When I was ready to decorate some of the cake balls, out of
the freezer they came. I trimmed the Saturn rings off the balls made in the pans,
which was done easily, and then I was ready to proceed.
First I melted some chocolate, dipped the ends of the cake
pop sticks in it, and then stuck the sticks in the bottom of the cake balls.
This was done so that, hopefully, the chocolate would ‘glue’ the stick into the
ball so that it wouldn’t fall off during dipping. As a stand for the cake
balls, I used an egg carton. This did not work very well as the cake balls kept
leaning, so next time will try sticking them in Styrofoam.
For the ears I used chocolate meting discs and trimmed a
little hunk from them so the bottom of the ear would fit the cake ball better.
I then dipped the bottoms of the ears in melted chocolate and stuck them to the
cake balls. This worked pretty well and the chocolate set pretty quickly and
only a couple of times did I have to save a sliding ear from mal-forming the
mouse or sliding off.
The traditional cake ball, lemon flavored, was to have a
yellow coating with black and yellow sugar. This combination didn’t translate
that well, so think next time will just use yellow sugar and leave out the black.
I used good quality melting discs tinted yellow and began to try and dip. Try.
I thought the coating was deep enough but obviously not and it didn’t slide in
and out as I hoped. It was awkward and I felt the ball was falling off the
stick, so just ended up icing them all and trying to keep the coating as smooth
as possible. Here’s a tip…this stuff dries fast
so throw that sugar on quickly or it won’t be sticking.
For the cake pop pan ball, which was spice, I used orange
pre colored melting chips, again a nice quality. By now I’d given up on the
dipping idea (seriously, you’d need a big old vat) so iced them and quickly tossed
on tons of black and orange sprinkles.
I ended up adding a touch of vegetable oil to the melted
dipping chips and this did help with a smoother consistency.
The cake pop pan pops seemed to set up better and once icing
was sealed on the bottom around the stick seemed pretty sturdy. The traditional
pops still seemed too soft…maybe I over did the icing to cake ratio. I ended up
having to glob more icing on the bottom of these, around the stick, to have
them be solid enough to not just fall off the sticks.
They both finished up looking OK, though the cake pop pan
balls were rounder and more polished looking. Cutting them open shows the cake
pop pan ball is basically a round cupcake on a stick, while the traditional cake
ball is denser and much sweeter.
So which one wins? They both have their pro and cons as far
as preparation challenges go, so it’s a tie. It all comes down to personal
taste preference, so it’s up to you.
But wait! Look what I found! Looks like there needs to be a
part four..the Mickey Mouse Cake Pop Pan vs Traditional Cake Pops vs Round Cake
Pop Pan challenge.
Stay Tuned.
