Condensed Milk & Shortbread Cake Pops

A while ago Yuppie Chef held a Spring Cake Pop Challenge - and I was all in! I just happen to ADORE spring, and am madly in love with Cake Pops so this one was right up my alley! And to top it off - Bakerella herself had agreed to judge the entries (which Bakerella fan could resit that opportunity!) SO I decided to do mushroom and lady bug cake pops!

I love that cake pops are so versatile, you can pretty much go wild with them once you have gotten to know the basics of them! The consistency of the crumb-icing ratio is probably the MOST important thing to get right when making cake pops because if they are too soft, they fall off the stick, and if they are too hard they crumble when you try and insert the stick into them, but after making them once or twice you kinda get a feel for the perfect consistency and from there - the world of cake pops is your to conquer!

Since making these oreo and vanilla cake pops, I was super keen to try some shortbread and condensed milk ones. When we were growing up my mom used to make these fantastic no-bake marie and condensed milk cookies with us. They were killer sweet and so easy! I (weirdly) often find my self LONGING for these, so I based these cake pops on my hankering for those childhood treats!

Pretty simple:
It takes a 200g packet of bakers eet sum mores (or any shortbread, I bet homemade shortbread would be killer in this!!!! :) ) and about 140ml condensed milk - that's all!

And then you will obviously need some chocolate coating, sticks and all the rest :) But check out this post on where to get all of that!

SO this is how is goes:

In a processor, crush the shortbread until it resembles roughish crumbs

Then, add the condensed milk and mix, mix, mix until it is evenly distributed

Then roll, roll, roll

Phew! Time for a short break! Pop them into the freezer for about 15 min to chill. I guess its not really break time though, because its actually time to get your coating and decorations all together! Its best to have everything you need all within arms reach when you start your dipping, you need to work quite fast, so you cant be running around and counting out sprinkles!

SO for these you will need to grab some chocolate jimmies and some brown m&ms

Once these are all organised, you can start melting your chocolate. For these I bought some red candy melts.

And I melted them in a double boiler on the stove. You can do them in the microwave, but I find a double boiler is more reliable :)

Candy Melts really are wonderful! They are so thick and they are SO reliable! And their colours are so awesome! Ah - so glad for candy melts!

Ok - time for dipping! SO go and grab some sticks and your chilled cake balls out the freezer and let the dipping begin!

First dip your stick in the candy coating

and then push it into your shortbread ball (about 1/2 way)

then plunge it into the candy coating. Bakerella suggests using a deep bowl for this to avoid having to swirl the cake pop around the candy coating! WISE WORDS!

Once its all covered, shake off any excess candy coating

and pop them into a styrafoam block to dry. I am SO lucky to have a wonderful husband who made this cake pop stand for me. He just took a nice piece of wood and drilled some holes about the size of a cake pop stick in it. Its awesome! I just love it! Thanks Shane! xxx

Once the red candy coating is nice and dry, you can melt some dark chocolate (or black candy melts would be even better) and put it in a ziplock bag and cut a tiny piece off one corner to make a decorating pen (if you dont have a real one :) )

First stick the head on by placing a small drop of chocolate on a m&m and sticking on the front of a cake pop, then draw a line from the head to the back of the cake pop. Then you can add the dots!

I also added a little heart sprinkle as lips - cuz they are so cute you will want to kiss them!

and that's it!

I also turned some of these red domes into mushrooms

Same story - just using white chocolate instead of the dark chocolate!

And then pop them into some packets and tie them up with a cute ribbon - and that's it!Just like that! :)

SO the very cool thing about these is....they got me SECOND place in the contest! YIP! How rad is that?!?!?! I was super stoked! You can go and see the other winners here. I really liked Catherine's spring theme - I think she should have come first! Any hoo! I got a R500 voucher from it all and I bought a Mad Millie Cheese Kit with it, which arrived today! SO I am going to be making some cheese tonight! Boooya!

Thanks Yuppie Chef for the awesome opportunity! And the wonderful cheese kit!

If you had to make a spring themed cake pop - what would it be?

Cake Pops - for South Africans

This, my friends,is for my fellow South-African-bakers-who-would-like-to-scream-at-the-total-lack-of-baking-supplies-for-anything-in-South-Africa. Yes! Its true. It makes me mad, it makes me sad - well, it used to! Until I met Carla. I know, you hear about her ALL the time, but I am thankful for her ALL the time. She has really helped me in 2 BIG ways: the items I have SEARCHED for and cannot find here in South Africa, she sends me (thanks my sweet friend!) AND she answers ENDLESS questions about items that I have found to substitute for their American-counterparts. And because all of us South African bakers can't have a Carla (no, I won't share her :) ) I thought I would share a few tips and tricks for getting the stuff needed to make cake pops. So here it goes:

One sunny afternoon I had my sweet little nieces over to 'play' and in between watching Tinkerbell, we decided to make some cake pops. They were such great little helpers and we had so much fun!

PS - For the quantities, recipes and more gorgeous cake pops - go on over to Bakerella's blog, she is the cake pop queen! She also has an awesome new book out, which I am sure will hit the stores soon here, but in the mean time you can grab her first book here, here or here - its totally worth it! Be sure to watch her awesome video that she has made to show just how easy it is to make these scrumptious creations!

It all started with some Oreos and a food processor...

 and some vanilla butter cream

 and then this got mixed and rolled to form these

and then these get popped into the freezer for about 15 minutes (but NOT longer - they mustn't freeze or they go almost brittle and they break and crumble when you try and put the lolly stick into them)

Once they are cool - its time for dipping. Up until this point, I am sure that you have mentally checked off all these ingredients - and you can just grab them when you do your everyday grocery shop. But the following things you may have to go out of your way to get (but not too far out of your way :)):

Lolly pop sticks: 
have found a couple places where you can get these from:

Party Themes Classic - they have no web page (boo hoo) but they do have the BIGGEST range of absolutely everything you need to bake and craft! They are in Peters Road in Springfield Park (Durban) and their number is 031 577 0202. Its worth a visit!

Bake A Ton - they have a web page, but you cant order off it just yet. But the awesome thing about them is they deliver, from Port Edward on the south coast to Ballito on the north coast, check their web page for more info.

Learn to Craft - totally web based - and totally awesome! I use them A HANG OF A LOT!

Yuppie Chef - also web based and also totally awesome and they have just started selling candy melts (a bit pricey - but so cool!)

Chocolate Coating:

 
 I always get my chocolate rounds at Bake A Ton, they sell a bag of 500g for about R25ish (I think!) and they stock them in dark, milk and white. They also sell powdered coloring to colour the chocolate (they have an entire rainbow of colours *swoon*)

Candy Melts are just awesome - and I have bought some from Learn to Craft.


Sprinkles:

The best place for sprinkles is Party Themes - wow. They just have SOOOOOO many!

And that's it! If you know of other places - please leave a comment below - I am ALWAYS on the prowl for cool places to buy nice baking supplies from!

So - back to the cake pops...

Get everything together, all within reach, because once you are on a roll - you can't just dash here and there - melted chocolate waits for NO man (or baker!) and then melt your chocolate. You can do it in the microwave, or on the stove top in a double boiler (which I prefer). Once its melted, dip the tip of a lolly stick in the melted chocolate and insert it into the cake ball (not too far in, just about half way)

Then dip it! Bakerella suggests you use a deep bowl, it makes dipping easy and keeps thing neat. Watch her video to see the best way to dip and gently shake off any excess chocolate coating.

Now is when you add sprinkles...

(this is Livi's cake pop - hers was neat and precise)

 Its great to do with little kids - they can just go wild here!


Then pop it into a Styrofoam block  for the chocolate coating to harden. and that's it! Shane made me a really awesome cake-pop-drying-block which I will show you in my next post (I made some cute lady bug cake pops - I cant wait to share them with you). Its makes things so much easier!

 Once they are nice and dry - go ahead and gobble them up!

 (this is Shauna and her cake pop - she was all in with the sprinkles! Was so cute to see each little girl adding their own personality onto their cake pop! :) )

Anyhoo - I hope that, given all this info, that you will attempt these. They are so much fun! They are also really tasty - Shane loves them (and he is not always that fond of cake!)

Just to let you know - these are all my own opinions, I was not sponsored in anyway to write the things I did, I just wanted to make things easier for those who wanted to try these out! (and i just ADORE Angie from Bakerella!)

For this particular recipe - go to Bakerella's blog

Oreo Smore Cupcakes

I am back! And I am SO sorry I have left you all with shrinking waistlines! I promise over the next weeks I will have you back to your former fat and flourishing state that your bellies enjoyed before I started writing my exams. And YES, I am done for this year! I wrote my last exam today, so I am celebrating by sharing these goregous little fellas with you...

Yup - these are worth celebrating. Really! I have a thing for oreos, so I thought it would be pretty cool to ditch the Marie's or graham crackers and use oreos instead for these, and they did not disappoint! They are a combo of dark chocolate cake, with a gooey marshmallow centre and filled with oreo pieces and chocolate chips - did I just hear you want to celebrate too?!?!?! Well what are you waiting for...

They start off pretty much like my average chocolate cupcake and are actually very similar to my rolo cupcakes:

 
Except here the average base mixture gets bombarded with oreo chunks and chocolate chips :) and gets all stirred up..

so it can smother a whole marshmallow that is waiting in a prepared cupcake pan!

Once all the marshmallows are smothered (but not too smothered - only just - like until the muffin holder is 3/4 full), its time to pop these fellas into the oven!

And once they are baked, it time to let them cool completely before icing them. Just a not on baking cupcakes, I have a firm belief that it is VERY easy to ruin a cupcake by letting it bake for too long. I think that if you poke a skewer in and it comes out clean - its over done! Yes - you heard me! And no I am not crazy! I often get asked - how do you get your cake sooooo moist, and my secret is....I never cook my cupcakes for the recommended time. It takes a couple batches for me to get the timing in my oven perfect, as I am sure it will take for you in your oven, but it is worth finding the "sweet spot" baking time. It makes a hang of a difference!

I mean, check out these guys. Aren't they just gorgeous! Look at the gooey marshmallow oozing over the tops! Yum.

I made a simple, yet fluffy vanilla butter cream for these - it just seemed fitting :)

And there you have it! Now its celebration time!

Chocolate Oreo Smore Cupcakes Printable

Makes about 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes

2 cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup full fat mayonnaise
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups freshly brewed coffee
24 Marshmallows
12 Oreos, broken into chunks
100g chocolate chips (or more, or less)

• Preheat oven to 180' C / 350' F .
• Add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except for the freshly brewed coffee and mix on high speed until combined
• Add the coffee bit by bit until it is all mixed in
• Add the oreos and chocolate chips
• Add a marshmallow to each prepared cupcake liner
• Cover each marshmallow with cake mixture, be careful not to over-fill (¾ way is perfect!)
• Bake for about 20min. (I usually check after 15 min and take them out at about 18min)
• Let them cool completely before frosting them

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting
(depending on how you choose to ice these (the method I used took a lot of icing!) you may need to make a double batch)

250g softened butter
560g icing sugar
dash of vanilla essence
dash of cream

• In an electric mixture, mix butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy, adding the cream bit by bit until a nice smooth piping consistency is reached.
• Add the vanilla essence and mix a bit more
• Ice your cooled cupcakes as you wish!

www.bitsofsunshine.com  (c) Heidi Hawyes