you can decorate
the top with some sprinkles freeze-dried fruit shredded coconut whatever you want
now the next challenge is keeping these cake pops upright while the chocolate is setting
so a few little tips for you guys first is to just place them in a cup which is tall enough
and heavy enough to kind of support the cake pops like this another is to fill a
cup or jug with some rice or anything kind of grainy and then place your cake pops in there
and it should hold them up you can also use like a sturdy box and you know just kind of
poke holes in the box and then you know put your cake pops into the little holes and that should
work and the last option is to use some styrofoam so you can just poke your cake pops right inside
and then that is basically it so you just want to do the exact same thing with the rest of the cake
pops now while you're doing this just be aware of the consistency of the chocolate and just
make sure that it's still nice and runny you can always just you know warm it up a little
bit more if you feel like it's thickening up and another thing to keep an eye on is
the temperature of the cake pops and this is because if they get too soft they might fall
off the cake pop stick when you're trying to you know coat it in the chocolate so if
they are getting a little too soft just pop them back into the fridge or freezer for you know 10
minutes or so these cake pops are honestly so so delicious and they're also great as a little treat
for kind of parties or events or you know even just for yourself I think it's time to try one
mmm
it's so so yummy and did you hear that crack when I bit into it that is what you want so that
is it guys I'm going to finish the rest of these later on I hope you enjoyed the video and if you
do give these cake pops a try then don't forget to leave a review on my blog it really helps my
content reach more people and I love hearing from you guys I'll see you in the next video