Pokeball Cake Pops

Whether you’ve seen the Television show, played on the Gamecube, Wii, or DS, seen stores selling action figures, posters, and T-Shirts — the Pokeball (Po — Kah — Ball) is a universal symbol for all things Pokemon.

So let’s make some pokeballs! These are just cake pops dipped in chocolate. I use Red Velvet cake so the inside is red, but really you can use any cake. Keep in mind, if you have never made cake pops before, this is very difficult. The double dipped chocolate coating is heavy, and cake pops have a habit of falling off the stick. In addition, (real) red velvet cake is a bit harder to make than regular cake.

INGREDIENTS:

For Decoration:

• Bag of White melting chocolate
• Bag of Red melting chocolate
• Black Icing for detail

For Cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (or better yet, cake flour)
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 stick salted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 ounces red food coloring (more or less, until you get the color you want)
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

Other Equipment:

• Cake Pop Sticks (Large Lollypop Sticks)
• A block of styrofoam (or something to place the pops on while they dry)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour (or spray with cooking spray; whatever…) two 9-inch cake pans.

In a bowl, sift together the cake flour, chocolate pudding mix, and cocoa powder.

In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup of butter with 1 1/2 cup of sugar with an electric mixer until creamy; beat the eggs in, one at a time, and beat until the mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, in several additions. Mix in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the red food color until the batter is uniformly colored. In a bowl, stir the baking soda with vinegar, and gently fold the foamy mixture gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean or with moist crumbs, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Make the Cake Pops:

Cut off all hard edges from your cake and mush up the cake in a bowl. Add a little bit of icing to help the cake stick, and roll into balls. Set balls on wax paper or other non-sticky surface.

Melt the white chocolate in a mug. Dip each of the sticks in the chocolate and stick one in each of your prepared cake balls. This will help ‘glue’ the sticks in. Allow these to dry completely.

Take each pop and coat completely in white chocolate. Allow excess to drip off before setting in the styrofoam to dry.

After the white has dried, dip the upper half only into the melted Red chocolate. Make very certain the chocolate is not too thick, because if it drips down all over the white part while drying it will ruin the pokeball design. Allow to dry.

Pipe black icing on the line where the colors meet, and make a circle in one spot for the clasp. Allow to dry before serving or packaging! Easily wrap each pop with a plastic bag and red ribbon for a fancier look!