Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops!!

Let them eat Cake...Pops!

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops

One of my favorite things has to be Cake balls and even more fun then that is cake pops! So for the ladies Christmas gathering I knew what had to be the favor! Plus I I owed my cousin Paul some for his birthday! It was a win win. Since these little bugers can be a little difficult to make I figured that I would share a how to with you! I know the first time I made them I could have used a detailed how to. So here it goes!

Ingredients

• A box of cake mix (I used dark chocolate, I think it was betty crocker)
• A box of original candy canes
• A jar of frosting (I used Pillsbury peppermint frosting)
• Candy coating or chocolate chips (I used Wiltons white chocolate candy melts)
• Sucker sticks (I bought then at Pat Cattans, any craft store will have them in the baking asile)
• Finally Cute bags to package them in :) Craft store again! Lots of options. 

Step 1:

Bake the cake as directed on the back of the box. Then let it sit and cool until it is COMPLETELY cool. Trust me. It is worth the wait! If you start step two too soon you will end up with a dense cake pop, yuck lol. So use up all you patience and just wait a few hours. And don't forget to put your candy canes in the freezer so we can chop them up later! This will make the process alot easier!

Step 2:

Then take that cake and crumble it! This would be such a fun project to do with kids!

Step 3:

Add your frosting to your crumbled cake and mix it up with your hands. A spoon really will take you a million years. I really really suggest that you use your hands :) Again, I think kids would just love this! I am going to recruit me some kids and give it a try! Once it is all mixed it should look something like this...

 Step 4:

Now just roll it into balls. To measure I use a cookie scoop Pictured to the left, that way the balls are all about the same size. I made some of mine cake pops and some cake balls. If you are going to make cake pops just make sure that you get the stick almost all the way through the ball. You don't necessarily want it sticking out the other side. You just want to be sure that it isn't going to fall out :)
Just so you get an idea of what they should look like at this point, I added some pics of mine.



 

Step 5:

Then just pop the cake balls in the freezer for an hour or so....and again...use that patience! While you are waiting take about half of the candy canes out of the freezer. First take them out the the package and drop them on the counter from a few feet up. Then take them out of their wrappers and put them in a zip lock. Once you have them all unwrapped pound then against the counter (this is not a quiet process lol) Take a mallet of the handle of a knife and break up the larger pieces. Repeat with the other 1/2 of candy canes. After you are done it should look something like the above bag :)

Step 6:Have your chocolate melted and ready to go before you take the cake balls out of the freezer. I always take my cake balls out in sets of 10 or less so that they dont begin to warm up before they are covered with chocolate. If they do being to warm up they will break apart and leave little cake specks in your chocolate. No cool! lol so just keep those babies chilled! Have parchment paper all set to place them on and sprinkle them with the candy canes and let the chocolate set. Then just wait to hear all the rants and raves about your awesome creation! :) People love these things!