Recipe: Absolutely Gorgeous Easter Cake Pops

Una Kavanagh

Easter is on the horizon and you know what that means? Plenty of goodies and treats to put together!

To kickstart our featured Easter recipes, we having a look at these amazing cake pops, that not only look beautiful but they taste great too.

Courtesy of I Love Cooking, this recipe may look like it has a long number of steps, but trust us – it’ll be worth it. Grab your ingredients and let’s get cracking.

For the cake:

190g self raising flour, sieved
155g plain flour, sieved
1 tsp salt
250ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g sugar
4 eggs

For the frosting:

55g/2oz unsalted butter, softened
190g/6½oz icing sugar, sifted
1½ tbsp milk
¼ tsp salt

To decorate:

800g/28oz candy melts, various colours
Sunflower oil Sprinkles, various colours
Lollipop sticks or straws

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease two 20cm/8inch cake tins and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flours and salt in a medium sizes bowl and set aside. In a medium sized jug, whisk together the milk and vanilla extract and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat softened butter until smooth, add sugar and beat until well creamed and pale in colour. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat for 2 minutes before adding the next egg. Make sure to scrap down the bowl after each addition.
Add one third of the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, then add half of the liquids and mix just until incorporated. Repeat these two steps, then fold in the last of the dry ingredients.
Divide batter evenly between prepared cake tins and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes, then remove from tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the icing, beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and milk and beat until well mixed.
Trim away the darker outsides of the cake and discard, then use your fingers to crumble the sponge into a large bowl.
Add about two thirds of the frosting to the crumbs and initially stir in with a wooden spoon or blunt knife, then carry on mixing together with your hands so that the crumbs are well mixed with the frosting. Check the consistency by squeezing a small ball together, if it doesn’t hold easily, add more frosting, thoroughly mix in then check consistency again.
Scoop tablespoons of mixture and roll balls between your palms until smooth. Shape each ball into an egg shape by gently pinching and rolling one end. Place “eggs” on a tray then cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for about an hour.
Melt a small amount of Candy Melts according to the package instructions. Dip the end of a lollipop stick in the melted Candy Melts and gently push the dipped end into the bottom end of the “egg”. Leave to set for about 10 minutes.
To coat each cake pop, melt desired colour of Candy Melts according to package instructions in a deep bowl, once melted, stir in 1 tbsp of sunflower oil for every 100g/3½oz of Candy Melts used. Dip each “egg” in the Candy Melts, then tap the stick on the edge of the bowl while rotating the cake pop to allow for excess coating to neatly drip off. Re-heat Candy Melts for short bursts on very low if starting to thicken. Stand cake pops in glasses, florist foam, polystyrene cake dummy or cake pop stand to dry, making sure that they don’t touch each other.
To decorate cake pops, melt or re-melt desired colour of Candy Melts according to package instructions. Fit a piping bag with a small plain tip, or simply cut the very end off the piping bag then fill with melted coating. Working quickly, pipe designs on cake pop.
Then immediately spoon sprinkles over cake pop so that they stick to the piped designs. You may find it necessary to only pipe designs over half of a cake pop, then spoon sprinkles over, then finishing the design and spooning more sprinkles to finish if you are in a colder environment or are slower to pipe the designs, as the piping may start to set too soon which won’t allow sprinkles to stick.
Keep cake pops in a cool place or in the fridge, and they keep well for up to two weeks.