Cake Lollipops

Cake lollipops are treats made from balls of cake dipped in candied chocolate, and are becoming trendy at the moment. Their construction is quiet simple so I've put together a photo essay on how to make them.

The cake base is made from an off the shelf cake mix.

Bake as per directions.

Now that the cake is ready, we execute it in the blender.

Grab a tub of pre-made frosting (any flavour you prefer)

And blend the cake and frosting together.

This produces a very sweet dough.

Roll the dough into 2 inch diameter balls (the size of a timbit).

ProTip: melt some milk chocolate and dip your lollipop sticks into the chocolate, then push them into the cake balls.  When the chocolate hardens it will provide support for the cake treat.

One cake with frosting makes almost three dozen pops. It's best to freeze these pops over night before starting the next step.

Melt in a sauce pan candied modeling chocolate and butter. Once the chocolate is all melted and runny,  dip the frozen pops into the chocolate. Be sure to twist the pops to remove excess chocolate. While the chocolate is still moist dip the pop in sprinkles or other finishing toppings.

To help keep things neat I use a block of styro foam board to hold up pops. 

Some sample Cake Pops.

As the Cake Pops cool the chocolate will crack, so I suggest keeping the pops in a fridge.

The modeling chocolate really make these pops pop.

Vegan Apple Torte

A friend of mine is heading away to attend law school this fall so I thought it would be appropriate to make her a tort cake (i know, lousy pun indeed).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan butter
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 bananas
2 apple sauce containers (200ml)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp soy milk
2 or 3 apples sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp chopped pecans

To start I cleaned, skinned, then sliced up 3 apples, collecting the slices into a ziploc bag and shaking them with cinnamon.

 Setting aside the apples I prepared the batter -- a simple mixture. All the ingredients just go into the mixer and blends until smooth - the key to this recipe is in the apple sauce, bananas, and baking powder, these act as egg replacers from a standard torte recipe. The bananas help add moisture to the batter, while the apple sauce provides flavour, the baking powder assists in leavening the torte. The batter complete, I take the apple slices and arrange them on the bottom of my punt pan, then pour in the batter.

 Bake for 30 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick can pierce and come clean from the torte.

When you slice the torte for serving each slice should have a few whole slices of cinnamon coated apples.

I hope you enjoy this recipe :)