4th of July Patriotic Cake Pops!

It's a colorful day full of anticipation of the booms, 'pops' and sparkles yet to come.  Making patriotic decorated cake pops for your 4th of July celebration can serve as a centerpiece arranged in a basket or pail for your table while waiting for the sun to set for the night's light show or be colorful party favors to take home.

To make the cake pops: I experimented with different cake batter recipes before totally delving in. I wanted my cake pops to be 'cake only' and not mixed with icing as so many recipes are, so I bought a cake pop pan made by Nordicware. This pan lets you bake a cake in a round shape not necessitating the need to crumble the baked cake and mix it with canned (yikes!) icing to form the mixture into balls. It’s got to be a little less caloric even for a cake pop, don’t you think?

The pan comes in two halves and is used by mounding the batter into each indentation in the bottom pan and securing the top pan with provided clips to bake. Initially, I didn’t fill the round cups enough so the cake balls didn’t rise up to the top of the pan. The next time, I intentionally over filled them to where the batter leaked out a bit from the steam holes in the top pan while baking. (see photo)

For my first batter experiment, I used a basic yellow cake recipe. The balls turned out like dozens of interstellar orbs of light and fluffiness. (see photo)

Unfortunately, I found out this doesn’t work well to hold the weight of the candy coating when dipping the cake into the coating even with a secured straw  inserted into the cake ball with set candy coating. (I used sturdy paper straws instead of standard sucker sticks, see reference below and see photo). The weight of the coating will pull the cake ball off the straw when rotating the pop to tap off the coating. It might not happen all the time but even a few times is frustrating and slows down the process.

If I used a pound cake recipe or fortified the yellow cake with pudding mix as I found on the Wilton site, it might have worked better but I decided to move on and try two other recipes—a red velvet, which did work well and a brownie recipe I found on the Nordicware package.

I called Nordicware to inquire if they offered any other recipe besides the brownie but they didn’t. The brownie recipe was delicious and was easy to make but I found I needed more than one batch to fill 2 pans. (I bought two pans to make the process of baking go faster.  If you can buy two, I highly recommend it).

The brownie batter doesn’t rise as readily so I made sure I mounded the batter into the cups. I over did it but at least I was able to achieve perfect fully-rounded cake balls that dipped beautifully. (see photo)

Since I had recently bought all these paper straws in various colors with no particular reason to use them, I thought they would be a colorful and festive touch instead of plain white sticks. I loved how they added to the finished presentation of the pops.

As they say, “These aren’t your mother’s paper straws”. They practically resemble cardboard and don’t disintegrate in moist settings. I placed one in a glass of water for hours to test it and although it did soften a bit, it still kept it’s shape and hardened again when it dried.

In the photo, I dipped the end of the straw in red candy coating, inserted it into the cake ball and spread the extra coating over the cake ball. If you find any large air holes on the outside of your cake ball, this is a good time to patch it with coating and let it set before the first dip.

I dipped the pops twice into the candy coating letting it set until completely hardened between coatings.

To decorate the cake pops: I decorated these cake pops very simply—fondant stars sprinkled with Disco Dust and luster dust brushed over the set dipped pops and of course, the paper straws. I cannot get enough of using paper straws for the sticks. I love, love, love this look. (see photos)

I experimented with red and blue luster dust. The striped pop top reminds me of cotton candy. (see photo)

I used aspic cutters, which I’ve never used on aspic, to make the tiny fondant star shapes. They “glue” on the pop using piping gel or melted candy coating.

If you've never made cake pops before and are wondering how to dip the cake pops in candy coating there's plenty of information on the web.  Of course, the queen of cake pops, the talented baker and blogger, Angie, of Bakerella, gives you step-by-step instructions.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your 4th of July party at home, in the park or for you to take to a party.

Have a safe and insanely fun 4th!  :)

You can visit my other blog Pink Martinis and Pearls and my Flickr page for more ideas.

Previous Patch posts to enhance your patriotic entertaining:-