Bakes - Cake Pops

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Epub ISBN 9781446484586
Version 1.0

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

VINTAGE
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA

Square Peg is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

Copyright Maria Michaelides 2011

Photography: Noel Murphy
Design: Friederike Huber
Prop Styling: Wei Tang

Maria Michaelides has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published by Square Peg in 2011
(First published in Great Britain by Square Peg in 2011)

www.vintage-books.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This book is for the Mickeys and the Goodies

I am going to let you in on a little secret. I only learnt to bake 2 years ago. Thats right, I had never baked a single cake before then.

Heres how it came about: I had been obsessed by cupcakes for a while so, one Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago, I asked my mother to teach me how to make them because she is a baking queen. That afternoon, some very simple vanilla cupcakes were baked and it all made perfect sense. From then on I was besotted with baking beautiful, fluffy cakes. A month later I lost my job, the day before my 29th birthday. I might well have cried but, secretly, I was not entirely unhappy about it. That night I went home and baked cupcakes for my birthday party. It took me until 1 oclock in the morning just to bake and frost 30. But my friends loved them. Over the months that followed, the more I baked, the more I fell in love. Thats when Molly Bakes was born.

Not long after setting up a stall for selling cupcakes in Brick Lane Market, in Londons East End, I stumbled across something that would change my life for the second time: Cake Pops. I knew instantly that people would love these, and I was right. After a year of perfecting the Molly Bakes Cake Pop I was asked to write this book. And here it is all the tricks for creating the perfect pop.

I hope my story and the recipes that follow show that you dont have to be a brilliant baker or even an experienced cake decorator to make these. All you need is a few simple ingredients, some lollipop sticks and a little imagination.

Enjoy popping! Molly Bakes x

Cake pops are made by combining crumbled cake sponge and frosting, then rolling into balls or other shapes and coating in candy or chocolate.

Once you have mastered the various steps for making cake pops, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities for sweet treats on a stick. All you need is a little patience and careful planning.

One of the many beauties of cake pops is they can be made in advance and the individual steps dont even need to be done on the same day. To make the perfect pop its worth setting some time aside and preparing what you can ahead of time. Things such as rolling the cake pop mixture can be done up to 3 days before you decorate the pops. Just refrigerate and then bring it out when you feel like popping!

All the cake pop recipes in this book are based on making batches of 20 medium pops, or 10 large ones, depending on the nature of the design.

Once you get the hang of it, cake pops are very simple to make because every cake pop recipe follows the same basic steps:

Bake a cake and allow to cool

Make the frosting

Thoroughly crumble the cake

Combine the cake and frosting and refrigerate

Roll mixture into balls and refrigerate

Insert sticks into the balls

Dip cake pops in candy

Decorate

Package and give as a gift or

Eat!

This basic technique is used for all the styles in this book. Once you have mastered the simple cake ball, its easy to create any shape you like, whether a square, rectangle, cone or oval.

Other than lollipop sticks and candy melts, you dont need any fancy equipment for making cake pops (and for the Chocolate Cake Balls . Later on, you might want to invest in more specialist tools such as different-shaped cutters, brushes and moulds for creating elaborate shapes.

YOU WILL NEED

Cake baking tin

The shape of your cake tin doesnt matter round or square, anything is fine since youll be crumbling the cake anyway. A good size for these recipes is a 25cm round tin or a 20cm square one.

Large mixing bowl

For mixing the batter, then later for crumbling the cake sponge and mixing with frosting.

Microwave-safe mixing bowl/s

Plastic bowls are best as ceramic or glass can get too hot and burn your hands. Make sure the bowl is microwave-safe for melting candy or chocolate.

Tray

For placing the rolled cake balls on as and when they are ready for dipping and during refrigeration. Any type of tray can be used.

Elevated metal wire rack

For cooling the cake sponge and for resting dipped cake balls on as they set.