Cake Pops for Everyone!

My husband and I decided today "Let's make cake pops"...having never made these before we looked up a few tutorials online, decided on a flavor, went to the store and BAM! Cake Pops!

We decided on lemon and adapted this tutorial we found online...http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/lemon-cake-balls/

The biggest change we made was using dark chocolate instead of white chocolate (I'm not too fond of white chocolate...in fact I hate that it's even called "white chocolate" because there is absolutely NO chocolate in it!...ok I'm done with my rant now) We thought the dark chocolate would complement the lemon flavoring the best...however in the end we ran out of the dark chocolate and used some white...and there were some things we learned! (I have pictures...it's ugly!)

Here is what you will need:

- Lemon cake mix (or another flavor of your choice)

- Lemon icing (or another flavor of your choice)
- 3 tbl lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon

- Dark chocolate melts (we used Ghirardelli melts as they melt really well, but you can use whatever brand you want)

- Cake Pop sticks (you can opt for just cake balls with no sticks but it's a little trickier to cover them with chocolate)

***NOTE*** Be sure what ever brand of chocolate you use it is specifically for making candy. If you get regular chocolate chips they DO NOT melt as well

1. Mix up your cake and bake as directed on the box -add in about 3 tbls lemon juice and zest from 1 lemon

2. Once your cake is done it will need to cool. We decided to let it get warm then cut it in large rectangles and pull it out of the pan so it cooled faster

3. After your cake cools, you will crumble it up (as with the recipe we used it should have the consistency of potting soil)

4. Once crumbled add in 2/3 of your icing - if it is not as moist as you would like add in more (it should be moist enough to stick together - make it too moist and it is a sticky mess when you are trying to roll it!)

5. Take the mixed cake and icing and roll into balls - We found it just as easy to roll it by hand than to use a melon baller (the batter is super sticky!).

It's also very helpful to keep a small bowl of water close by to dampen your hands while you roll. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax or parchment paper

6. Freeze the cake balls for at least an hour

7. Melt your chocolate - the ghirardelli chocolate has instructions on melting in the microwave...however you can use a double broiler as well (Microwave is WAY easier!)

8. Insert your cake pop sticks into the frozen cake balls and dip into chocolate. You may need to use a brush or spoon to help get them completely coated! Place on a wax or parchment paper lined plate and wait for them to dry. It doesn't take but just a few minutes and you can transfer them onto any dish you want...or just eat them!

OK so here is the issues with "white chocolate"!

It doesn't have the same "flow" as chocolate does and therefore it was a lot harder to get a nice smooth coat onto the cake balls...

It's a lot stickier which made it almost impossible for the sticks to stay in the cake balls...resulting in a lot of ugly or broken cake balls

It takes a lot longer to dry

If you like white chocolate or prefer to use it because it goes better with the cake flavor you chose, I'm sure you can find your way around these little annoyances...for me seeing as I don't really like it anyway...well it just isn't worth figuring out. I'll stick with the real stuff!