Inaugural Recipe Post: Cake Pops

I am a pretty decent cook. But more importantly, I’m a pretty fast cook. His Hawtness once jokingly said that I get only half credit for cooking since I do only the simplest dishes.

And then one day I said to myself, you know, these dishes are pretty simple but they hold up pretty well. I’ll bet there are other readers/writers out there who wouldn’t mind a few of those recipes–more time for reading/writing, right?

Except, well, our inaugural recipe is really simple but it isn’t exactly fast–not to mention it is also highly calorific.  So I held onto it for a long time until I had a book signing recently. And used it to lure folks to my table. I can’t speak to its success as a promotional product for my books, but one teenage boy came around five separate times for the cake pops. Ha!

The original recipe can be found at food blogger Bakerella’s website.

Here’s what you need: 

Ingredients:

  • One box Red Velvet Cake Mix plus the oil, eggs, and whatnot to bake it with
  • One 16oz can cream cheese frosting
  • Chocolate bark/coating
  • White chocolate chips (I used Nestle because it has directions on the back for how to make dipping chocolate)
  • Vegetable shortening to combine with the white chocolate chips during metling (not pictured)
  • Popsicle sticks (not pictured)

Steps:

1. Bake the cake according to directions.  Let it cool completely.

2. Crumble the cake.  (I did mine in my food processor.)

3. Combine the frosting with the cake crumbs.  (I used about 3/4 can of the frosting.)

4. Form the cake crumb frosting mixture into popsicle-size balls. And stick the popsicle sticks into them.  Now put them in the fridge or the freezer for a while so that the cake spheres firm up a bit.

5.  Now melt the chocolate bark/coating according to directions.

6.  And melt white chocolate with some vegetable shortening, according to directions.

7.  And dip!  (And drizzle, if you feel like.  I drizzled with a spoon.  I  have no talent for food decorating, but I don’t think anyone cared.  And in case you are curious, the cake pops are standing on a block of florist’s foam.)

The chocolate bark is rather heavy.  But chocolate morsels, once melted with some vegetable shortening, is really easy to work with.  So this past weekend, for Junior Kidlet’s birthday, we did an at-home chocolate fondue with my teeny tiny crockpot.  Yum.  And impressed the heck out of the kids.  🙂

(And here you thought the shea butter was an isolated instance of crazy.)  😛

But I promise, next recipe will be really, really superduper simple.  And healthy too.

And in other news, HIS AT NIGHT is finally released into the wild today.  Phew.  That means I’m almost done with publicity stuff and can go back to just writing.  What a relief.

24 thoughts on “Inaugural Recipe Post: Cake Pops”

  1. I’m passing this on to my roommate/personal assistant, who will love trying it out.

    Congratulations on the HAN release! I have a copy already (won at AAR, thank you very much) but won’t be able to sit down with it yet. I’m slammed at work and am spending a long weekend in DFW for a family reunion (I always visit Texas when it’s too darn hot). Once everything settles down, I’m going into my virtual isolation chamber and read.

  2. Just want to congratulate you on the release of His at Night! Some historical novels are on the shelves in bookstores here in Honolulu weeks before official release date (yep!)… but sadly, not HAT so I have to be more patient!

    Never been a baker but I’ve been experimenting on simple recipes with some success. Thanks for the recipe and step-by-step photos — my kind! Take care, Sherry!

    • I love step-by-step photos. Actually, mine aren’t as step-by-step as some of the food bloggers’, since I am not inclined to take pictures–never remember my camera anywhere. But hope you find the cake pops a cinch to make and hope you find HAN soon! 🙂

  3. I lucked into an early copy of HAT over at AAR, too. I was able to gobble it down in one sitting the day that it arrived in the mail.
    I loved it! and I’ve already re-read it a couple of times. (I tend to rush through a highly anticipated book to find out What Happens, and then go back and re-read for all the nuances). And it is going right on my keeper shelf. Happy sighs.
    I had to Avert My Eyes from those luscious-looking cake pops! I need no more temptations of the caloric variety.

    • That’s why I never make any big batches of sweets just for my family. I always wait until there is a gathering to spread the calories thin, so to speak. 🙂

      And so happy you enjoyed HAN.

  4. I LOVE cake pops! I have had relative success with them (trying to put then into a heart shape was a total disaster…) and they are quite tasty. Yours look amazing! Happy Release Day (a little belatedly)!

    • Lol, you are ambitious. I stay away from the decorating part and just concentrate on the taste-good part. Really enjoyed the white chocolate ones myself.

      For Junior Kidlet’s birthday, I made some oreo balls to dip in the chocolate fondue, and those are not bad either. But the strawberries dipped in white chocolate, oh, nom nom nom! I ate a pound of strawberries yesterday with the leftover white chocolate. 🙂

  5. Sherry, I just finished and re-started HAT today. Loved it!

    –Spoiler comments and questions–

    *I’m so glad to see Freddie got a happy ending 🙂
    *Fun to see a Leo Marsden mention (my favorite Sherry Thomas hero)
    *Okay, am I crazy but was the ratcatcher who I think he was? If so….wowee! I don’t think I’ve seen a cameo appearance from a character in another author’s book (besides all the millions of Jane Austen knock-offs 😉 I laughed pretty hard at that.

    Thank you for your books–I cherish them. Please write faster, and please make your way out to Southern California someday so I can shake your hand. 🙂

  6. I don’t know why I condensed His at Night to HAT. D’oh! I was just excited to post, I guess. Sorry!

    • Not a problem at all, Lisap. And yes, it is Mick from the Proposition, of course it is. 🙂 I’m pretty sure I checked and Mick’s own book was set in 1899, so he should still have been a ratcatcher in 1897.

      There are Ivory references in two other of my books, but they either reference a secondary character or are really, really oblique. But since she wrote in the same era, I can’t help it. Maybe I’ll reference Charles from BEAST next time. If only I can find a way to reference Samuel and Leda from THE SHADOW AND THE STAR, but none of my folks have gone to Hawaii yet.

      P.S. Glad you enjoyed HAN.

  7. Oh heavens–now I’ll have to re-read your books to get those references. I am a relatively new romance reader so I have not caught up on all Judith Ivory’s books–I am trying not to speed through them and not have any left to look forward to.

    I reserved Beast at the library as an (I thought) audio CD set but they turned out to be cassettes (who even uses those things anymore?). I was so sad, as I’ve heard it is one of her best–I’ll have to order it from Amazon. I listened to The Proposition on CD and about died I loved it so much.

    Also, I forgot to ask if Lady Kingsley and Holbrook are going to get their own story–there is obviously something going on there–wink wink. 🙂

    • I still have a cassette player. Actually, I went to my local Goodwill and bought a boombox just for listen to audio books that are still on cassette. But then I got really busy and haven’t done it in a while.

      I hope you enjoy BEAST. I love it love it love it sooooooooooooooo much. I can’t describe it in words–and that’s my business. All I know is that it is a towering achievement and that I really don’t know why romance isn’t divided into Pre-Ivory and Post-Ivory periods.

      As for my references, I’ll make it easy for you. In PA, Camden’s dogs–I’m sure you are thinking, he has dogs? It was just a quick mention–are named Hannah and Bernard, after the leads in BLISS. I thought of making them just Hannah and Nardi, but I thought that would be too obvious.

      In Delicious, Verity and her son reference a French magnate, Monsieur du Gard, who wants Verity’s services as a chef. That’s a character who appears in both BLISS and DANCE, and is the father of the heroine in Dance.

      And come to think of it, I do believe someone told me that in Black Silk, Ivory made a reference to Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerley trilogy (To Love and To Cherish, To Have and To Hold, and Forever and Ever) Something along the lines of “And how is the vicar of Wyckerley?”

      P.S. No plans for Lady Kingsley and Holbrook yet. But if ever I think of a plot that fits, I’ll use them.

  8. If you love cake pops — go check out Bakerella — she’s the queen of cake pops… I might make them — but she is The Decorator! Has a book coming out in October. I envy you creative people! Am headed out to get your new book!

  9. [still off topic from the yummy recipe..]

    I still have some books on cassette, but I listen to books in the car on my long morning and afternoon commutes picking up kids from school so it’s all CD now-a-days.

    BTW, I have to say Virginia Leishman, who narrated PA, was amazing and for some reason listening to that book really helped me understand what you were doing with all the heartache and torture of Cam and Gigi. It was hard for me to read PA the first time because I wanted everything to be okay–RIGHT AWAY–and I was frustrated. But when I listened to it I just fell in love with that book and understood the growth and changes they went through to get their happily ever after. Gah. Anyway…

    I have not read Bliss or Dance, so I’ll have to accomplish that before I look back at your references–thanks for the cheat sheet. 🙂 I’ve only read The Prop, The Indiscretion, Angel in a Red Dress (the only one I didn’t really like) and Sleeping Beauty, which I LOVED. James and Coco are so real to me–Ivory did something almost spooky with those characters, they seem so alive. That was another great CD listen.

    • I’m pretty amazed that you listened to PA after having a hard time reading it. You are more forgiving a reader than I am and for that I’m very grateful. 🙂

      And how fortunate you are to still have BEAST, BLACK SILK, BLISS, DANCE, and UNTIE MY HEART to look forward to! (For what it’s worth, I also didn’t care for Angel in a Red Dress, also known as Starlit Surrender, her first book. I’m just constantly flabbergasted that she went from the immature ANGEL to the masterly BLACK SILK.)

  10. I actually went back to PA after I read Delicious and NQAH and just loved them. I started to understand what you were about after those books and knew I needed to give PA another chance and I’m so glad I did.

    And I have Black Silk in hand right now and I’m going to start it this afternoon! Yea! 🙂

  11. Sherry,

    I really enjoyed His At Night. It was a wonderful book and deserving of all the great reviews.

    I’m now going back and reading your “story about the story” to learn more about the manuscripts several changes.

    Do you have a sense of immense relief that this book is finally in the reader’s hand or just pressure to come up with the next synopsis? LOL

    • Kim,

      So glad you liked HAN. My relief usually comes the moment I finish the final round of revisions. I know I have done the absolute best I can and there is a certain comfort and peace in it. (When I’ve gone back to read my books for whatever reason, sometimes I wish I’d worded things differently, but I am otherwise fine with the larger structures, the characters, and other things that matter.)

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