Oreo Cake Pops!

I now need a cake pop stand...

     This is my first time at attempting cake pops! I first was wondering how Bakerella (the inventor of cake pops) got the cake to bake in a perfect circle, cake just doesn't work that way! Then I decided to read through the book and found out that they are made by combining already baked cake and frosting, amazing!

Recipes:
Yield: about 48 cake pops
Difficulty: Moderate

Cake
Used my Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes recipe except I replaced the peppermint extract with vanilla extract. I also baked the cake in a 13x9 glass pan with 14 minutes added to the time at the same temperature.

Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted room temperature butter
2 cups powered sugar (fyi, I am never exact on my sugar measurements, I always add until I like the flavor)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup oreo crumbs

Decorations
Dark cocoa melting chocolate
Vanilla flavored white melting chocolate
Oreo crumbs
White candy sticks

Step 1
     Bake the cake! I'm no expert at taking a cupcake recipe and turning it into a cake recipe, but for me, luckily it all turned out fine. I kept the temperature the same and lengthened the time. If you want to take the easy route, you can definitely used boxed cake mix, in fact, thats what the cookbook recommended. After the cake is done, let it cool completely before turning it into crumbs.

Step 2
     Make the frosting. Whip up the butter until it is smooth and then slowly add the powdered sugar. Whip it up until it looks nice and fluffy. Then add in your milk and vanilla until combined. Lastly, add in those yummo oreo crumbs! Also, the easy way out for this step would be to just buy some store-bought frosting and add your own oreo crumbs.

Step 3
     Turn your cake into crumbs! You can do this by a food processor, blender, or by rubbing two pieces of cake together. Break up any large crumbs with a fork.

Step 4
     Now take that bowl of frosting and dump it right into that bigger bowl of cake crumbs, then mix mix mix it with a spoon. If you're doing the easy way, only use 3/4 of a can of frosting.

Mush!

Step 5
     Now that you have mixed alllll this up and made a lovely mush consisting of cake and frosting, you now need to get down and dirty using your HANDS. Pick up a nice portion of cake mush and then roll it into a 1 1/2 inch ball. I'm terrible at estimating size, so I just rolled them into a size that people wouldn't mind shoving into their mouths. Since I was making these late at night, I just put all of my cake balls into a bowl and let them chill overnight so I could dip them in the morning. If you want things to go faster than leaving them in the fridge for a couple hours, then you can put them into the freezer for about 15 minutes so they are firm, not frozen.

I couldn't stop singing Chef's song "Chocolate Salty Balls"

Step 6
     After my cake balls were sufficiently chilled, I set up my work station. Cake balls, sticks, melting chocolate, and crushed oreos. To melt the melting chocolate, you can put it in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each heating session. Or you can put it in a double boiler. Just be sure the chocolate doesn't get too hot, otherwise it will burn and you will have icky chocolate.

My itty-bitty work station

Step 7
     So now we need to turn these chocolate cake balls into pops. This magical transformation happens by putting a stick in them! But first, you should dip that stick into the chocolate and then about halfway through the cake ball, we don't want to be stabbing through these little guys, now do we? So now that we have a cake pop, we gotta dip it into the chocolate. This is where I got kinda messy.... I had to add 2 tsp vegetable oil to help thin the chocolate and then I kept a toothpick handy to help scrape off extra chocolate. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of this, but its a little hard when both hands are busy, haha. The technique is to dip it, cover the entire ball, let some drip off, and then hold it sideways while twisting it to let more drip off (this is where I used my toothpick).
     Immediately after dipping, sprinkle the pop with crushed oreos and then stick it into some styrofoam to let it dry. I had to use some oasis, which is what florists use for flower arrangements... thanks mom. If you don't have any styrofoam, then just stick the pops upside down on a pan covered with wax paper (for easy removal). You'll end up with a flat edge, but whatever, it all ends up in the stomach anyways :)

Good thing I had my taste-tester around!

     So there's my post about cake pops *whew*. Sorry if it was confusing in any way. If you have any questions, just ask! Oh, and by the way, I made these cake pops about a week ago and they are STILL moist and delicious. I've kept them in a zip-lock bag. I can't guarantee moistness if you went the boxed cake mix and frosting way though... I guess you just gotta get all domestic and go the homemade way!