Colorful Cupcake Cake Pops

I decided after my last batch of cupcake cake pops that I could do better.  Don't get me wrong, they tasted great, and were very cute.  But I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I had to make another batch.  I would pay more attention to detail, and experiment with some colors.

In Bakerella's book, Cake Pops (I love this book!), she makes cupcake cake pops with a chocolate base, and a light top.  I wanted to mix it up a bit and create a light base and a chocolate or colored top.  And to keep it colorful, I used a confetti cake with confetti frosting.  It's gonna be a party of pops!

 I love how the confetti cake mix looks close up.  :)

Here is the cutter I used to make the cupcake bases for each cake ball.  It's rather long, but I'm going to show you how I made it work.

This particular cutter is the smallest one from the 11 piece fluted round cutter set by Ateco.

As you can see, it's round at one end, and crimped at the other.  I'm going to use the crimped end to make my cupcake base.

You can see how I started with a round ball.  It's almost as tall as the cutter.

Shape the ball into a football or potato shape. 

Fit the cake spud shape into the cutter from the bottom (this is the round end by my thumb), and push it up until about half is sticking out.  I then gently pushed down on the exposed cake ball while holding the cake ball inside of the cutter with my thumb.  I gently pushed the cake from the inside so that it would form the shape of the ridges of the cutter.  The top I shaped into a mushroom, gently pinching along the sides.  I keep mentioning the word gently.  It's important or else you'll end up with a mess!  When you're happy with your shape, pop the cake up and out with your thumb.

Here is the result!  A cute little mini cupcake waiting for dipping.

Are you still with me?  Cool- let's keep going!

I think it's important to remember to not mix too much frosting in these.  If you look closely, you'll see that this cake pop looks on the dry side.  If they are over saturated with frosting, they won't hold their shape well at all, and you'll also find that the pops won't stay on the stick when you dip 'em.  That, and too much frosting gives cake pops a mealy texture.  I like my cake pops to resemble cake, not mush.  That's just me.

Cupcake cake pops are made by performing two separate dips.  First dip is the bottom.  You hand dip the bottom in your candy coating, knocking off any excess coating as you go.  Try to get as much candy coating up to the edge of the 'poofy' part of the cupcake as possible.  The cake pop on the right and in the back have good coverage.  I missed a few spots on the pop in the middle, and I had to use a toothpick to fill in the gaps.  It takes extra time to do this, and it doesn't leave a nice finish. 

While the coating is still wet, flip the pop onto its top and stab it with a stick.  Make sure you dip the end of the stick in a bit of extra candy coating to make sure you get good adhesion in the cake pop.  Let the pops sit and dry before setting them upright.

TIP ALERT!  While I was waiting for my pops to finish drying, I needed a way to store my extra candy coating.  Never throw out your candy coating- there is always a use for it in some later cake pop creation!  I lined a small cookie sheet with plastic wrap.

By the way, when making cupcake cake pops, I use ONLY the little square shaped Ziploc containers.  They're great in the microwave, and I've got lots of  'em!  I love the deep corners- perfect for dipping half of a cupcake cake pop (you can really see what you're doing, which is necessary for these little guys!).

Pour it on the sheet.

Gently shake the tray to distribute the coating evenly.  Let it cool, then lift it out of the tray.  Place another piece of plastic on top of it and wrap.  You can even fold it in half for storage.  I write the date on the wrap (and flavor if it's been flavored).  They stack very easily this way.  And if you need just a little bit, it's easy to break off a piece and use just what you need.
(End Tip Alert!  Now back to the cupcake cake pops!)

Okay, so this pop is ready to get its top dipped.  Notice that the bottom has good coating coverage just slightly over the poofy part of the pop.  Yay!

Dipped in chocolate, white nonpareils, and a red M&M to finish the top.   I find that it's easiest to add the M&M first then sprinkle the nonpareils on.  Do this while the coating is still wet or else they won't stick.

Purple top with white nonpareils and a pastel purple M&M.  Pastel M&Ms are easy to find around Easter, but can also be found at some bulk candy stores as well.

And bluuue!  I love the color of the blue candy coating on these.  I also used rainbow sprinkles in this batch.  These were really fun to decorate.

I took a bite so you can see what the confetti cake looks like.  It was a challenge- eating a cake pop- but know I did it for all of you.  I did this several more times to several different pops, but in my excitement, I forgot to photograph them all.  Trust me, they were all delish!

Here's what the finished batch looked like!

I'm much happier with this batch than with my previous batch.  :)








Hope you have fun making your own cupcake cake pops!