It would be awesome to start by talking about my most recent kitchen adventure, but the pictures are still stuck on my camera and need to be uploaded...they will pop up here later on. It was the Big E's birthday yesterday (homeboy is aging rapidly). I'd recently read many many articles about cake pops and being a budding baker I thought YO...lemme try that. The Eli is a drummer, so I thought I would try making cake pop drums! A quick google image search gave me the perfect idea for his cake. Here is what I found, thanks to kathyphantastic:
Perfecto! Eli's got this shirt with animal on it that says "Less Talkin, More Rockin!" so this could not be a better suited design for his birthday surprise.
What I did change is the sparkle on the drums, since his dream drumset has a blue sparkle shell. Also, I made a 2 layer cake and cut round one of them so that I can use that extra cake for the actual cake pops. I put what was left of the smaller circle on top of the bigger one so it acted as kind of a platform...a stage if you will...for Animal and his drumset!
LESSONS LEARNED:
- Cake pops aren't the most difficult kitchen adventure, however don't underestimate the amount of timing needed to do it right.
- Also, you need to give yourself a try or two before you're really able to figure out how to work with melting chocolate: You don't want to under melt it because then when you dip the cake pop it will pick up too much chocolate, get really heavy and maybe fall apart. Also, when cake pops are too heavy, and you happen to want to set them up in a cake (like I did) the cake may not be able to support their weight and things can fall apart!
- Make sure you have everything laid out (any decorations, a space for dipping, a space for the dipped dudes to settle) before you get going.
- A note on decorations: regular sprinkles are both cute and tasty however for those of you who are adventurous and tend to get a little wild in the baking aisle at Michaels, watch out for edible glitter and the like. While it will probably work great for your decorating purposes, it will almost definitely turn your mouth colors. (My apologies for not photographically documenting the test bite I took out of one of the drums that turned my entire mouth bright blue...)
- Don't underestimate the power of foam or styrofoam! Without a place to lounge while they are drying, these pops will make problems for you. I thought I could outsmart the need for foam by creating some contraption that they could sit on by I was sorely mistaken.
AFTER ALL THAT HERE IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT!
cake pops pre-dip...one ball for each drum of the set
...bummer...looks like there is some left over for snacking...
un-iced cakes...please notice the hand print in the big cake from when I tried to remove it from the pan and failed due to my lack of non-stick spray...creepy ghost hand...
the finished dude! do me a favor and ignore the filthy kitchen. focus on the cute little "animal" hiding behind the drum set.
he travelled with us to the birthday dinner at Cafe Coyote, which (as a side note) is exactly the place to go if you are in San Diego and want the best Mexican in Old Town.
Things ended up working rather well, if I say so myself, for it having been my first expedition into the cake pop jungle. I ended up making quite the cute little drumset complete with two cymbals (idea from kathyphantastic again!) and Eli was quite pleased. However, that jerk turns out to be watching his womanly figure or some such nonsense so, sadly, the cake was left for me to finish off. Big bummer.
UPDATE ON THAT...most of the cake pops are gone. Delicious sadness.
Cake pops will definitely happen again one day. Most likely after finals are over. Most definitely after finals are over actually.
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