Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake Pops

After my first attempt at Cake Pops I learned two things:  1. They take a lot of work and 2. They are delicious!

Cake Pop Pictorial

The following recipe makes 42 cake pops.

Raspberry Buttercream:
1 cup Unsalted Butter
2.5-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp Raspberry extract
Red food coloring, optional

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Then combine the heavy cream, the raspberry extract and food coloring, gradually pour into butter mixture until combined.  If needed add more powdered sugar for desired consistency.

Cake:
Make your favorite chocolate cake or use a box mix
9 cups cake + 1.5 cups frosting

Bake the cake and allow to cool completely. Then crumble cake into a large bowl, this should be about 9 cups of cake.

Decorations:
Lollipop sticks
2 bags dark chocolate melts
1/2 bag pink white chocolte melts
sprinkles: Pink, Gold, Chocolate

To melt chocolate place in microwave proof bowl.   Heat for 15-30s at a time on a low power setting or defrost.  Stir well.  If chocolate hardens, remelt.

Directions:
Mix 9 cups of crumbled cake and 1.5 cups of the raspberry buttercream, it is easiest to mix them by hand.  To make uniform sized balls I used my 1 in cookie scoop then rolled them in my hands to make them round.  Dip the sticks in the melted dark chocolate and stick in to the balls.  Lay on a  cookie sheet and place in the freezer to allow the cake balls to harden and the chocolate to cool.

Next dip them in the melted dark chocolate.  Then dip into the sprinkles, or if dipping into the pink melts allow the dark chocolate layer to cool a bit first.

There are several cake pop holders now available, but I decided to make my own which I knew would be sturdy.  To hold the cake pops I used styrofoam covered in card board and aluminum foil.

 

I cut the holes into the cardboard first then placed it on top of the styrofoam.  Then covered the whole thing in aluminum foil.  Next I punched all the holes using a lollipop stick.  The holder was very useful while making them and for transporting them!  I used my cupcake carrier to carry them.