First, please forgive my pictures! They were taken with my phone :-) This was the bouquet I made for a Carmelite benefit dinner. It's made of cake pops! I'm sure you have heard about them; they are so delicious and so fun to make, and always a big hit.
So here is what you will need:
Cake pop recipe (you can find one anywhere - there are some tips though that I will write on the bottom of the post);
Mini-rose silicone mold- (mine is from ebay);
Candy melts;
Paramount crystal (if you use Wilton's candy melts);
Lollipop sticks;
Toothpick.
Make your cake pops according to the recipe you find the best, shape the balls like a tear drop, making sure the cake balls are smaller than the silicone mold otherwise the cake will break when you try to take out the mold. Chill them.
Melt you candy melts (I prefer double-boil but you can use a microwave). Fill the silicone mold up to 2/3 only (actually it may depend on the size of your cake balls). Put the round side of the cake balls inside of the mold making sure there is no candy dripping over the mold, which would make hard to get out. If some candy starts coming out on the sides just gently clean it off using a toothpick - do not press the side of the mold.
After that, put them in a refrigerator to speed the process of drying. It does not take too long. It should come out really easily from the mold, use a toothpick to pull the mold up, gently, pushing it against the mold, not the cake.
Dip the bottom side of the rose into the melted candy - you may hold with your hands the rose side - stick the lollipop sticks inside of the cake pop, shake the excess of candy and put in the styrofoam to dry.
I made tags with famous quotes of St.Therese and turned into a bouquet using a vase from Ikea.
Here it is! Next time, I will add some edible leaves.
I really like it! And it could be made in red for St. Rita of Cascia or Our Lady!
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Here are some tips to make your cake pop making more fun!
- do not use oil for baking, if the recipe calls for oil replace it with butter (not margarine), the cake will be firmer, not falling off the sticks when dipping and not having oil coming out trough the cake pops later either;
- make your own frosting! It does not take too long, it tastes better, it will no be too sweet and also will not fall off the sticks when dipping because of the butter;
- do not put too much frosting into the crumbled cake before kneading it thoroughly and molding it into balls - I have found that 3 to 4 tablespoons are more than enough.
