Goodies & Recipes- Valentines Cake Pop Treats

I got really interested in making cake pops when I realized that my cupcakes could get even more fun if they were accented with smaller cakes!  Since then I have received a cake pop pan as a gift but haven't gone to the store to get sticks, so I am still in that "excited but not experienced" stage of Cake Popping.  I look for inspiration for my cake pop intro all the time and now that Valentine's Day is coming up I have been finding great recipes and such cute little pops so I thought I would share one from Bubble and Sweet that I may use as my first attempt at cake popping.


I hope you are inspired to try something new and Pull Together this sweet treat for all of your special Valentines!

Love is in the Air cake pops with cute birds and hearts for valentine’s day

Love is in the Air cake pops
It is best to start the decorations for these pops the day before to make it easier to handle the fondant decorations. The fondant decorations can be replaced with royal icing or premade - shop purchased decorations if you like.

INGREDIENTS:
cake pop mixture (any type)
lollipop sticks
white candy melts
fondant colored blue and pink - you will only need a small amount  about 1/2 the size of your fist.
Flower shaped fondant or cookie cutter (4cm (1 3/4inch) 
Heart shaped fondant cutter - approx 1.5cm (5/8 inch) in height
Tear drop shaped fondant cutter - approx 2cm (3/4 inch) in length
heart shaped sprinkles
edible pen

These are the fondant cutter sets I got my cutters from

INSTRUCTIONS:
1st Day make the heart and bird fondant decorations

Knead the pink fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use a heart shape fondant cutter to cut out hearts and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper. You don't have to but I like to pinch the bottoms of mine to go to the side, or you can leave then like normal hearts. Allow them to set overnight.

Knead the blue fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use the tear drop shaped fondant cutter to cut out shapes and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper.

Pinch the tail and pull it up to look like a bird and then quickly press a heart sprinkle into each tear shape (see picture for directions).

If you have worked quickly the sprinkle should stick to the fondant, however if you have taken too long the fondant may have dried out already. In that case you can use a little royal icing, edible glue or melted chocolate to attach the heart.

Use an edible pen to draw on a little black dot for an eye.

Leave to set overnight.



2nd Day make the cake pops 

Holding the flower/blossom cutter between your thumb and pointer squish together to shape into a mini cloud.

Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter on top of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray.  Place tray in fridge to chill until firm

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals during the melting process until the mixture is very fluid (but not so much that it is watery). The mixture should be like thick cream.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping.  Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray. Repeat for remaining clouds.

Place the tray back into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or until the sticks are secure. 

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted, if needed remelt in the microwave. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Once set you can lay the cloud pops back down on a tray to work on. Using a toothpick take some of the melted candy coating and stick a bird and heart onto the front of each pop. Allow to set and then using an edible pen draw 2 small lines to look like a beak coming out of the blue bird shape (see pic below)

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

  ***and if you’re a bit of a fan of bird pops, check out Bubble & Sweet’s book Sweets on a Stick, there are instructions for cute bird cake pops and even cuter birdhouse pops.