Basically, I just had to give cake pops another try - and I am SO glad I did! These cake pops are amazing, maybe even more amazing than store-bought ones. I AM NOT KIDDING AROUND HERE! I like food; I know good food when I have it!
To start off with, you want all of the ingredients for a classic lemon cake. I sort of improvised here from what I knew to be cake ingredients and what I knew to be lemons.
INGREDIENTS (Makes about 24 pops):
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
- 1 1/2 boxes Baking chocolate, semi-sweet
- About 2 cups of icing
Since this is an improvised recipe, I decided to be more detailed in this post. Now, you too can make perfectly awesome pops!
First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare (butter, flour, or grease) a 8-by-8-inch cake pan - or any size sheet cake pan, really. It will make sense later, I promise. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Put the butter out to soften as you work.
In separate bowl (or bowls), use a grater to make lemon zest from your 4 lemons. This part will take some time, especially if your grater is anything like mine, where the grater sort of holds the zest instead of just dropping it in the bowl Once finally done, add the zest to the main mixing bowl. Then, slice two lemons in half and juice them. You can buy a juicer at most grocery stores and any cooking store. While juicing, I found it extremely practical to hold a strainer between the juicer and the small bowl. That way, if any seeds or blechy unwanted stuff fell out, the strainer would catch it and I wouldn't have to fish it out of the juice. When you have the proper amount, add juice to the main mixing bowl.
As soon as the dough is smooth - give or take a few lumps - bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes, while you prep your icing. I used store-bought royal icing, which requires microwaving for about 30 seconds.
Once cooled, break your cake into chunks and toss them in a large bowl. Don't actually toss food in your kitchen - you'll have to clean the mess up later. In the large bowl, start breaking your cake chunks down into crumbs. Gradually add icing to the chunks until you've made a matter similar to dough. Roll your pseudo-dough into balls with your hands, or use a round ice cream scoop (very effective).
Let your cake balls chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours, or even overnight. Before taking any cake balls out, start melting just one block of chocolate (about 1-2 oz). Using this small bit of chocolate, dip a cake pop stick in the chocolate and then insert into cake ball. Repeat until all cake balls have a chocolate-inserted stick. Stick the balls back in the freezer for at least 15 minutes while you start melting the rest of your chocolate.
I used Baker's baking chocolate, but it's much thicker than chocolate like Hershey's chocolate chips. If you want a thinner layer of chocolate around your cake pop, use Hershey's. If you are a chocolate lover and dig thick chocolate, grab Baker's chocolate.
Once the sticks have set, pull out about 8 or 9 cake pops at a time to dip. Dip each and set on a wax-paper covered platter or plate or sheet. Once dipped, you can decorate as you please. After dipped and decorate, switch out for another 8 or 9 pops. Repeat until all pops are dipped and decorated. I used red, blue, and silver for my pops. It came out looking like fireworks, which was perfect.
It's sort of a long process, but it's totally worth it! These babies came out perfectly moist and delicious and lemon-y. These were a totally triumph over our first cake pop attempt. Now, I know - and you know - exactly how to make perfectly moist and chewy cake pops.
Stay tuned, next week and beyond, for more awesome recipes and kitchen crazy! Don't forget to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Share the yummy with your friends on Pinterest, Reddit, Facebook, or via email!
