Ready For February

What say's February better than mini-cupcake cake-pops? I've been chomping at the bits to do this little project. There is a drought of birthdays from January-May in my immediate family circle, so-I made up a reason to bake these-Valentine's Day seems appropriate, and since I like to be early....January 31st seemed like as good a day as any. They really weren't hard to make, but I also didn't quite master the shape. There is a cookie cutter involved in making the bottom look more 'ruffle-eee'....the lack of accurate shape has more to do with my impatience than it being more difficult than it seems. OK, rewind a bit-I was given the yummiest bag of hard shelled, soft centered 'cake balls' for Christmas. They were SOOOOO good. I picked them apart, and asked the gal who gave them to me how she made them, and she said she just baked a cake mix as the directions said, as soon as she got it out of the oven she broke it apart in the pan, and mixed in a can of store bought icing (chocolate with chocolate icing, red velvet with cream cheese icing etc). Then she rolled them into ball shapes, put them on a wax papered tray in the freezer to harden, then rolled them in melted chocolate, and sprinkled them for decorations. They were sooooo fantastic. I knew I was going to make them someday...soon! Fast forward to a night of blog surfing and I came across this site http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-your-cupcakes-pop.html She uses the exact same recipe, but she makes all sorts of incredible little shapes (I love this site so much, I'd say almost as much as my 'old Cupcake Hangouts'!). If you go to her site, you'll see what the cake-middle looks like, and the step by step to making these little yummy goodies. Mine made about 30+ a few that didn't make it to the packaging process (let's call it-quality control). I can't wait to make them again, and dedicate myself to fine tuning the shape and decorations! Two thumbs up!