A little while back, I just had to purchase one of these…
In high hopes that I would be able to make perfectly round cake pops in 30 minutes.
Here is what I found…
The steps above are made using the Nordic Ware cake pop pan. I used the fudgy cake recipe that was printed directly on the packaging.
TIP: use that recipe (or a dense brownie/bar recipe)
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp cocoa
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 24 lollipop sticks
- 1 (16 oz.) package chocolate CandiQuik
- Heat oven to 325F. Grease and flour cake pop pan.
- In medium saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips and butter together. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into medium bowl.
- Add sugar and cocoa. Mix until blended.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add flour and salt. Stir until blended.
- Spoon batter into bottom half of pan (without holes) filling each well so it mounds over the top of the pan.
- Place top half of pan on top and secure with keys. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.
- Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove cake pops from pan to cool completely.
- Melt chocolate Candiquik according to package directions.
- Dip lollipop stick into melted chocolate and insert into cake (these were so dense, that I really don't think this step is necessary).
- Dip cake pop in melted coating, spinning to let excess chocolate drip off. Decorate with sprinkles as desired. Place on parchment paper or in a Styrofoam block to set.
Let’s take a closer look…
flying saucer or cake ball?
I had to trim my cake balls – I used a knife and ran it around the center lip that was created by the pan.
These are dang good by the way – they are perfect little brownie bites…highly recommend this recipe they came with.
However, you will notice that they do have tiny little air bubbles, and some of them have flatter bottoms than others.
Those little things did affect their overall appearance when I dipped them. But I was able to hide most of their flaws with lots of sprinkles (always a good tip)!
I think by the time I filled that cake pan, baked 12 cake balls (refilled with the remaining batter and baked the rest of the batch…note: yields 24 cake balls), trimmed them so they were decently round, I could have hand rolled them. If I were to do any kind of quantity with this, I would need about… A LOT more cake pop pans. That would get pricey, as they range in price from $13 (outlet store price) – $20.
Here is what happened when I used a boxed cake mix:
attempt #2 was much better (sprayed with a TON of non stick and filled as much as I could)…however, when I tried to coat them in CandiQuik…it resulted in a lumpy cake pop. No bueno.
Basically the cake mix was too runny, too airy (lots of air bubbles when it baked), too soft…so again, always use a dense cake (such as the recipe provided by Nordic Ware) or a brownie recipe.
Overall…
In my book….
There is no comparison.
But then again, I often find myself needing perfectly round cake balls for pictures and such.
So if you’re not worried about them being perfect and don’t mind that they are not the “traditional” recipe for cake pops (made with crumbled cake + frosting); you will like the pan. After all, it worked fine with the recipe provided and I have to say, they were a bit easier to dip than traditional cake pops.
(For the ‘traditional’ cake pop recipe, please visit my cake pop tutorial)
Tell Me Something Sweet