Eyeball pops! Inspired by Bakerella

Last year for my birthday I treated myself to Angie Dudley’s (Bakerella) adorable book, Cake Pops. Ever since then I’ve loved making some of the pops in the book like these skull pops I made awhile back that were based on the ones in the Trick or Treat section. Definitely a big hit with the kids!

This year, I’ve been a cake ball and cake pop making fool! It’s amazing how they’ve taken off and how many people love this irresistible little treat. Recently on Twitter, Angie shared a post on Eyeball pops- so naturally I had to make those as well. I made mine a little gorier, though, and added bloody, red “veins” at the base of the pop. The results were pretty cool! See for yourself!

Next up I think I might try making pumpkin cake balls with spice cake and caramel icing.

Another Thursday night delight: Vampire cake balls (or vampire bites)

Proof that just about every meal, snack, or sweet can be made spooky; I give you this: Vampire cake balls. These are great for those (like me) who just need a little bite of sweet to satisfy without the temptation of a whole slice of cake.  Another great thing about cake balls is that they’re so easy to make; and even if you’ve tried it before and can’t just seem to get the candy coating quite right, with these it doesn’t matter. The messy look actually makes these more creepy in my opinion.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 box of cake mix- I used yellow since I was going to be using white candy coating. This makes it easier to coat without the cake showing through. Red velvet would look really good too though.)

1 can of ready made vanilla or cream cheese icing (again, lighter colors are easier to cover)

white almond bark coating

red candy coating

a large bowl

a small microwavable bowl

a plastic squeeze bottle

a rubber spatula

a cookie sheet

wax paper

a fork

a chopstick

paper candy cups (optional)

1. Bake your cake according to package directions and let cool.

2. Once the cake is completely cool, crumble the cake into the large bowl. To save time you can use a food processor.

3. Using the rubber spatula, mix in just enough icing for the crumbs to hold together. Don’t use too much or the ball won’t hold its shape. I just add a little at a time until it feels right. You won’t use the whole container- usually for a full box cake you’ll only need about 1/2 to 3/4 of the can.

4. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of the icing and crumb mixture, and place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. I usually get anywhere from 45 to 48 cake balls from one cake.

5. Refrigerate the cake balls for at least 20 minutes, or until firm. The firmer the better, but don’t freeze. Don’t take the cake balls out of the fridge until you’re ready to dip them in the candy coating.

6. When the 20 minutes is up, place your white candy coating into the small microwavable bowl. Microwave according to package directions. Usually, depending on your microwave, you can do intervals of 30 seconds and stir after each time. Candy coating may not look melted but will be soft. Don’t overheat it! It’s best to use a small, but deep bowl to ensure that you cover the ball completely when you dip it.

7. Remove the cake balls from the fridge and use a fork to dip them one by one into the candy coating. This takes some practice. I’ve found that the best thing to do is drop the cake ball into the candy an stir it around, then scoop it up with the fork and tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to get rid of the excess. Getting the cake ball off of the fork can be tricky to do without ruining the smooth finish of the candy. With these it isn’t too important since you’ll be making the bite marks, but what I do is gently wiggle the fork so the cake ball slides off of it and onto the waxed paper. Let it begin to set for a few seconds, then use a chopstick to make two bite marks in the cake ball. Don’t push too hard or you’ll go right through. Repeat the process until all cake balls are dipped in the white coating.

8. Place red candy melts into a microwavable plastic squeeze bottle. I use these. Again, melt according to package directions. Squeeze a little of the red candy into each bite mark, making drips down the side of the cake ball. You can use the tip of the bottle or a toothpick to mess it up a little and make it look gorier. Let the candy set completely, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator for a few minutes. Serve on a platter, or in paper candy cups.

August 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge: Molded chocolates and dipped chocolate beer truffles

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Though I love candy, I don’t have much experience making it. In fact, I’ve had more candy fails than candy successes; and every time I’ve attempted to temper chocolate in the past the results have been nothing short of disastrous. I’ve had chocolate seize, bloom, go grainy…you name it! That’s why for this month’s candy challenge, I decided to learn how to temper chocolate the right way (a.k.a. no shortcuts, not microwaves, and by all means NO paraffin!)

I decided to make a dipped truffle with a dark chocolate ganache filling that was flavored with one of my favorite local beers, Natty Greene’s Old Town Brown Ale. When I first tried this beer I noticed a tiny hint of a chocolaty flavor that I thought would be great to try in some type of chocolate dessert, such as chocolate truffles.  I scanned the internet for a specific recipe for chocolate beer ganache, and used this one as a guide. I found that the beer flavor kind of disappeared in the rich dark chocolate, and even after increasing the amount of beer to half a cup, the flavor didn’t really stand out that much. Next time I may use malt extract (you can get this wherever home beer brewing supplies are sold) or I may reduce the beer on the stove to bring out a little more of the “beer” flavor- though I’ve heard to be careful with beer reductions because they may become too bitter.

Here’s the recipe I used (makes about 28 truffle centers):

9 squares of semisweet baking chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2  cup dark beer

Procedure:

1. In a double boiler (or a bowl over a pan of boiling water on the stove), heat the cream and chocolate for 3 minutes without stirring. Then, take the mixture off the heat and whisk until it’s mixed thoroughly and completely smooth. Set aside to cool for a half hour.

2. After the 30 minutes, very slowly and gradually stir in the beer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set (the recipe I used said about 3 hours, but I left mine overnight.)

3. With a melon baller or small scoop, scoop out balls of ganache and use your hands to roll into balls. This will be messy! One thing I do to make it easier, especially if it’s a warm day, is put the scooped out balls into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to really firm them up so they don’t melt into good all over your hands. Just try not to handle them too much and work quickly!

4. After they’re rolled out you can either roll the balls in cocoa powder or topping of choice, or you can dip them in tempered chocolate. If you won’t be covering the ganache balls right away, place them in the fridge so they don’t melt.

To temper the dipping chocolate:

Here is a list of temperatures the chocolate must reach in each stage of the tempering process, depending on the type used.

Celcius
Dark: 45°C-50°C > 27°C > 32°C
Milk: 45°C > 27°C > 30°C
White: 45°C > 27°C > 29°C

Fahrenheit
Dark: 113°F-122°F > 80.6°F > 89.6°F
Milk: 113°F > 80.6°F > 86°F
White: 113°F > 80.6°F > 84.2°F

For my dipping chocolate I used Wilbur’s “Velvet” semisweet dark chocolate. I really liked this brand of chocolate. It tasted great and was affordable- which is a good thing since I’m not the most confident candymaker and don’t want to waste a ton of money on failed experiments.  I got mine online from Candyland Crafts.

Here are instructions and tips for tempering chocolate using the marble/granite method:

• Finely chop chocolate if in bar/slab form.
• Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
• Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bowl does not touch the water).
Tip: Make sure that your bowl fits snuggly into the saucepan so that there’s no chance of steam forming droplets that
may fall into your chocolate. If water gets into your chocolate it will seize!
• Using a rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate so that it melts evenly
• Once it’s melted, keep an eye on the thermometer, as soon as it reaches 45°C / 113°F remove from heat (between 45°C-50°C / 113°F-122°F for dark chocolate)
• Pour ¾ of the melted chocolate onto a marble or granite slab or worktop
• Using a scraper or large palette knife move the chocolate around the surface to help it cool
Tip: Keep the motions neat and tidy, if you’re not working with a lot of chocolate you don’t want to spread it too far otherwise you may end up with chocolate that begins to cool too quickly and start to set as well as drops below
• the necessary temperature. Use a motion that folds the chocolate on itself
• Check temperature regularly with a thermometer
• Once it reaches 27°C / 80°F put the chocolate back into the heatproof bowl with the remaining chocolate
• Gently stir together with a rubber spatula
• Check the temperature to see if it’s risen back up to the working temperature
• If the temperature has not risen to its working temperature, put the bowl back over the simmering water, stirring gently
• IMPORTANT: You really need to keep an eye on the temperature as it can rise quicker than you think, so as soon as it’s up to its working temperature, remove from heat
• It’s now tempered and ready to use
Tip: If you’re using the chocolate to dip a lot of truffles etc. which means the chocolate will be sitting off heat for a while it will naturally start to thicken as it cools. To keep it at an ideal viscosity for even coating, put the bowl over steam for 30sec-1min every 5-10mins, just do not let the temperature go over the working temperature!
Tip: Having the chocolate in a warmed glass bowl and wrapped in hot kitchen towel can also help keep the chocolate at its working temperature for longer
Tip: It is also easier to keep the heat if you work with larger amounts of chocolate rather than small amounts. Any leftover chocolate can be kept to be used later and then re-tempered
Tip: Remember, don’t let any water get into your chocolate at any stage of the tempering process!

Dipping the truffles was a little messier and more difficult than I anticipated, but it was a lot of fun. I bought a special dipping fork to use for this purpose, but I really couldn’t get the hang of it. I dip cake balls all the time using a regular fork, and that’s what I ended up using for these as well. The only problem I had was that once the chocolate set, some of the truffles weren’t completely coated in chocolate on the bottom and I had to re-dip just the bottoms and put them back on the parchment to set. This created large “feet” around the bottom edges that I had to scrape off with a knife.

Dipping truffles is messy business!

Aside from the dipped truffles, I rolled some of the truffle centers in a mixture of cocoa powder and ground cinnamon. I love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate, and since the beer flavor wasn’t really that strong it worked well and tasted great. I also pulled out some of my chocolate molds and made filled molded chocolates in the shape of skulls. I love how shiny they turned out!

 

I also made some Harry Potter-style chocolate frogs for my kids (solid chocolate- no beer filling for the kiddos!), and when I ran out of tempered chocolate I covered the rest of my truffle centers with melted chocolate candy coating (which doesn’t require tempering.)

After participating in this challenge and actually succeeding at tempering chocolate, I’m glad to see that it really isn’t impossible to do at home. With just a bench scraper and a marble pastry board, I was able to make great tasting, almost professional quality candy, and learn a very valuable skill for any baker or candy lover. And though the beer ganache filling tasted more like ganache and less like beer it was still really rich and decadent, and made a great filling for my truffles. Now that I know what I’m doing I can’t wait to experiment with other chocolates and flavor combinations, and see what else I can come up with!

 

S’mores pops

I was recently walking around Walmart when I came across a bag of the world’s largest marshmallows (at least they were the biggest marshmallows I had ever seen), so I just had to buy them. I always make people some type of Christmas candy or edible gift, so I thought this year I would make some s’more pops. Especially for those that are short on time, this is a really easy, really tasty confection that is unbelievably quick to make. All you need is:

• Super huge marshmallows (regular large ones will work too, but get smaller sticks)
• Melted semisweet chocolate
• graham cracker crumbs (I gave my 4 year old a bag of graham crackers and a plastic toy hammer and told him to have fun smashing them. Kept him busy and spent some energy! Win-win!)
• Lollipop sticks  (I think I used the thicker kind that is meant for cookies and brownie pops, they hold the weight better)
• Wax paper
• Creme brulee torch (optional)

Instructions:

1. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with a sheet of waxed paper. Pour out the graham cracker crumbs onto a small plate, and have your bowl of melted chocolate handy.
2. Start by pushing a  stick into the middle of the marshmallow until it almost pops all the way through. It will be a little wobbly at first, but after they’re dipped in the chocolate and chilled they’ll be fine.)
3. Carefully dip the marshmallow halfway into the chocolate, turning to coat evenly. Lift it out of the bowl and let the excess drip back into the bowl.
4. While the chocolate is still melty, dip the marshmallow into the graham cracker crumbs to coat. Place the marshmallow, stick side up on the waxed paper and try not to move it around too much until the chocolate has set. When all your pops have been dipped, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to completely harden the chocolate (about 10 minutes), then take them out of the fridge.
5. If you have a creme brulee torch, use it to lightly toast the exposed marshmallow, but as always be careful not to burn yourself or over-toast the marshmallow. Put the pops back on the cookie sheet to cool, then wrap them with a cling wrap or cellophane and tie with a ribbon.

 

These are the biggest marshmallows I have ever seen!

These make awesome party favors or stocking stuffers