Meg-made Creations: Campfire Smores Cake Pops

Campfire Smores Cake Pops - Quick and Easy for Beginners

Preface: Before you begin to follow this tutorial, you need to perform steps 1-5 of my tutorial on making cake pops which are listed HERE. Once you have completed my steps or your own method to make cake ball dough and your dough has set in the fridge or freezer so it is easy to shape, proceed with instructions below to create cute Campfire Smores cake pops.. First say that 3 times, fast!

Ingredients/Material:

Basic ingredients to make cake pops (can be found in my tutorial on making cake ball pops HERE.)
For Campfire Smores cake pops coating, you will need both white and brown/chocolate almond bark or candy melts and brown/tan icing dye or brown/peanut butter candy melts. By the perfect accident I nabbed marshmallow flavored candy melts from JoAnn's Fabric, a"limited edition". Of course I used them for the marshmallow shaped cake pop coating.
Sprinkles to give some depth to the cake pops. I used Glitter Gold Cupcake Gems by Cake Mate to "roast" the marshmallow cake pops and liven up the graham cracker cake pops and chocolate sprinkles on top of the chocolate square cake pops.

STEP1: MAKE DOUGH INTO CAMPFIRE SHAPES

Roll dough into Campfire Shapes - Scoop out a small handful of cold dough and squeeze the dough between your hands, rolling it from one hand to the other so the dough is tightly packed. As you knead the dough from hand to hand, start to roll it into a log, but not a skinny log...more like a log/ball. At the same time pound the ends of the log ball on to your foil covered work space/counter top to flatten the ends like a marshmallow. Roll, pound, roll, pound...the dough will start to take the form of a marshmallow. For grahams and chocolate shaped pops, form by hand basically the same way keeping in mind the width being about 1/2 inch so the skewer or lolli stick can be inserted and balance the dough shapes.2. Freeze to set - Put each campfire shape into the freezer after it's made so the dough can set more while you are molding the rest of the dough.

Crafty Gal Tip: It doesn't hurt to roll some of your dough into cake balls instead of shapes. They nicely break up the design presentation.

STEP 2: MAKE DOUGH SHAPES INTO POPS

Prepare your work space - You will need your foam board close or in your freezer. You will be dipping, decorating and setting one cake ball pop in the foam to dry/set all in the matter of about fifteen seconds so your space will need to be arranged for efficiency. I have my foam board in the freezer, my dough balls on a pan next to my mircrowave, and aluminum foil covering my counter where I coat and sprinkle/decorate the cake balls. Because I work with different colors and flavors of almond bark/candy coating in one batch of cake balls, I prefer using the microwave over a double boiler/melting pot so I can use multiple microwave safe containers instead of all the scraping, cleaning and reheating that goes along with the one-pot-process. If you have tried and failed with the microwave before, please read on. I feel your frustration. I've lived it. I think I've come out on the other side though. I use barbeque skewers for sticks. They are long so I break them in half or start by using scissors to cut them in the middle and then break them on the cut. Lolli sticks work just fine, but they are a bit larger in diameter which makes a larger hole in the cake ball when inserted and ultimately the risk of the cake ball sliding down the stick once they become heavier with the chocolate coating is larger too.
Secure dough shapes to sticks - In order to help your dough shapes stay on the sticks, you need to first dunk the sticks into melted almond bark or candy melts (melting instructions in next step) about 1/2 an inch and then put the melted chocolate end of the stick straight into your dough shapes. Best that you repeat this for your entire batch, followed by another short vacation in the freezer with sticks in place, and then begin coating them with melted almond bark or candy melts.

STEP 3: MELT CANDY MELTS/ALMOND BARK

Melt coating for marshmallow shaped pops - So you have your dough pops ready for dipping... Grab a few squares of your white almond bark or if you are using candy melts, a couple handfuls and put into a microwave safe container. I've trial/error'd every type of container, mug, bowl, etc. you can think of and it's the small ZipLock containers that are perfect in size as well as conducting and distributing the heat from the microwave evenly so your coating doesn't burn when melting. Fill the container about halfway with candy melts or a couple squares of almond bark and microwave on half power for 30 seconds. Stir contents though not much melting has begun. Microwave in 30 second intervals while stirring in between until melting has taken over about half of the bark/melts.
Thin coating with vegetable shortening - DON'T BE CRAZY AND SKIP THIS STEP. If you forgot to get shortening, go to the grocery now and save yourself a couple hairs that you would be pulling out of your head should you proceed without it. Add shortening by the tablespoon, stirring then microwaving in 30 second intervals. You may need to add bark/melts to attain a consistency adequate for flawless coating and have enough in your container to be able to dip and engulf the cake ball. "Tasty Cake Pops" on YouTube rocked this procedure in her tutorial. I suggest you watch it if the process isn't quite coming together in text.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku4DD3inero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQc29pmavY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxovCIddcQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_iVqNweWZ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDmPdEwgxno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJV3YVARQTE

STEP 4: ICE/COAT CAKE POPS

Dip cake pops into warm coating - Once your coating is warm and smooth, you can start dipping the cake pops. Cover the dough shape entirely with the coating, then let excess drip by holding the pop sideways or ball down. Tapping the stick on the side of the melting container while spinning it slowly helps remove excess coating so your coating finish is flawless in texture. If you are going to add sprinkles or decorations you have to be very quick. The coating cannot dry before you decorate or nothing will stick. Dry time begins the moment the pop is removed from the coating and is completely set in about 10 seconds.

STEP 5: SPRINKLE MARSHMALLOW CAKE POPS FOR "ROASTED LOOK"

Pour a mound of gold sprinkles onto a sheet of aluminum foil and dip cake pops, immediately from being covered with warm coating into the mound so just the flat end of the cake pop is covered.

STEP 6: SET CAKE POPS
When you are done decorating your cake pop, put the pop stick into the foam board (I put them in at a slant so the dough doesn't get too heavy and start to slide down the stick.) and let them set. Again, I have my foam board already in the freezer so when I put each pop into it, the cold air helps them set quicker and avoids dripping or moving of the ball. I like to keep the pops on the foam board in the freezer for 20 mins or until outside is hard and then remove them and place them on a foiled cookie sheet or place in large Ziplocks. Store cool but do not keep in freezer for long periods or the coating will crack and the dough will harden.

STEP 7: COATING/DECORATING FOR GRAHAM AND CHOCOLATE CAKE POPS

Once you've completed your marshmallow cake pops, you'll want to repeat the process (Steps 3 and 4) for the other shapes which require different colors of coating. Chocolate square cake pops can be coating simply by using brown/chocolate almond bard or candy melts. No adjustments need to be made to the process described above. The graham shaped cake pops coating can also be as simply if you can find tan and/or peanut butter candy melts. If not icing dye will do just find by slowly mixing a bead of color on the end of a toothpick into your melting/thinning process and in between heatings until you get desired shade. Sprinkling graham and chocolate cake pops can be done the same way by dipping into a mound of sprinkles (same gold for grahams and chocolate for chocolate) or by actually sprinkling with your fingers or out of the bottle over the coated pops.