C is for Cake Pops

One thing I've mastered in the past few months is cake pops.  It wasn't easy and it took quite a bit of time (and a dozen or so boxes of cake mix), but I've finally reached the status of Cake Pop Master.
   

My first batches were a struggle for me because they would crumble and fall off the lollipop sticks or they'd drop into my bowl of dipping chocolate, leaving a delightfully chunky mess.  Sometimes the chocolate coating would be gloppy and uneven or incredibly thick despite my constant reheating.  I tried the double boiler approach as well as the microwave.  I tried bars of chocolate, chocolate chips, and finally candy melts. Many times, after I'd successfully dipped them, my cake pops fell over or the chocolate cooled in a way that the pop looked crooked.  The storage of cake pops is a little tricky, what with all the poking out lollipop sticks and the need for drying time.  For just two bites of gooey cake and chocolate, what a high maintenance dessert!  

In addition to all my procedural issues, I was also dealing with color concerns.  My friend Julia asked me to prepare about 100 cake pops for her dessert reception and she wanted the colors to match her adorable vintage scheme.  I hoped to dye white chocolate a peachy pink color and a turquoise color, but white chocolate doesn't always accept dye and maintain color in the same way frostings do.  My experience with cake frosting did not transfer to cake pop dipping!  The peachy color I concocted would look wonderful in the bowl and then cool and harden as a vibrant orange or once it even developed into a lovely flesh shade.  As you can imagine, they were incredibly appetizing.  

Time after time, my cake pops tasted great, but they looked awful.  They were my nemesis.   

I've come a long way in my cake pop journey and now I can even say I've reached a state of cake pop enlightenment.  It took quite a bit of googling and research to become a pro.  If you're working through your own cake pop battle, I'd suggest the blog Bakerella.  The author even has her own book, Cake Pops, in which she shares recipes and tips for creating some over-the-top desserts on a stick (imagine snowmen, owls, robots, and teeny tiny ice cream cones!).  I'm not into characterizing my cake pops like Bakerella, but it's not difficult for me anymore to create a batch.  It is and always will be a time-consuming endeavor though.  Cake pops are a real treat and they're so gosh darn cute that everybody loves them.  Even anti-cake people, like my husband Peter, enjoy eating cake pops.  I'd say that they're worth all the trouble for events like weddings, showers, tailgates, and birthday parties.

I decided to photo document my most recent batch of cake pops so that I can share my vast and significant knowledge with you.  There's no reason to keep all this wisdom to myself!


Cake Pops According to Rachel

Step 1.  Bake a cake.
It's easiest to use a store-bought cake mix.  Just follow the directions on the box and bake for the shortest amount of time recommended for your pan size.  I prefer Pillsbury over Duncan Hines and I recommend using a glass or light-colored 13x9" pan to avoid getting dark crusty edges on your cake.  Crusty edges don't crumb easily.

Step 2.  Turn the cake into crumbs.
After the cake has cooled completely, you have two options.  You can either break the cake up into pieces and crumb it in the food processor, or you can toss chunks of cake into your stand mixer and then pick out any large pieces that fail to break apart into crumbs.  Think about your audience.  If you're serving five-year-olds at a birthday party, just use the mixer to break up the cake.  If you're preparing a wedding dessert, maybe you should use the food processor for a fine and consistent crumb.

Step 3.  Mix the cake crumbs with frosting.
My favorite tub of frosting is Duncan Hines buttercream, but I also use Duncan Hines classic vanilla.  Stick the frosting in the microwave for a few seconds before you add it to your cake crumbs.  This will help it distribute more evenly.  I use my stand mixer and a spatula to add a glob of icing at a time until the mixture smooths out and thickens.  I almost never use the whole tub of frosting because you don't want the batter to be too thin.

Step 4.  Chill the cake and frosting mixture.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or up to a day.

Step 5.  Roll out the cake balls.
After using a cookie dough scooper for uniform size, I hand-roll the balls of cake and place them on sheets of wax paper lining several cookie sheets.  The dough is much easier to work with when it's cold, so work quickly.  I can generally roll 50 to 60 1-inch cake pops from one cake mix.  If you make the cake pops too large, they fall off the sticks much more easily during the dipping process.  

Step 6.  "Glue in" your lollipop sticks.
Put a handful of candy melts in a microwavable bowl and melt them in the microwave using 30-second intervals.  Stir frequently.  Dip lollipop sticks into the melted chocolate and then immediately stick them into the cake pops.

Step 7.  Chill the cake pops.
Set the cookie sheets filled with cake pops in the refrigerator for a few hours or up to a day.  You can also freeze the cake pops at this stage, but you must defrost them in the refrigerator before dipping them in chocolate, otherwise each pop will crack as the chocolate hardens.  This is the voice of experience.

Step 8.  Melt your chocolate coating.
Don't use chocolate chips because they won't melt down properly.  I recommend Wilton candy melts.  You can buy them at craft stores like Michael's, but most grocery stores also carry chocolate that is meant for melting down.  Put half a bag of candy melts in a microwavable bowl and melt them in the microwave using 30-second intervals.  Stir frequently, adding 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil (or canola oil) at a time until the mixture is very smooth and silky.  It should slowly drizzle off your spoon.  Add any food coloring that you need to.  Make sure you use a bowl that is small enough that you'll have an inch or more of chocolate to dip into.

Step 9.  Dip the cake pops.
Cold cake pops are the best for dipping because they hold together and stay on the stick.  Holding the cake pop by the lollipop stick, dip it into the chocolate mixture and spin it around to coat it on all sides.  Then tap the stick against the edge of the bowl while turning it so that the excess chocolate drips off and the coating becomes smooth and even.  I generally take 4-8 cake pops out of the fridge at a time and then after I've dipped them, I put them on a separate cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  After dipping 20-30 cake pops, you'll probably need to melt the remaining candy melts.  I normally need 1 and 1/2 bags of candy melts to coat all the cake pops made by one cake mix.      

Step 10.  Decorate the cake pops.                        
The chocolate coating hardens pretty quickly, so be sure to add any sprinkles or dragees immediately after dipping.  If you want to add a chocolate drizzle or some other design, spoon some of the melted chocolate into a small plastic bag and use scissors to snip the corner.  While working over a plate, I like to hold the cake pop in one hand and run it under a slow stream of chocolate to create smooth, thin lines that appear to wrap around the pops.

Step 11.  Admire them!  Share them!  Eat them!
 

              

                     

P is for Peanut Butter Cookies

Although summer seems the perfect time for desserts like ice cream, sorbet, peach pie, popsicles, and berry cobblers, I tend to make a lot of cookies.  Maybe it's because they're so portable.  I can toss a few in a bag and bring them along for a picnic or a boat ride.  No refrigeration required.  In fact, if the chocolate chips have melted a little in the summer heat, the cookies will be better!  Maybe I make a lot of cookies because they're a small dessert.  You can pop one as a snack, crumble them over ice cream, or dunk them in milk for the full experience.  

Maybe it's because everyone loves cookies.  My father-in-law adores cookies.  I would go so far as to say that cookies are his achilles heel.  He gave this recipe his stamp of approval, so I know they're good enough to recommend to you.  Enjoy!  

For this recipe, I used unsweetened peanut butter from Whole Foods- the freshly ground variety that tastes dramatically different to those expecting Jif or Peter Pan.  It made the cookies taste a little less sweet but still positively delicious.

Peanut Butter Cookies

from Williams-Sonoma Baking

1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted

1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 c. creamy peanut butter

1 large egg

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

In a mixer on medium speed, beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla.  Sift together in a medium bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Once the peanut butter mixture is creamy and light, slowly add the dry ingredients, blending on low speed.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Spray cookie sheets with non-stick spray.  Use a cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon to measure out the dough in equal quantities and then roll the dough with dampened hands into 1-inch balls.  Place the balls on prepared baking sheets.  Use a fork dipped in flour to lightly press each dough ball and flatten slightly.  Bake the cookies 12-15 minutes and let them cool briefly on the pans.  Use a spatula to move them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely. 

M is for Muffins

For all those concerned, the lost hamster has been found.  Meatloaf, the class pet, escaped his cage and after about 36 hours of delicious freedom, we found him behind the refrigerator.  Actually, I should say that  our friend's dog found him.  We were dog-sitting for our friend Cynthia, so we had Charlie the German Short-haired Pointer as a house guest.  Charlie, fully entranced, had his head wedged between the fridge and the wall, so I had another look back there.  Hamster!  Meatloaf had been sleeping in a pool of oil and other refrigerator ooze in the metal tray at the back of the fridge.  We lured him out with sunflower seeds and then gave him a bath in a mixing bowl with some Dawn.  With a toothbrush in one hand and a squirming, oily critter in the other, I felt like I was in a commercial for dish soap.  "Do more than dishes!"  So now you can sleep better at night knowing that the hamster is safe and Charlie is a true hero.    

After all the hamster drama, I was able to spend a little time baking for the Fourth of July.  We typically spend Independence Day at Smith Mountain Lake with Peter's family and enjoy lots of sun, good company, and multiple fireworks displays.  This year I contributed red, white, and blue muffins made with strawberries, blueberries, and a handful of white chocolate chips.  I don't typically go for the cutesy tootsy color-coordinated holiday stuff even though I am a teacher.  I saw similar muffins being sold at the new Great Harvest bakery here in Charlottesville, and I decided to make my own version.  In addition to the muffins, I also brought a few dozen cookies which didn't last long with nine guests at the lake house for the holiday weekend.  

I hope you had a nice Fourth of July weekend!  

Red, White, and Blue Muffins

adapted from The Willams-Sonoma Baking Book

6 Tbsp. butter, room temp
3/4 c. white sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. fresh strawberries, diced

3/4 c. fresh blueberries

handful of white chocolate chips

handful of oatmeal

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray 12 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray.

Using the mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar and then add the eggs one at a time.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add the dry goods to the butter mixture gradually and mix the milk and vanilla.  Stir until just moistened because the batter should be a little lumpy.  After rinsing the blueberries, sprinkle a spoonful of flour on them and toss the berries around.  This should prevent the blueberries from "bleeding" into the muffins.  Fold in the strawberries, blueberries, and white chocolate chips carefully using a spatula.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups until level with the rim.  Sprinkle the oatmeal on top of the batter so that it shows.  Bake the muffins until golden, about 20-25 minutes.    

  

P is for Pizza

Today as I was rattling off things to make for dinner, Peter asked if we could just order a pizza.  No, we will not just order a pizza!  It might be a big day for football playoffs, but I've been wanting to make my own pizza dough & I simply can't have Dominos do the job for me.

Because I've never made my own dough, I needed a true side-by-side comparison so that I'll know in the future if the homemade dough trouble is really worth it.  Yeast, kneading, rising, resting, etc...it's definitely more complicated than the wonderfully simple can of pizza dough.  God bless you, Pillsbury, but I need a new challenge!  I made one pizza using a can of refrigerated dough on a cookie sheet and one pizza using homemade dough on our pizza stone.

 The homemade dough didn't rise as much as I thought, and I was quite nervous about the "activeness" of my yeast.  However, the dough rose nicely in the oven at 425 and it was sturdy enough to support lots of delicious toppings- pepperoni, onions, green pepper, zucchini, and some spinach.  The homemade dough's crust by itself wasn't as delicious, but it looked a bit more appealing.  The canned dough was softer, but not as thick, and had good flavor, but not as much as the homemade.  When I blindfolded Peter, he guessed incorrectly as to which was homemade and he said that he preferred the homemade (when he thought it was the canned!).

So, I think the homemade pizza dough is worth it.  Here's the recipe incase you want to try it:


Pizza Dough

adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook


1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups flour (I used 1 c. all purpose & 1 c. whole wheat)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 Tbsp. kosher salt


Combine the water, yeast, vinegar, & olive oil in your stand mixer with a dough hook.  Mix until just blended and then add 1 cup of flour.  In a different bowl, mix together the rest of the flour, sugar, and salt.  Add the dry mixture slowly to your wet dough and beat slowly until thoroughly combined.  Mix for 2 minutes more at medium speed.


Put the dough ball in an olive-oiled bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel.  Let it rest at room temp for 30 minutes.


Roll out the dough on a floured counter and cover with a damp kitchen towel.  Let it rest for 10 minutes, and then top it with your favorite sauce, cheese, and veggies or meat.


I cooked the pizza at 425 for 15 minutes.  The book suggests 500 for 10 minutes, but they also divide the dough to make smaller personal pizzas.  To each his own!