CAKE POPS! CAKE BALLS!

You will need:

1 baked cake prepared from box cake mix or from scratch.

1 plastic tub of frosting or equal amount of scratch frosting.

1lb chocolate melts or chocolate of choice

1/4 cup oil

Popsicle sticks (optional)

Sprinkles, candies etc for decorations

Airtight container and wax paper/tin foil.

You may also want plastic bagies for decorating.

Step one, BAKE:

After you have baked a cake allow it to cool completely, no warmth. 

Step two, MIX:

Crumble your entire cake into a large bowl, and add the contents of your frosting container 

(flavor of your choice) using a spoon or gloved hands, mush the frosting and cake together, it will look like a crumbly cookie dough when mixed. You will use about 75%-85% of the can, possibly more depending on the cake. once it is able to mold in your hands, you've got enough frosting.

COOL!!!

This step is very important. The mix should always be cool before you try to work with it. Once your mix is combined cover it and allow it to cool for 2hours in the fridge or just under an hour in the freezer.

SHAPE:

Shap your mix into balls, or push into cookie pans or cut with cookie cutters to desired shapes. I rolled balls and inserted into a greased 12 heart shape cookie pan, sealed with plastic wrap for them to cool.

After you shape,

COOL!!!

Back into the fridge! THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT! if your balls/shapes are not 100% cool, almost frozen, they will crumble or fall off their sticks when you dip them. I use the freezer for cooling after they have been shaped and I allow them to freeze so they are more stable.

STICKS

If you want them on sticks you would now melt a small portion, like a spoonful of chocolate, dip the end of your sticks into the chocolate and then into your shaped balls. And COOL.

NO STICKS:

if you are making just balls without sticks skip the above step, for the lower steps you will need to drop your balls into the chocolate and rotate them with a spoon.

TO MELT THE CHOCOLATE:

In a microwave safe bowl melt chocolates using 30second increasements. If using traditional chocolate add oil as needed to thin. 

DUNK

Dunk completely cool pops into hot chocolate, then lay them on a sheet of wax paper, add any decorations and put them back into the fridge.

The balls must be completely cool/frozen or they will fall off the sticks and smush.If this happens you can recool and try again, or your chocolate may be too thick, in which case you can add more oil and melt it down some more. 

If you cannot get them to stay on the stick try spooning the chocolate over the ball instead.

Extra mix can be stored up to 5 days in the fridge, longer in the freezer. Pops can be stored in the fridge for up to 7 days or in the freezer for 1-2months. Move from the freezer to the fridge a few hours before needed. Use within 3 days of dethawing.

DRIZZLE

For a drizzle affect melt a second color/flavor chocolate and put it in a freezer bag cutting off the very tip of a bottom corner. Squeeze th bag gently an zigzag over your cooled coated pops.

Enjoy!