Chocolate cake pops

For the inventor of the cake pops, it must have been a moment of pure inspiration following a disaster when the cake didn't come out clean from the pan. How I wish someone had told me that it was possible to salvage a cake from the pan back in the days when I had started baking? I'd have been saved so much teasing from everyone.

Anyways, I don't quite recall how I came across chocolate cake pops. Maybe it was on Bakerella, or probably some other such fantastic website and I made it one day thinking it would be a pretty easy thing to do. Surprisingly it was! What it was though, was time consuming. I had to stay up till around 1.30 in the morning making these cake pops and in minutes they were gone.

They're very popular and the kids keep demanding I make them but I haven't made them in months. Simply because I get a bit sick from licking off all that chocolate from the bowls and my hands.

Here's how they're made -

One cake yields around 60 cake pops.

Chocolate cake

This is my standard chocolate cake recipe, although you can make it the way you usually do also.

200 gms butter
1 1/2 cup sugar, (powdering it is optional)
1 3/4 cup maida (all purpose flour)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup curdled milk ( 1/2 cup milk with a tsp of lemon juice, let it stand for sometime until milk curdles)

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time and then the vanilla essence.

Sieve maida with baking powder and fold it into batter gently.

Mix the curdled milk but don’t over beat. Mix, until just incorporated. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about half an hour.

Let the cake cool and then in a huge bowl, crumble it all up. This is the fun part because your cake doesnt have to look perfect or emerge from the pan perfectly either. :D

Chocolate frosting

Now this is what I keep forgetting each and every time. I mean, I simply forget what kind of frosting I make and I improvise each time. So, doing this from memory now. I make a terrible absentminded cook .

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk

Mix everything and cook for a minute. Beat well until it is glossy.

To assemble cake pops

Pour the chocolate frosting over the crumbled cake and knead it like dough. Make small balls out of it and line it on parchment paper. Freeze for half an hour.

Melt chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler. Dip each ball into the melted chocolate and let it rest on the paper. The chocolate hardens slowly and you can lift each ball off the paper easily enough.