My first post on this blog was based on a recipe I saw on the ever amazing Bakerella.  But what really drew my attention to her website were her crafty cupcake and cake pops!  Red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese frosting coated with a colorful hard candy shell, mmmmm.  If you haven’t made these before, I really think you should try them at least once in your lifetime!  The last batch I made were for my adorable nephew’s 1st birthday/dol party!

Ingredients:

• Red velvet cake mix
• 16 oz. can cream cheese frosting
• Colored candy melts
• Lollipop sticks

Directions:

1. Make your own red velvet cake from scratch or buy a box from store and follow directions on box.  I did the latter.  =)

2. Let cake cool before thoroughly mixing in a 16 oz. can of cream cheese frosting.

3. Form cake and cream cheese mixture into 1.25″-1.5″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.  You should be able to make anywhere from 40-60 balls.   And wash your hands periodically as this can get real messy!

4. Put in fridge for a few hours or in freezer for 15 minutes.

5. While cake balls are chilling, melt colored candy melts in microwave.  I melted mine in a bowl for 2 minutes total, at 30 second intervals and stirring in between.

6. Dip cake balls in melted candy and coat thoroughly.  I used a spoon to help roll the balls around.

7. Dip end of your lollipop stick in the melted chocolate.  Let it dry right side up to ensure perfect roundness.  (I made holes in the bottoms of an egg carton and let the cake pops sit there until dry.)

8. You are now ready to display your cake pops in whichever fashion you choose!

The blue and white cake pops I made were displayed at the sweets buffet table at my nephew’s party!  They were placed in a clear glass container with white sugar and salt water taffies as the base so that they’d hold up.  The first image and last two images were taken by the talented Youkeun Oh Photography, a Los Angeles based photographer.  I love this last one of my nephew Evan sticking out his tongue wishing he could eat a cake pop, tee hee.  I think I taught him how to stick out his tongue the week before his party to the dismay of my sis-in-law (sorry Jenny), but it made for a great pic right?!  More images from Evan’s party can be seen on his blog.

The red velvet and cream cheese frosting mix is heavenly but I think next time I want to play around with different cake + frosting flavor mixes such as chocolate cake and vanilla frosting or devil’s food cake w/ cream cheese frosting.  What other combinations do you think would be good?