Photo by Emily Riddle
RECIPE BY SOPHIA MCKEE, DAISY CAKES BAKERY/THE AMSDEN
This holiday cake pop (pictured at left above) display is the perfect festive sweet treat to set out for guests during holiday gatherings. Fun and delicious, the display also does double duty as tabletop decor – though you can’t expect it to stay beautiful for too long, as the treats will start to pop off the display as you give your guests the go-ahead!
Baker’s note: Cake pops get their soft, gooey texture by crumbling a pre-baked cake with icing before dipping into white chocolate. These gingerbread cake pops utilize gingerbread cake and a cream cheese icing.
Recipe yields around 30 cake pops.
For the cake:
Ingredients:
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• ¾ cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
Method:
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease either three six-inch round baking pans or two nine-inch round baking pans.
• Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a regular mixing bowl, if using a hand mixer), beat the butter, vegetable oil and sugar together on medium until fluffy.
• Reduce speed to low and add eggs one at a time. Mix until just incorporated, making sure to scrape the sides of bowl as needed. Do not over-mix.
• Add in molasses and vanilla extract.
• Alternate adding the buttermilk and the dry-ingredient mixture, making sure to start and end with the dry ingredients.
• Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes. Bake time will depend on the size of your pans. The cakes will be done baking when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Turn pans out and cool cakes on wire racks completely. This may take a couple of hours.
For the icing:
Ingredients:
• 1 eight-ounce package of cream cheese
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Approximately 16 ounces powdered sugar
Method:
• Beat the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy.
• Add in the vanilla extract.
• Add in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time. You want your icing to have structure but not be too stiff to mix with the cake. (Note: If you have added too much powdered sugar, you can thin the icing by adding a little bit of heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time.)
Additional supplies needed:
• White chocolate for dipping the pops (I use Merckens or Ghirardelli white chocolate wafers)
• Styrofoam Christmas tree (this display used a 9-by-2.5-inch tree)
• Six-inch cake pop or lollipop sticks (for dipping)
• Toothpicks (for sticking the pops to the display tree)
Assembling the cake pops:
• Crumble your cake either in the bowl of a stand mixer on low or with your hands. When it is all broken up into small crumbles, add about ¼ cup icing. You want your cake pop mixture to have a texture similar to playdough.
• Roll out the cake pops into balls, about one tablespoon in size.
• Melt down white dipping chocolate. The amount of chocolate needed will vary depending on how many cake pops are being dipped. A good rule of thumb is approximately eight ounces of melted choco late per dozen cake pops. To color your chocolate for festive decorating, wait until the melted chocolate is closer to room temperature before adding gel food coloring in small quantities. (If you add too much too soon, the temperature disparity can cause your chocolate to seize, or harden and turn clumpy.)
• Use lollipop or cake pop sticks to dip the cake pops into the chocolate. Top with sprinkles or use food coloring to decorate, if desired. I dip the ends of the lollipop sticks (about one inch) into the chocolate before inserting them into the cake pop balls. Some of the chocolate will pool around the stick; once it has hardened, dip the pops fully into the chocolate. (The extra step of dipping the cake pop sticks helps to ensure the cake pops won’t fall off the sticks.) Top with sprinkles if you’d like.
• Let the chocolate harden over the course of a few minutes (about five minutes) at room temperature. I use a cake pop stand for this.
• To create the Christmas tree cake pop display, take the pops off the sticks after the chocolate has hardened and attach to Styrofoam tree using toothpicks. I stick the toothpicks into the tree first, then line up the toothpick with the existing hole in the pops from the cake pop sticks.