Dainty Button: DIY: Ice Cream Cake Pops

I scream, you scream, we all scream...

It's a DIY featuring fun Ice Cream Cake Pops!

We have a fun little DIY for our followers and readers. We've also included one of our favorite red velvet recipes and a little baking trick that you might want to try. Who's ready?

I saw this idea last year and absolutely fell in love with it. They're super easy to make and they look absolutely adorable for birthday parties, showers, holiday get together's, you name it. You'll be the talk of the party with these cute little treats! We attempted to do this DIY via vlog but the video didn't turn out very well and I promised this post earlier in the week on our FB page, so time is of the essence. We're going to be as detailed as possible in giving this tutorial. If you have questions about it feel free to email us at daintybutton@yahoo.com.

Prep...

1. Cake

2. Icing

3. Bowl (mix cake and a separate microwave safe bowl for candy melts)

4. Spoon(s)

5. Lollipop sticks

6. Candy melts

7. Candy dye (optional)

8. Cake cones

9. Red Sixlets or M & M's

10. Sprinkles or candy toppers

11. Vegetable oil or paramount crystals (optional)

12. Foam board

13. Wax paper

In preparing to do these ice cream cake pops you're going to need a cake. Here's the simple steps...

We ran out of red dye for red velvet cake so green it is. This picture is not Dainty Button's. We baked our cake just as this but did not have a picture (oops).

Once your cake is baked and COOLED. Make sure the cake is completely cooled before proceeding to this next step. You're going to crumble the cake up in a bowl. Goodbye pretty cake...

Again, not Dainty Button's picture (obviously, as we're using green velvet cake and this is chocolate) but we wanted to offer visuals for this process. You're going to want to crumble the cake up as fine as you can. No need to put it through the blender, just a few minutes of crumbling will do. If you have kids involved in this DIY, they'll love this part.

Next, you're going to add your frosting. The frosting gives your cake pops the firmness it needs to roll them into balls and the creamy, truffle like taste you experience when you eat them. For every traditional size cake you're going to use HALF a tub of icing. What kind of icing? Any kind you choose. Normally, we do chocolate with chocolate, cream cheese with red velvet, etc. Butter cream, vanilla, cream cheese and chocolate are some good flavors to choose from but again, any type you prefer.

Too much icing = too gooey and runny. You might as well have cake batter.

Not enough icing = dry and crumbly, resulting in your cake balls not firming together.

Half a tub of icing will give a good balance.

NOTE: Fruit based cakes are difficult to do cake pops.

Again, not Dainty Button's photo. Haha! Sorry, this is sort of comical to me. I promise you'll see our photo's further in this post.

You're going to cream the icing and cake crumb mixture together until you get this....

This IS our picture! Ha!

A little helpful note when doing cake pops, if you happen to have extra cake left over you can freeze the mixture up to a month in a sealed baggie (as pictured).

Rolling Cake Balls...

Lay out a sheet of wax paper. When rolling cake balls, you're going to take a chunk about the size pictured. A good way of making sure you end up with smooth, firm cake balls is by kneading it back and form from hand to hand a few times (5-7 times) to create a smooth clump. You then start rolling until they are nice and smooth as pictured below.

Ice Cream Cones...

So the question I'm asked when making these is, how do you get the cake balls on the ice cream cones and how do they fit? Well, here's the answer to that...

You're going to need a box of sugar cones. I got this box at Target for around $1.99 so twelve ice cream cake pops comes out to about 16 cents each (for those on a party budget).

You're going to need a knife to cut the cones down, which is how you get the right size for the cake balls. A ridged knife works great in cutting the cones (as pictured).

You're going to cut the top of the cone off not quite half though. When cutting, cut lightly as too much pressure will crack the entire cone.

Once cut off, shake the excess crumbs out of the cone.

And you've got the base of your ice cream cake pops.

It's time to dip these babies...

When doing any type of stand up cake pops, you're going to need something to prop your sticks on, in order for the cake pops to dry. This is where a foam board such as the one pictured is helpful. Sorry for the mess, we've used this several times. You can purchase these at your local craft store. The thicker the better.

Candy is the other main element in making any type of cake pops. This is where a lot of people get frustrated when making cake pops because either the candy melts burn or clump. Here's a few helpful pointers:

1. Get a good quality of candy melts. Wilton is good but burns very easily (just being honest). Ghirardelli, Bakers and chocolate bark from the grocery store are good choices.

2. Melt in 60 second intervals. I usually melt mine for a total of about 2.5 minutes (two 60 second intervals and one 30 second)

3. If you choose to go with the above suggested chocolate melts, they normally only come in white and milk chocolate. When dying your white candy melts, use OIL based food dyes. Gel paste and regular food dye WILL ruin your candy melts. When I say ruin, I'm not joking. Look for OIL based candy dye. These can be bought at craft stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby) and if you have a confectionary supply store in your area, that's a great place to check.

4. If your candy melt is thick after microwaving, you can use vegetable oil to thin it out. This is a great trick to get your money's worth and your candy melt to last longer. It also will not leave your cake pops with a 1 foot thick candy coating. Another thing you can use to thin candy melts out is paramount crystals.

(We used pink but forgot to snap a pic before we threw the bottle away, so this is just an example of ours to show what kind of dyes to purchase)

Now, we're going to dip and finish these little yummy treats off. You're going to use a cake pop stick but you'll only need one as this is only used for dipping and transferring to the cake cone. You can buy cake pop sticks at your local craft store.

You're going to coat the tip of your stick in the candy melt.

Then transfer it to the cake ball. By coating the tip first, it allows the lollipop stick to go in smoother and the cake ball won't crumble.

You're then going to dip...

Make sure you cover the entire cake ball...

Then you're going to transfer it to the cone...

Once you've got it on the cone, you're going to slowly pull the lollipop stick out...

We cover the top with excess candy melt to cover the little hole but also to allow the ice cream cone effect and let the candy melts drizzle down the cone.

We're now going to add our sprinkles. Any kind of sprinkles work but we prefer candy toppers because they're chunkier and people associate these as an ice cream topping.

Here is where your foam board comes into play. You're going to slowly and gently stick the ice cream cone in the foam, so it can dry. Be careful because you don't want to crumble the cone.

Chocolate Topping Effect...

Here's how to get the chocolate topping effect on the ice cream cake pops. You're going to use milk (or dark) chocolate melt and red sixlets. The sixlets are the "cherries". You can also use M & M's but they lay a little flat and we prefer the cherry definition. Let's be honest, it really makes these treats pop.

With a spoon, lightly put a couple drops of chocolate on the top. Letting it drizzle down gives it a nice touch.

While the chocolate is still wet, add your "cherry".

Set on your foam board and let dry. Now, you've got yourself some fun, yummy and pretty inexpensive treats for yourself, a party or gift!

Our favorite red velvet recipe...

A little baking trick I was taught a long time ago and it WORKS!

I was taught a little baking trick a long time ago and my family and I use it every time we bake cakes. Everybody always asks us why our cakes are always so moist. Here's why...we substitute our vegetable oil for mayo. Yes, mayo. It may sound gross but it works (I swear by it)! I dare you to try it!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (REPLACE WITH MAYO)
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (we use the entire bottle of coloring; it gives it a true red coloring)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract