Fun Food Friday- Football Cake Pops

As you know the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday.  I had some cake in the freezer so I decided to make Football Cake Pops for our Super Bowl party.  We are having our Youth Group over (which consists of 5 girls :)), so it seemed like a great party favor.  Cake pops are actually very simple to make and oh my goodness are they amazing to eat.  I actually like to use gluten free cake, I feel like it holds together better for some reason.  But any kind of cake and frosting will do.  I had some homemade frosting in my fridge leftover from a cake I made for a baby gift, so that's what I used, but store bought frosting works just as well.  I usually make them in the shape of a ball and just put sprinkles on the chocolate before it dries for decoration, but since it's for a football party, I did them in the shape of footballs and used white frosting to make laces.  So here you go- Football Cake Pops:

Ingredients: Cake (I used Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Devil's Food cake that I had leftover in my freezer, I must have used a little bit before for some cake pops because it's missing a bit :)), Frosting, Candy Sticks, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Vanilla Almond Bark

My 2-year old assistant would really like to take a bit out of the cake (which he calls "pie" :))

 

Crumble the cake in a bowl

Add frosting- I think they say use about 1/2 cup for half a cake, I usually use a little more because gluten free cake seems to be a little drier.  Just add a little and see how it mixes, you can always add more.

 Mix the frosting into the cake

I use a cookie scoop to try to make them all the same size

This is what Micah thinks the cookie scoop is for :)

Form the cake into a football shape

This is what a 2 year old looks like after "helping" mom make cake pops

This is what a 2 year old looks like after that mom puts the cake pops in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours (if you're in a hurry you can chill them in the freezer for 20 minutes)

 

Thankfully when it was time to coat the cakepops Steve was home and was able to distract Micah with this concoction they created.  Notice the air Mater got. :)

For the coating I use chocolate chips and almond bark (what I use to make peanut clusters).  You can use candy melts, especially if you want a different color coating, but I prefer this because it's really good. :)  The ratio is 1/4 of the bag of almond bark (3 squares) and then 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.  If you need more, use this ratio to adjust.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until nice and smooth

Dip the end of a stick into the chocolate

And stick it about 2/3 of the way into the football.

 

Once the chocolate on the stick is hardened dip the whole football into the chocolate

so it's completely covered

Tap the side of the bowl to get the excess chocolate off

I use a foam block to hold the cakepops up while I'm working on them

Once the coating is hard put some white frosting in a frosting bag with a small circle tip (if you don't have a frosting bag and tips, just put it in a plastic sandwich bag and cut the corner off to create a small hole) and draw a line across the center

Add small lines crossing that line to create the laces of a football

The finished product

Wrap each one in plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon (I used green to look like grass :)).  Before wrapping them I put them in the refrigerator for a while so the frosting hardens and doesn't smudge when putting the plastic wrap on.

You can display them however you want.  I used a flower tin with a foam block inside; use whatever you have in your house or just have them setting on the table. 

David was my helper while wrapping the cakepops. 

He didn't get upset when I put them away. :)