I resisted cake pops (or cake balls) for a long time, dismissing them as a stupid fad, and quietly waiting for some other pastry trend to take off (I think donuts might be the next big thing, but I'm still waiting for pie). I didn't understand them- are cake pops like mini-cupcakes, and if so, why do we need cake pops in addition to cupcakes?
It didn't help that my impression of cake pops was based purely on Bakerella, who commits two of what I consider to be baking crimes. The first is the use of cake mixes and canned frosting. Okay, I admit that I'm not being completely fair- she does bake from scratch and posts recipes that don't involve cake mixes. However, when I flipped through her cookbook and her blog, I was disappointed by the use of cake mix and canned frosting. If you have a baking blog, using pre-packaged mixes and foods should be shunned (the taste and quality is inferior and it's not really baking) and damages your credibility.
Okay, moving on.
The second is that Bakerella's focus when it comes to cake pops seems to be about making them not look like cake pops, and I am against this. Sure, they look cute, but I dislike efforts to make cake not look like cake because then the cake isn't about the cake at all, which is why I'm eating the cake in the first place. Do you follow? Cake decorating detracts from the taste of the cake, which you already know because you know that wedding cakes are notorious for tasting like crap. When a cake is decorated to not look like cake, how the cake looks is prioritized over how it tastes, and even though I'm guilty of enjoying cake decorating shows on the Food Network and those cakes look super cool, they cannot possibly taste good. Also, why is it that cake is like the only food that is made to look like something else? I mean, when's the last time you ate a hamburger that was made to look like a rocket?
Ha! Yeah, I thought so.
And so, I resisted cake pops until a few weeks ago. Drew and I were at the Crystal Cove Promenade to grocery shop at Trader Joe's, but then I saw a sign for the Sweet and Saucy Shop and of course we had to go immediately. There was an array of cupcakes, cookies, and tarts, but for some strange reason, I was drawn to the cake pops. If ever there was a time to give in to cake pops, I thought to myself, it's now. So I did, and so did Drew. And they were super good.
And then I vowed to make them myself. Cake pops are easy to make, but there are several steps, so advance planning is necessary. First, I baked the cake and made the frosting. On that same day, when the cake was cool, I crumbled it up and mixed it with the frosting. Then the mixture went into the refrigerator overnight and I shaped the cake balls the next day. On day 3, I dipped the balls in melted chocolate, and after an hour in the fridge, they were ready to go.
The recipe is from the Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook. I made the red velvet cake and the vanilla frosting (cream cheese frosting is customary with red velvet, but Drew is not a fan). I don't normally make red velvet cake (it's just chocolate cake, people!!!), but I made these for Drew's proposal defense. Since his dissertation is on China, the cake balls were meant to resemble the Chinese flag. That is, until I botched the yellow coating- twice. Fortunately, we had a block of dark chocolate in the cupboard and I used that instead.
Liddabit actually calls these cake amazeballs, and for good reason. They are really, really good. Cake balls are more dense than regular cake (because the frosting is mixed in), and they're almost like cake truffles. I'm really glad that I gave cake balls a chance, and I'm already trying to figure out what kind I'm going to bake next.
* This post began as a discussion on cake pops, but you'll see that I actually made cake balls instead. I found the sticks to be unnecessary and even wasteful, so that's why I went with the balls instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment