Chocolate Oreo Cake Pops

Another original cake pop recipe!

And these aren't just any Oreo pops - they're Oreo cake pops.  Which means no, it's not just crushed Oreos and cream cheese dipped in white chocolate.  It's chocolate cake with Oreo frosting dipped in white chocolate and more Oreos.

You just got awesome'd.

These are rather like those Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops from way back when, but, you know, Oreo! :D

Enjoy!

Chocolate Oreo Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

REQUIRES ROOM TEMPERATURE EGGS AND MILK

REQUIRES COOLING TIME (1-2 hours/overnight)

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (3-4 hours/overnight)

Makes 40-60 cake pops, depending on pop size

Chocolate Cake:

2 1/2 cups flour (spooned and leveled)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the sights of the bowl after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Add flour mixture a third at a time, alternating with milk in two additions: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool completely (overnight works best) before crumbling.

Oreo Frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

3/4 cup crushed Oreos (there should still be chunks!)

1. In a large bowl, beat together softened butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.
3. Add milk if necessary to make the frosting more creamy.
4. Add crushed Oreos and stir gently.

Assembly:

1 cup FINELY crushed Oreos

1-2 bags Target white chips

40-60 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block with holes for pops

1. Crumble the cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly even.
2. Form into cake balls.  Place balls on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight or until firm.
3. Place crushed Oreos in a wide and shallow bowl.
4. Place a metal bowl over a saucepan of water and heat; make sure the water doesn't touch the other side of the bowl.  Drop in a few white chips - when they have melted you are ready to begin.
5. Pour a small amount of oil in the bottom of the bowl and pour in some white chips.  Let melt and stir smooth.  TURN OFF THE HEAT.
6. Dip lollipop sticks into melted white chips and then press into cake balls.  Refrigerate while you dip the rest of the sticks.
7. Dip pops completely in melted white chocolate, brushing off excess with a toothpick.  Immediately roll in finely crushed Oreos and stand in styrofoam block.  Make finished cake pops one at a time - white chocolate will set up quickly.
8. Continue dipping and rolling.  If more white chocolate is needed, turn on heat, add more oil, and add more chips.  Turn off heat once it has melted and continue to dip.
9. Let pops harden completely before taking them anywhere or serving them.  They may be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 3 days, and frozen, tightly covered, for about 2 weeks.

So, let's break it down:
Make that beautiful chocolate cake.

Crush your Oreos!  You'll want chunks for the frosting, and finely crushed Oreos for rolling the cake pops.

Make the frosting...

Add Oreo chunks/crumbs...

And combine with your crumbled cake!

Form into balls and refrigerate.

Then just dip, roll, and let harden!  Enjoy these!

They taste great chilled, also - and I'm sure milk won't mind being drunk with its favorite cookie in cake pop form! ;)
-JJ

House Cake Pops

Talk about a housewarming gift!

Original recipes for the win! :3

And yes, I did bring these to my friend's new home.  She moved away :( but I still keep in touch with her.

Anyhoo, if you knew me, you'd know that I jump at every chance to make cake pops.  Every chance - whether it be Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, or for my own parties.

And here are the results of another chance: house cake pops.

Okay, yeah, they do look like birdhouses.  They look a lot like birdhouses - because they're on sticks.  I hadn't thought of that before I'd already dipped all of the pops.  But, whatever.  If you try making these, you could just make them house cake balls and stick them in green/floral/whatever mini cupcake wrappers.

I am quite proud of these, actually.  I do declare my cake pop making and decorating skills are improving.  I probably messed up only one of these.  And then promptly ate it.

In case you're new to the cake pop making world, then I'll post the actual yellow cake and vanilla frosting recipes I use.  They are my go-to recipes, and work wonderfully - figures, they're from Bakerella!

True, they're both included in my cupcakes post, but now, in future cake pop posts, I can just link back here! ^_^

Now, without further ado, I will present you with the original recipe - and then go into a fairly detailed breakdown:

House Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

REQUIRES ROOM TEMPERATURE EGGS AND MILK

REQUIRES COOLING TIME (1-2 hours/overnight)

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (3-4 hours/overnight)

Makes 40 cake pops

Cake:

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  Add vanilla and combine.
4. Alternatively add flour mixture and milk, in this order: 1/3 flour mixture, 1/2 milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread into prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool completely - this often takes overnight.

Frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

1. In a large bowl, beat together softened butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.
3. Add milk if necessary to make the frosting more creamy.

Assembly:

10 full graham cracker sheets

1 Hershey's milk chocolate bar

1-2 bags Target white chips

40 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block with holes for pops

1. If there are any brown edges to your cake, cut them off.  Then crumble the remaining yellow cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly even.
2. Form into 40 cake cubes, method demonstrated here.  Use remaining mixture to create 40 triangular prisms, pictured below.  Place triangular prisms on cubes, pressing slightly.  Place house cubes on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight or until firm.
3. Break graham cracker sheets into four sections, and break each section in half.
4. Take 10 sections of a Hershey bar and cut into four pieces.
5. Place a metal bowl over a saucepan of water and heat; make sure the water doesn't touch the other side of the bowl.  Drop in a few white chips - when they have melted you are ready to begin.
6. Pour a small amount of oil in the bottom of the bowl and pour in some white chips.  Let melt and stir smooth.  TURN OFF THE HEAT.
7. Dip lollipop sticks into melted white chips and then into the bottoms of the house cubes.  Refrigerate while you dip the rest of the sticks.
8. Dip pops completely in melted white chocolate, brushing off excess with a toothpick.  Immediately stand in styrofoam block and add 2 graham cracker pieces to the roof and 1 Hershey's piece as a door.  Make finished cake pops one at a time - white chocolate will set up quickly.
9. Continue dipping and decorating.  If more white chocolate is needed, turn on heat, add more oil, and add more chips.  Turn off heat once it has melted and continue to dip.
10. Let pops harden completely before taking them anywhere or serving them.  They may be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 3 days, and frozen, tightly covered, for about 2 weeks.

Breaking it down:

So your house cubes will look like this.  You need the little prism-thingies so that the graham cracker roofs can go on easily.  They're pretty easy to form, but it did take me a few tries to get it right.  Just try to make them look like this:

And here are your graham cracker roofs.  IMPORTANT TIP: With your fingernail, try indenting where you want to break the graham cracker fourths in half.  They'll break much easier and you won't have to scrap (or eat xD) as many graham crackers that way.  You want 80 of these by the time you're done.

Now, on to the Hershey's bar.  Just cut the sections with a table knife.

In half...

And then in fourths - long ways.  So NOT like [][][][].  Those doors are too skinny then!  In half vertical, and then in half horizontal.

And make 40 of those.

Then dip your pops.  If you need help dipping, see my dice cake pops post.

Don't they look adorable when they're done!?

And if you want to make a display - I used styrofoam, green tissue paper, and black duct tape.  The other decorations are foam shapes glued on or toothpicked.

Have fun making these!

-JJ

Coffee Cake Pops

Sorry for the long break!  Finals week=no blogging time.

But now that that's all over, it's back to... cake pops!

I made these for my grandma's birthday, because she's addicted to coffee.  I guess I'm not really helping that, am I? :3

So.  I made basic yellow cake in a 9x13 pan, crumbled it, and combined it with some homemade coffee frosting.

About that frosting...

I based my frosting off of this recipe, but I found that it wasn't coffee enough.  Especially when combined with yellow cake.  (Note to self: Next time, bake a coffee-flavored cake and make coffee frosting!)

So I decided to improvise.

(Play ominous music here.)

And, it kind of worked!  Except that I ended up using pretty much all of the powdered sugar and instant coffee.  Oops.

Eventually I got it to a nice, not-too-sweet, very-coffee-flavored frosting.  (Cream cheese, baby.  It really works.)

But when I combined it with the cake, the coffee flavor kind of got lost.  And ran away.  :(

However...


I ground up some instant coffee flakes/things/whateverIdon'tdrinkcoffeesoIwouldn'tknow (Yes, it's true, I don't drink coffee.  I like it, I just don't drink it, that's all don't hate meeee! DX) with a mortar and pestle and stirred it into the cake-and-frosting mixture.  That really got the coffee flavor going strong.

Then I formed it into balls...

And refrigerated them for a day.  For the first time, I didn't coat my cake pops in white chocolate! :O I melted semisweet chocolate chips instead, glopped it on there (which makes for a very thick coating that is prone to melting if you leave it out too long), and stuck a chocolate-covered espresso bean on the top of each one.

Insta-adorable! :)

My advice to you: Let these pops cool for about a half-hour, then stick them in the fridge.  Since it was like 90 degrees when I made these, no wonder they never fully dried/cooled - but real chocolate works differently than white chocolate, so put them in the fridge just in case.

These freeze just as well as any other pops - this I know because I froze them until the day of my grandma's birthday.

My notes:
These were pretty good, except the coating's too thick.  And I don't like coffee-flavored cake.  But that's just me.

If you're trying to make these, the best of luck to ya!
-JJ

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures... I was kind of freaking out about the frosting dilemma...

P.P.S. So you know how I had to experiment with the frosting?  I had lots leftover.  TONS.  And it's all featured in my next post!

Casino Party!

So.  I had a casino-themed party, complete with dance floor and card games, and oh, did I mention the cake pops?

Yep, dice cake pops.  I made over 150 for this party.  It's sort of sad.  Almost.

Needless to say, they were a hit.  I served them in styrofoam boxes decorated to look like really huge dice.

I also served Shrimp Louie Spread, which has quickly become a favorite amongst my family members, if not my friends.

I like it bests on water crackers, but Ritz and other buttery crackers work, too.  The worst part about the spread is that after chopping all that salad shrimp, you can't seem to get the smell off you.  Even after taking a ridiculously long shower.  (Personal experience :D)  So I recommend making the spread the day before.  And then airing out your kitchen.

But what's a party without decorations?

I made my own homemade dice decorations, and so can you with this simple how-to:

You will need: A pencil, a dry-erase marker/really dark, big Sharpie, white boxes, and something to trace around.  Shot glasses and quarters work well.

Trace circles around your glass/coin on the sides of the box.

Use a pencil first!

The circles don't have to be absolutely beautiful, don't worry.

Trace a fairly-smooth circle with your Expo marker or Sharpie...

And then fill it in.  And after a few of these circles, you'll have your very own dice boxes.

As for the rest of the house, I draped green cloths over the tables to make them look more Vegas-like...

Hung red lights adorned with old playing cards (from a not-as-full-as-I'd-like-it deck and hole-punched with a small amount of care)...

...and decorated the rooms with these awesome things.  I don't even know what to call them, but they're really cool.  And I have no idea where I got them.

It was a blast.  And so worth the hours of dipping cake pops.
-JJ

Dice Cake Pops

Woot!  An original recipe!  Sorry, I just have to celebrate my little victories. :) It makes me a happier person.

There's a party behind these cake pops.  Casino-themed, naturally.  So dice make perfect sense!  Cake-dice on sticks make just as much sense, practically, so there ya have it, my inspiration.

Btdubbs, I am extremely proud of these pops.  As of today, I have made about 150 of these babies.  Yeah, that's right.  I am a dice-cake-pop-making machine.

I used Bakerella's yellow cake and vanilla frosting recipes, both of which can be found in my recent post about cupcakes.

Dice Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER, ROOM TEMP MILK, ROOM TEMP EGGS

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME

REQUIRES HARDENING TIME

1 cake

1 Bakerella-sized batch of frosting OR 3/4 can frosting

1-2 bags Target white chips (you can use Nestle if you want, but Target's chips work better for coating)

1 bag mini chocolate chips

50 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block

1. Bake your cake.  (And make your frosting, if you're doing it totally home-made - WHICH I REALLY RECOMMEND!!!)
2. Crumble your cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and combine with a wooden spoon.
3. Form cake and frosting mixture into cubes.  Place cubes on wax paper and store in an airtight container in a refrigerator overnight.
4. Melt white chocolate chips and oil in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water - don't let the surface of the water touch the bottom of the bowl.
5. Get out about 4 cake cubes at a time.  Dip lollipop sticks into chocolate, then stick into cake cubes.  Coat/dip each cake cube separately.
6. Immediately after dipping, decorate with mini chocolate chips in a dice pattern.  Then dip and decorate the rest of the cake cubes you took out of the fridge.
7. Stick pops into styrofoam block and let them harden completely before storing.
8. Repeat with remaining cake cubes.
9. Store pops in an airtight container at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or in the freezer.  Makes anywhere from 48-64 pops, depending on cube size.

Without further ado, I'll break it down for ya(with details to spare):

The ingredients for the yellow cake... 

Much thanks to Bakerella for her awesome book!  There are so many great tips in there that really helped with the dipping/cooling/storing processes.

So.  Bake your yellow cake.

See the brown edges?  The first time I made these pops (which goes undocumented for a reason), I crumbled that in with the rest of the cake.  Big mistake.  It turns the inside of the pops a suspicious brown-yellow color, that - while it screams "Homemade!" really loudly, in your face - isn't the most appetizing.  So this time, I cut off the brown, sticky edges with a plastic knife and the crumbled cake turned out beautifully:

Whip up that vanilla frosting...

And mix it into the crumbled cake with a wooden spoon.

But... what's this?

Crumbled chocolate cake?  And chocolate frosting?

Yes, I made chocolate cake pops as well!  I used Bakerella's basic recipes for chocolate cake and chocolate frosting:

Chocolate Cake

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER, ROOM TEMP EGGS, ROOM TEMP MILK

2 1/2 cups flour (spooned and leveled)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the sights of the bowl after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Add flour mixture a third at a time, alternating with milk in two additions: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool completely (overnight works best) before crumbling.

Chocolate Frosting

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed (probably will be)

1. Cream butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Add cocoa and mix until just combined.
4. Add milk if needed to make the frosting creamier.

Now, where were we?

Form your cake-and-frosting mush into cubes...

Here's how you do that in a neat, quick manner: Form the mush into balls...

Then squish on three sides with the bottom of a plate...

...and there you have it!  A perfect-ish cake cube!

Let them chill in the fridge, on wax paper and stored in an airtight container, overnight.  In the meantime, you can begin on the decorations.  They won't last you all night, but they take a good amount of time.  Unfortunately, you can't just stick mini chocolate chips in your coated pops and call it a day.  But what you can do is this...

I'm talking about flicking the tip off the top of each mini chip.  And, of course, eating the leftovers.  Once you get the hang of it, neither task takes too much time.

Nom.  So once your chips are de-tipped and your cubes are hard enough, melt some oil in a metal bowl above a saucepan of water...

NOT that much oil.  That's enough for more than one bag of white chips.  Add a little oil, and a few chips...

...and then add more chips.

You want a consistency like this:

Then TURN THAT BURNER OFF!  The white chocolate doesn't cool for a while, so you'll have plenty of working time.  Actually, I didn't have to remelt the chips at all - I only turned on the burner to add in more chips and oil!
Again, use Target's chips.  They work the best.  I don't know what it is about them, or how fake they are compared to Nestle (whoops, did I say that?), but they are amazing.
Anyways, dip a lollipop stick in the chocolate and stick it into one of your cake cubes.  Then coat the cake cube with chocolate.  I do this by glopping a bunch of white chocolate onto the cube with that mini spatula you've been seeing...

...and smoothing off the sides with a toothpick.

As soon as you finish coating a pop, stick your prepared chocolate chips into the sides - otherwise the chocolate will harden and you won't be able to decorate the pop.  Be sure to alternate how many chips are on the top of the pop.  And, if you don't have a die handy to help you, each set of opposite sides adds up to 7.
A quick tip: if your chocolate does start to harden too quickly, you probably have too much oil.  Add more white chips and, if necessary, turn on the burner again until the new chips are melted.  Your chocolate may continue to harden too quickly for another pop, but then it'll slow down and you'll be able to decorate again.
It also helps to stick a pop in a styrofoam block when decorating so that you don't have to hold it.  Just turn the pop when you need to reach the other sides.  Then, leave the pop in the styrofoam to harden.

Once completely hard, the pops can be stored at room temperature a few days, refrigerated for a few more days, or frozen for at least a week.  Just pop them (get it?) into an airtight container and choose your temperature.  They take about two hours to thaw when stored in the freezer, and the cake inside is still slightly cold - although if you ask me, the pops are better when sort of chilly!

Of course, they're delicious at any temperature.  Or with any flavor.

And they will soon disappear.

Like all your money at a casino.

-JJ