Helpful Tips Tuesday: Droopy Helmets

There are so many things wrong with this cake pop!  I debated putting it on the pop fail Friday post, but decided there's some good tips I could let you know about so this DOESN'T happen!

This was attempting to be a football helmet.  Yeah.  However, the problem did not lie in the shape of the cake, I think it would have turned out pretty cute...had I followed all of my own rules when dipping cake pops.

All the "how tos" out there tell you that you should keep your rolled up cake balls in the fridge until you are ready to dip.  Then only pull out 4-6 balls at a time as you are dipping, keeping the other ones in the fridge to keep them chilled.

I do keep the cake balls in the fridge, however I actually pull out 12-18 at a time to dip them, depending on how many I am doing for a particular order.  The balls do need to be chilled, however if they are too chilled, you will run into problems like cracking, oil running, etc.  The reason for this is because the cake contracts when it gets cold...then expands again when it gets warm.  So if you cover it with the candy coating too soon, it will crack the coating as it expands.  Once the cake balls have come back to room temperature and my candy melts are ready for dipping, the dipping part actually goes pretty fast, so I can easily do one to one and a half dozen at a time.

Now, why did my little football helmet turn out so ugly?  The mixture was already a little too moist from adding too much icing to the crumbled cake.  I can usually get away with it if it's just a little too moist, but since I had also left them out of the fridge for too long, the combination of that resulted in the picture you see at the top of this post.  As soon as I dipped it, it started falling off the stick, and no amount of turning, tapping, or gymnastics twirling was going to bring it back.  I didn't even try more than one.  I knew it was a lost cause.

So the tip is, let the cake come back to room temperature before you dip it, but don't wait TOO long!  Or you will have droopy, ugly football helmets that look more like - well, let's just call it as we see it - poop on a stick.

Helpful Tips Tuesday: Less is Best

I've found a lot of blog posts out there that talk about how they tried to make cake pops, and when they rolled the cake pop in the sprinkles it was such a mess.  Here's today's tip: Don't roll your pop in the sprinkles!!  Take a pinch of sprinkles between your fingers, and sprinkle it on the cake pop as you twist it around, getting a light and even layer all over.  Rolling your cake pop in the sprinkles will only result in a huge mess, not to mention that bowl of sprinkles will be useless when you're done.  I always save my leftovers and pour them back into the bottle which would be impossible if you roll your pop in them.  Now, go forth and sprinkle!

Helpful Tips Tuesday: Duh

Welcome to Helpful Tips Tuesday!  Is that a thing? It is now!  I hope to start posting these every week.  Some tips will be funny, some tips will actually be helpful if you like to make cake pops, and some tips will have absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than to simply state the obvious.  Just warning you.  :)

This brings me to our first tip.  Tip #892.  Huh?  Just roll with it...  When dipping your pops, it is pretty important to NOT brush up against it while it is still wet.  And yes, it will still be wet if it has only been approximately 3 seconds since you stuck it into the styrofoam.  So the next time you want to reach way back and pick up a pop from the very back of your styrofoam, try not to mutilate the ones you just stuck in the front.

You're welcome.