Cake Pops

My daughter asked me to make her a batch of cake pops for her 26^th birthday and I thought what’s the fuss?? Some cake, sponged back into small balls dipped in chocolate then covered with sprinkles… how good can this be?  But when I ventured with salt, tangerine and popcorn for crunch and funky flavour and elaborated with double chocolate dipping, I must admit that these beautiful little morsels did make a centrepiece on the birthday table! Promise, they will draw the attention even from the most elaborate birthday cake! This recipe yields approximately 50 cake pops, which are slightly larger than a chocolate truffle but no bigger than a walnut.

 

For the Cake
100g unsalted butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g cornflour
75g plain yoghurt
3 tbsp limoncello
1tsp grated mandarin rind
Juice of 1 mandarin

For the pop mixture
50g salted popcorn
2 tbsp Cointreau

For decoration
300g dark chocolate
200g white chocolate
Sprinkles of your choice
Cake pop sticks or large wooden kebab sticks cut in halves (I use large sticks to have a thicker stick)

 

Making the cake

1. Pre heat oven to 180c
2. In a food mixer with k-beater attached, mix chopped cold butter and sugar till mixture becomes pale and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing enough time in between so that the mixture will not curdle.A
4. dd all remaining ingredients together to the cake mixture, and mix for about 30 seconds till flour and yoghurt are evenly incorporated. Do not overmix as it will make cake heavy.
5. Butter a 10 inch cake tin and dust with a little flour, or line with baking paper.
6. Pour cake mixture, level it out with a spatula and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.
7. Remove from oven, slosh over hot cake the Cointreau and cover with a plate or chopping board so that cake cools down, retaining all the moisture.
8. Meanwhile, put popcorn in a food processor and give few pulses to crush. Mixture should resemble large breadcrumbs. Leave some bigger bits as these will give a kick of flavour to cake pops.
9. When the cake cools to warm, use your hand to crumble to small nuggetsAdd crushed popcorn and mix.
10. Gently press again together to form a rough ball.
11. Melt chocolates in separate bowls over Baine marie.
12. Take heaped tablespoon of mixture and cupping it between your palms squashing gently to form a small nicely shaped ball. Dip stick in white chocolate then press in the formed ball. Squash gently with hands to ensure that cake pop bonded with the stick. Make as perfect as possible as this will help in achieving a uniformed size cake pop. Arrange in a large glass or vase so that pops cool off completely.
13. Dip each pop in either chocolate and swirl upside down to remove excess chocolate. Arrange again taking care not to have them touching until the chocolate sets.
14. Put some chocolate in small piping bag and make swirls of chocolate to the already chocolate coated pops, then dip immediately in the sprinkles.  The picture helps you understand this step.

Cake pops that are completely covered in chocolate keep well for over a week, as long as they are loosely covered with plastic bag.  However, I must confess that mine never survived more than two days!!!

 

Bountygolla -Chocolate and Coconut Figolla

This is one of my signature cookie. I love bounty especially the dark chocolate, probably because when I was young, the TV advert portrayed, lush beautiful tropic bounties. So, I thought why not mingle that to the Maltese traditional Easter sweet? So here it is, the chocolate short pastry filled with coconut goodness. This recipe makes about 6 normal sized figolli, or 12-15 small ones. 

 

For the Pastry 

250g Unsalted Butter 

200g Caster Sugar 

1 tsp Baking Powder 

550g Plain Flour 

60g Cocoa Powder 

3 eggs 

Pinch Salt

For the Filling 

500g Dessicated Coconut 

250g Caster Sugar 

3 egg whites 

50ml Malibu 

1 tbsp Rice Flour 

For Decoration 

200g Dark Chocolate

Sprinkles

 

Making Pastry 

1. Using K beater mix butter and caster sugar till pale and fluffy 
2. Add eggs one at a time while continue on moderate speed 
3. Add sifted flours and salt then mix until a thick paste is formed. Do not over work the dough, a few seconds is enough 
4.  Scrape dough, gather mass on to some cling film, wrap to cover properly and refrigerate for 1/2 hour  

Making Filling

1. Using a whisk, beat eggs and sugar till soft merengue is formed 
2. Remove whisk, replace by K beater, add coconut, Malibu and rice flour, then mix till thick mixture is formed. If mixture is too dry, add some coconut water or more Malibu.  Leave to rest for 1/2 hour so that the coconut absorbs all liquids and fluff up.

Shaping Bountygolla 

1. 
   
   
   Roll out pastry to 5mm thickness, cut desired shapes and transfer shape to baking tin
   
2. Take heaped tablespoons of filling and level out on top of the pastry.
3. Roll out the pastry again and cut shapes again and arrange on top of the coconut mixture to form a sandwich.
4. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
5. Heat the oven to 185C and bake Bountygollas for about 25minutes.  You will notice that the cookie is cooked when you see a light tinge of brown to the coconut filling.
6. You may eat the cookie strait-away, however these taste better covered in dark chocolate and sprinkled with your desired topping.