Christmas and New Years Cake Pops

I've been busy over the holidays! I made cake pops for both Christmas and New Years Eve. They were yummy!

The first batch (reindeer and snowmen) were chocolate/vanilla and the second batch were banana bread.

Cake pops are super easy to make. All you do is bake a cake, let it cool completely, crumble it up into a bowl and mix it with some frosting. Add a few tablespoons of frosting at a time though because you don't want the mix to be too soft. It will depend on your cake. I found that the box mixes are much more moist so you need less frosting. I used one box cake mix for the reindeer and snowmen and probably less than half a can of frosting.

Roll the mix into balls and freeze for an hour or two. They need to be firm and cold. You poke a stick into them and coat them in melted chocolate, then decorate however your heart desires.

It was after 1am on Christmas Eve when I made these so I didn't take pictures of the process. I took a quick shot of the finished ones with my phone.

A product of 1am baking.

These are the ones I made for New Years Eve.

Inside is banana cake mixed with cream cheese frosting.

Here's the cream cheese frosting.

Crumble the cake into the same bowl. I removed the frosting since I didn't think I would need all of it and I was right. Add frosting then mix with your hands. Add more frosting as needed to get the desired consistency in the mix. It shouldn't be too crumbly or too soft. You should be able to roll it into balls and they should hold their shape.

Banana bread cake balls. Ready for chilling.

Get the nuts chopped, or put whatever garnish you're using into dishes.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds, then stir it. Microwave for 5 more seconds at a time until it's melted. Dip the sicks into the melted chocolate then insert into the cake balls. It's kind of like glue.

Let it cool a bit then dip the cold cake balls into the melted chocolate.

Let some drip off.

Then, while it's wet, dip it into the nuts. This is also the time when you want to add sprinkles or coloured sugars if that's what you're using to decorate. I used walnuts since walnuts go great with banana bread.

Set on parchment to dry.

I dipped some in white chocolate and some in milk.

I let the coating dry then did a drizzle with more chocolate and added coloured sugar.

Here are some excellent resources for making Cake Pops and Cake Balls.

Bakerella - This is actually where I got the reindeer idea.
Cake Pops - Lots of cute ideas here.
Instructables - This site is actually an amazing place to go for pretty much anything you want to learn how to make, food related or not.
seven thirty three - This is where I got the melting snowman idea.

Need more sources? A simple Google, YouTube or Instructables search for "cake pops" or "cake balls" will turn up plenty of results! A YouTube video would be good if you really feel like you have no idea where to start. I learned how to crochet from YouTube too!