Basic but Delicious Cake Pops

Cake pops are amazing.

They are the great dessert invention of our time. Ever since I've started making them for events, people have been raving about them. I really wish I would take credit for them, but of course all the credit goes to Bakerella. She has some really amazing intricate designs for cake pops, but I've been making the basic version, trying to get them just right. I think this batch was my best yet, so I'll be moving on to fancier designs.

While I love Bakerella's cake pops, I have made one alteration. The base for the pops is cake and frosting, but it's a little too sweet for me so I cut the frosting with cream cheese. The result is still sweet and decadent, but not as overpowering.

You can use whatever combination of candy melts and cake you want. I used dark chocolate and white chocolate candy melts and Valentine's Day Funetti cake mix.

Basic Cake Pops
(makes about 50 cake pops)
1 9x13 cake (just bake up any cake you want, feel free to use a box mix)
1/2 can of prepared frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 lbs candy melts
50 lollipop sticks

Once the cake is cooled, crumble but the cake in a large bowl.

Add the frosting and cream cheese. Mix thoroughly (it's easiest to use your hands).

Roll into about 50 small balls, about the size of a quarter. Chill for 30 minutes.

Melt a small amount of the candy melts (for this step I used white chocolate. Dip the tip of each lollipop stick into the melted candy and insert into a cake ball. Repeat, with all the lollipop sticks, then chill the pops for another 30 minutes.

Melt the rest of the candy melts (here I used dark chocolate candy melts). Dip each cake pop into the melted candy and swirl over the bowl to remove excess. After dipping the pops I placed them into mugs to keep the pops smooth (if you place them on a tray one side will be flat). You could also insert them into styrofoam to stand them up, but I couldn't find any.

Once the chocolate sets you can take them out of the mugs/styrofoam, and decorate further or just enjoy.

I took some red candy melts I had on hand and melted them, then piped swirls on the top of each pop and them dipped them in rainbow sprinkles.

(A terrible picture I know, but I'm sure to be making more soon.)