Finding Joy in Cake Pops
- Beth
- Jun 28, 2020
- 6 min read
When’s the last time you made a cute and creative bake? 😊 If it’s been awhile, I’m here to help. Today I’m going to teach you how to make frog cake pops. But I can’t take credit for them. They are the creation of a delightful young baker named, Kim-Joy.
Kim-Joy was a contestant on the 2018 season of the Great British Baking Show. Both a fan favorite and a finalist on her season of the show, Kim-Joy has gone on to baking greatness as she spreads her unique brand of baking whimsy. She is known for her adorable cakes and treats that are often of woodland creatures. She has a large following on both Instagram and Twitter.
And last year, she published her first cookbook, Baking with Kim-Joy. FYI, CIDL owns a copy of her cookbook, and you can check it out now. Place a hold online or by calling the library, 248-625-2212. You’ll then be contacted by a staff member who’ll schedule a curbside pick-up time for you. Easy-peasy.
My daughter follows Kim-Joy on Instagram (@kimjoyskitchen) and brought the adorable froggies to my attention. (Side-bar: Daughter Laura is spending the summer with us, taking a break from being holed up from the virus in her apartment in New York City.) Anyway, we decided to make the frog cake pops our baking project last weekend. I found Kim-Joy’s recipe online via her website. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out for yourself:
(Kim-Joy's frog cake pops)
Ultimately, I decided her recipe was a bit complicated for me – it uses metric measuring units – and I wasn’t in the mood for doing the conversion math. So, we put our own spin on Kim-Joys creation and bought a box cake mix and canned frosting! Horror of horrors, it’s not such a bad concept for cake pops. By the time you smush the cake, add the frosting, ball them up and dip them in oodles of chocolate, you can’t even tell they started with a box cake mix.
So that’s what we did. Because we winged the making of our cake pops, rather than write up a formal recipe, I’m going to take you through the process, step-by-step.
From the picture, you can see basically all the needed ingredients.
We used a standard 9x13 cake mix; Betty Crocker Party Rainbow Chip was the flavor we went with.
12 oz. can of frosting – we used Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Cheese.
Two 10 oz. packages of Ghirardelli White Vanilla Flavor Melting Wafers
Parasol Picks
Betty Crocker candy google eyes and black gel to decorate with.
Not shown: green food color for the frosting
This is how we did it: Start by baking the cake per the instructions on the box. After ten minutes, remove the cake from the cake pan and allow to fully cool.
When the cake has cooled, crumble it up with your hands into a large bowl. As Kim-Joy says, crumble it until it’s “bread crumb-like.”
Add the can of frosting to the crumbled cake and mix it well.
Using your hands, roll the mixture into balls. (I make mine about 1 ½ inches in size.) Try to make them as smooth and round as possible. Depending on how big you roll them, you should get about 30 cake pops. Place them on a large cookie sheet as you roll them. I lined the cookie sheet with wax paper for easy removal, especially after they are dipped in chocolate.
Place the cookie sheet in the fridge for about two hours or until very firm.
When the cake balls are firm, melt the white chocolate per the instructions on the bag. I like to use this glass Pyrex measuring cup to melt chocolate in. (I initially melted just one bag of chocolate. But the chocolate wasn’t deep enough for dipping into. So, I recommend melting both bags of chocolate together to begin with.)
Add green food color, a few drops at a time, until you get the shade of green you want your frogs to be.
Have your frog eyes handy and ready to go in. The dipping chocolate sets quickly and you have to act fast to get them in before that happens.
Dip the end of the umbrella stick into the chocolate (about 1/3 inch), then stick this into the base of the cake ball. Repeat till all are done and leave to set.
When all have umbrella sticks, start the dipping process with the cake balls that had their sticks put in first.
Dip each cake pop into the chocolate, covering the whole surface of the cake. Let the excess drip off, then place on the cookie sheet with wax paper. Add the google eyes while the chocolate coating is still wet. (Full disclosure: my pictures above show we didn't do what I just told you to do in the steps above. Rather than put the umbrella sticks in first and then dip, I decided to dip first and then add the umbrellas. Big mistake, because the cake balls kept falling off the skewer I was using to dip with. The step of securing your stick into the cake pop using frosting to "cement" it in is an important one. I forgot this because I hadn't made them in so long and assumed I knew best. Jokes on me!)
When all are dipped and the chocolate has dried, add a smiley mouth using the black gel. We found the gel came out pretty thick. So, we ended up squeezing a tiny amount of the gel directly onto the end of a toothpick and then painting on the smile.
That’s it, adorable frog pops are done! What do you think? I hope you have a chance to give them a try.
We ran out of umbrellas with six cake balls to go. Although it’s been a few years, I’ve made cake pops before, and fortunately, I still had a pack of cake pop sticks in the cupboard.
Sometimes it pays to never throw things out. 😊 I also had some pastel sprinkles in there and decided to use those to embellish this last mini-batch of cake pops.
I dipped the stick ends in chocolate – as with the umbrella ends – and then stuck the stick into the cake ball and then let them sit a few minutes before dipping the cake balls in the chocolate. I sprinkled the pastel sprinkles quickly to finish them off. I love the little frogs, but these pretty pastel cake pops are fun, too.
Cake pops are easy, tasty, and look special. Most of the time. The chocolate gets tricky to work with when you get down to the bottom of the bowl and there’s not much left. Check out these frog pops. They were the last two that we made, and we ended up poring the chocolate over them by spoonful. Can you tell? They don’t look so well, but they still tasted good. 😊
By the way, are you a fan of the Great British Baking Show? If the answer is no, let me fill you in on the joy of this TV show imported from Britain where it’s known as the Great British Bake Off. A television baking competition, it’s now in it’s tenth season. I like to say it’s a kinder, gentler reality show than anything running on American TV these days. It’s all about the baking and judging and not behind the scenes drama. And, the competitors actually root for each other to do well, some of the time. 😉
Each week’s show features a different theme (cake, bread, pastry, etc.) The contestants compete in three baking challenges each week:
The Signature Bake, where they make their tried-and-true favorite recipe of that week’s theme.
The Technical Bake, where the judges give them one basic recipe, the same ingredients and instructions, and expect perfection in their bake.
The Showstopper Bake, where the contestants go all out to make the most impressive, creative, and delicious bake.
It’s all good fun with funny show hosts, judges with personality plus, and down to earth contestants who love to bake. I can highly recommend watching The Great British Baking Show. Good news, the library owns all five seasons of the show that have been released in America. Pick them up via a hold/curbside pick-up.
Pup-Date
If you read my May 23 blog-post titled Pizza, Puzzles, and Puppy Paws, you know we’ve been self-grooming our dog, Baxter, during the pandemic. It’s been a challenge as he does not like to sit still for our grooming shenanigans. I decided to give it a try again this week with the help of daughter Laura. We tag-teamed him and were able to trim his ears, paws and whatever else he’d let us cut. I spent a lot of time especially on his ears. I think he’s looking much better now, all things considered. Check out his before and after pictures.
Before and after and all-tuckered out.
That’s it for this week. Take care. Stay safe. Find joy. Bake some fun. 😊
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