**The Art of Cake Pops**

When it comes to creating sweet treats, cake pops are a popular choice among bakers and dessert enthusiasts alike. In this article, we'll explore three different varieties of cake pops: birthday cake cake pops, pumpkin spice cake pops, and learn how to create them using simple recipes and techniques.

**Birthday Cake Cake Pops**

To make birthday cake cake pops, you'll need a 10-inch cake pan or a 9x13 casserole dish. Since we're making a double batch, I've opted for the 9x13 casserole dish. The cake will be baked in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven until the thickest point registers at 200 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit. After cooling in the pan for 15 minutes, the cake will be turned out onto a wire rack and allowed to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, it's time to break it up into cakey crumbles. This will be combined with the same recipe of frosting, but with a twist: instead of peppermint extract, I've added sprinkles because we're making birthday cake cake pops. To make the frosting, mix together three-quarters of a cup of flour, half a cup of granulated sugar, a tablespoon and a half of light brown sugar, half teaspoon each of baking powder and kosher salt, and two tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles. Add a quarter cup of vegetable oil and one tablespoon of vanilla extract, and mix until the mixture forms a cohesive dough.

Roll the cake balls into balls and coat them in birthday cake crumbles. To make the crumbs, spread out a mixture of flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in a 300-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 15 minutes, shaking or tossing around halfway through baking until they're lightly browned and smelling really good.

Once the crumbles are ready, toss them into a food processor and blitz them a few times until you have a sandy, crunchy delicious birthday cake powder. To make the crumbs adhere to the cake balls, start by coating them in a little bit of white chocolate. No need to temper here; tempering white chocolate is an absolute nightmare.

Drip a small amount of white chocolate onto the outside of each cake ball and roll it around in the crumbles to coat evenly. What we've got here is basically birthday cake truffles from milk bar, which we're going to skewer with some white chocolate dip sticks to turn them into birthday cake truffle cake pops.

**Pumpkin Spice Cake Pops**

To make pumpkin spice cake pops, we'll use the same base recipe as before, but add a tablespoon of pumpkin spice to the frosting. Mix and massage the frosting until it's combined, then form it into balls. To really drive home what you're eating, let's make these guys look like little pumpkins by adding some orange food coloring to our white chocolate before skewering the cake balls.

Once the cake balls have set, we'll coat them in melted white chocolate that's been colored with a little bit of green food coloring to give them a stem. For decoration and presentation, one of these cake pop stands makes for a semi-elegant solution, but if you've got a hunk of styrofoam laying around, now is your opportunity to make a cake pop bouquet.

**The Reason for the Season: Pumpkin Spice Cake Pops**

In addition to birthday cake cake pops, we'll also be making pumpkin spice cake pops. To make these guys, we'll add a tablespoon of pumpkin spice to the frosting and mix until combined. Form the mixture into balls and coat them in melted white chocolate that's been colored with orange food coloring to give them a pumpky appearance.

Once the white chocolate has set, we can add some green food coloring to create stems for our cake pops. To decorate and present these cakes pops, one of our cake pop stands makes for a semi-elegant solution, but if you've got a hunk of styrofoam laying around, now is your opportunity to make a cake pop bouquet.

**The Cometeer Coffee Connection**

As we indulge in these delicious cake pops, let's not forget about the coffee that fuels our creativity. I'm excited to share with you my experience with Cometeer, a coffee company that partners with regional coffee roasters to grind and brew coffee. What sets Cometeer apart is its innovative process of flash freezing coffee with liquid nitrogen, which preserves the flavor and aroma of the coffee.

Using Cometeer's coffee, I've made some delicious coffee drinks, including a fresh cup of coffee by simply adding eight ounces of hot water to a frozen capsule or melting a capsule and adding it to cold water for ice coffee. I've also experimented with adding melted capsules to oat milk to make an ice latte.

The packaging, including the aluminum capsules, is 100% recyclable, making Cometeer a great choice for those who care about sustainability. And as a special treat, they're offering a discount code for readers of this article. So go ahead, grab a cup of Cometeer coffee and indulge in some birthday cake truffle cake pops or pumpkin spice cake pops – your taste buds will thank you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This episode issponsored by Cometeer.Cometeer isn't like other coffee.It's seriously delicious,high quality coffeethat is expertly brewed,and then flash frozenat its peak flavor and freshness.The coffee arrives in these capsulesthat are 100% recyclable meltcapsules to make hot coffee,iced lattes, and more.For a limited time, you can get$20 off your first purchase.Link is in the video description.(upbeat music)(upbeat mellow music)All right, so the first thing that goesinto a great cake pop is a great cake.So that's precisely what we're gonna make.We're gonna start with the chocolate cake,generously lubing, every nook and crannyof our favorite 10 inchcake pan with butter.Then to make it superduper ultra nonstick,we're gonna dust it with the cocoa powder,tapping around untilevery surface is coated.Once our pan is prepped and set it aside'cause it's time to make some cake.We're gonna start bymaking a chocolate paste,combining 180 grams of boiling waterwith 100 grams of cocoa powder.Tiny whisk that until homogenousand then cool things offso we don't cook our eggs.We're adding 210 grams of whole milk.Once again, tiny whisking until smooth,and then setting aside.That's our liquid so now,we're gonna similarlycombine our dry ingredients.We had 270 grams of all purpose flour,a teaspoon and a half of baking powder,three quarters of a teaspoon baking soda,and a teaspoon of kosher salt,maybe in a slightly larger bowl.So we got room to whisk.Now into the bowl of astand mixer goes 190 gramsof unsalted room, temperature, butter,and 450 grams of granulated sugar,which we're gonna cream togetherusing the paddle attachment,not the whisk attachment, Andy.Come on, you're better than this,or rather you not betterthan this, but come on.We are creaming these guystogether on medium high speeduntil light and fluffy, anywherefrom two to four minutes.Once that's done, we're scraping downthe sides of the bowland then one at a timeadding four eggs, which as you can see,I have in a bowl of tepid waterbecause it's a way to quickly bringeggs up to room temperatureif they were in the fridge.Cold eggs into room temperature buttercan cause the butter to seize up,which can cause yourcake batter to separatewhich isn't the end of the world,but it can affect your final texture.Once you've added the eggs beatingand scraping down the sidesof the bowl between each egg,it's time to startalternately adding the wetand dry ingredients.We're starting with a thirdof the dry ingredients,mixing to combine followed by half the wetand we're scraping downthe sides of the bowl.Adding another thirdof the dry ingredients,the rest of the wetingredients scraping downthe bowl again and addingthe last of the dry by handso as to not overwork the gluten.This should yield a smooth,delicious chocolate cake, batterthat bakes up evenly andwithout any associated drama.We're now tipping it intoour prepared cake pans,spreading it flat, tapping it if necessaryand placing it into a 350degree Fahrenheit preheated ovenfor 25 to 35 minutes until a cake testerinserted into the thickestpart, emerges cleanand, or it clocks 200 to210 degrees Fahrenheitat its thickest point.We're letting it cool inthe pan for 10 to 15 minutesbefore turning it out onto a wire rackwhere we're gonna allowit to cool completelyat least two hours.Before we dash it's dreams of becominga big, beautiful tiered cakeand smash it into cake pops.I'm sorry, my friend, you gota rough road ahead of you.Next up, we're gonna melt some chocolatefor the exterior shell of our cake pops.Now you could just melt it, dip itand throw it in the fridge,but tempering your chocolateis gonna give you ashinier, snappier shell.One that also sets that room temperature.To do this, we're dividing our chocolateinto two separatecategories, melting and seed.Most of the chocolateis gonna be for melting.It can be just roughly choppedcause we're gonna melt it.But the seed chocolateneeds to be chopped very, very finelyso that it melts in ourmain batch of chocolatewithout putting up a fuss.We are melting our chocolateand a double boileror in a bowl set over apan of simmering water,or until it's just melted and smooth.We don't want it to get any higherthan 130 degrees Fahrenheit.Then we're taking it off the heat,wiping down the bowl.Water is the enemy of tempered chocolateand add our seed chocolate, which is bothgonna cool down thechocolate and reintroducecrystallized cellular somethingto the molecular whatever.Just keep stirring until theseed chocolate is melted.Adding more finely choppedchocolate, if necessaryuntil the chocolate coolsdown to the sweet spotof 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit.The chocolate can then beheld at this temperature,warmed up slightly to keep it liquid,but try not to get it above95 degrees Fahrenheit.Now for the core of our cake pops,we need a binder in the form of frosting.So we're combining 60 grams of unsalted,room temperature, butter,180 grams of powdered sugar,30 grams of whole milkand an eighth of a teaspoonof peppermint extract.Go ahead and whip that togetheruntil it's nice and smoothand there you have it,some peppermint frosting.And with that, we arefinally ready to assemble.We're gonna start by breakingup our chocolate cakeinto relatively fine crumbs.Try to lose any bigchunks or crispy edges.These could ruin thetexture of your cake popsand they make a great snack for the chef.Once he got that pretty well broken up,it's time to add our peppermint frostingand massage together intowhat we'll call a cake dough,a thick, soft shapeable substancethat we can begin pressing and rollinginto golf ball sized cake balls.Rinse and repeat until allthe cake dough has been balledand then it's time to start sticking it.Grab your cake pop handle of choice,dip it in your tempered chocolateand stab it into your cake balls,which will semi-permanentlysecure the handle in placeonce the chocolate solidifies,give those guys 15,20 minutes to set, and then,we can finally commence the dipping.I found the best way to dothis was to drop the cake popinverted into the chocolate,spoon more chocolate upand around the sides andthen slowly pull the cake popout of the chocolate while swirling.This prevents too much chocolatefrom running down the handleand ruining your aesthetic.Sprinkles and crushed upcandy cane on the chocolatewhile it's still wetand there you have it,chocolate peppermint cake pops.Pretty as you please and every bitas delicious as you might imagine.Next up, we're doing both pumpkin spiceand birthday cake cake pops,for which I'm gonna makea double batch of cake.So don't pay attention to theamounts you see on screen.Just listen to what I'msaying with my voice.We're starting off thesame way with the butter,sugar and eggs, creaming, thebutter and sugar together,adding the eggs one at a time,scraping down the bowlbetween each addition.And this time, our dryingredients are 350 gramsof all purpose flour,two and a half teaspoonsof baking powder and oneteaspoon of kosher salt.Once again, place into a largerbowl for easier whisking.It would seem as though Ihaven't learned my lesson,then we're back to addingthe dry and wet ingredientsin alternating increments.This time, our wet ingredients being300 milliliters of buttermilkand two and a halftablespoons of vanilla paste.If you don't have vanillapaste, vanilla extract is fine.Just downgrade it to like two teaspoonsinstead of two tablespoons.Once the cake batter comes together,it's pretty much the same procedure.This time, turning the batter outinto a buttered and parchmentpaper lined baking vessel.You can use your 10 inch cake pan,but since I'm doing a double batch,I've got my nine by 13 casserole.This guy's headed into thesame 350 degree Fahrenheit ovenuntil the thickest point registers200 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit.Same deal.Let it cool in the pan for 15minutes before turning it outand allowing it to coolcompletely on a wire rackbefore breaking up into cakey crumbles,which we're gonna combine withthe same recipe of frosting.This time, instead of peppermint extract,I added sprinkles because we're makingbirthday cake cake pops.Go ahead massage that togetheruntil it forms a cohesive dough,roll them into balls and this time,we're coating them inbirthday cake crumblesin this recipe inspired by Christina Tosi.Into a bowl, goes threequarters of a cup of flour,half a cup of granulated sugar,a tablespoon and a halfof light brown sugar,half teaspoon, each bakingpowder and kosher salt,and two tablespoons of rainbow sprinklesthat we're gonna sort ofbreak up and make surethat everything is evenly distributedbefore adding a quartercup of vegetable oiland one tablespoon of vanilla extract.Go ahead and mix this togetheruntil it forms a crumbly mixture,reminiscent very, very wet sand.You should be able to bunchtogether a little bit.You want big and small chunksthat we're gonna spread outonto a parchment lined baking sheetand bake in a 300 degree Fahrenheit ovenfor about 15 minutes,shaking or tossing aroundhalfway through baking untilthey're lightly brownedand smelling really, really good.Then so we can coat our cake pops in it,we're gonna toss it into a food processorand blitz it a few times until we havea sandy crunchy deliciousbirthday cake powder.Now to make that adhere to the cake balls,we're gonna start by coating themin a little bit of white chocolate.No need to temper here.Tempering white chocolateis an absolute nightmare.Once he got a thin layer ofsticky white chocolate on theoutside of the ball, you candrop it into a cake crumbs,rolling them around thecrumbs to coat in the crumbsand what we've got here,basically the birthday caketruffles from milk bar,which we're gonna skewerwith some white chocolatedip sticks to turn theminto birthday cake, truffle cake pops.I think these guys taste bestrefrigerated and they're stillawesome right now, as I'mrecording this voiceovera week later.Next and last, we havethe reason for the season,pumpkin spice cake pops.I've got the same basecake and frosting here,but I've added onetablespoon of pumpkin spiceto the frosting.Mix and massage, form in ballsand then to really drivehome what you're eating,we're gonna make these guyslook like little pumpkins,adding some orange food coloringto our white chocolate beforeskewering the cake balls,letting those set for 10 minutesand then coating it in the chocolate.Once these guys have set,I've got some whitechocolate that I've coloredwith a little bit of green food coloringto give them a little stem,just so you really know whatyou're about to get intowhen you eat this thing.Now for decoration and presentation,one of these cake pop standsmakes for a semi elegant solution,but if you've got a hunkof styrofoam laying around,now is your opportunity tomake a cake pop bouquet,not to mention impress your friendswith your Martha Stewart like aesthetic.So there you have it.Three different deliciousvarieties of cake pops.My favorite of which has gottabe the birthday cake one.That Christina Tosi reallyknows her way around the cake.Thanks again to Cometeerfor sponsoring this episode.You guys know, I love me some coffee.So I had to try out Cometeer for myselfto see how it works andit's really impressive.Cometeer partners with thebest regional coffee roasters,grinds and brews thecoffee, and then immediatelyflash freezes it with liquid nitrogen.Add about eight ounces ofhot water to a frozen capsulefor a fresh cup ofcoffee or melt a capsuleand add it to cold water for ice coffee.I also love adding amelted capsule to oat milk,to make an ice latte.I can even melt a cup ofcoffee on the go from anywhere.I can't say it enough, butthis stuff really tastes great.And I can get a rotatingmenu of coffees shipped to mewhen I need it.The packaging, yes, includingthe aluminum capsulesis 100% recyclable.Try it for yourself.You can get $20 off for a limited timewhen you use the link inthe video description.(upbeat music continues)\n"