I initially thought I would be making a cake pop version of a Sweetheart; however, since this was my first attempt I decided to go with simple and sweet. I followed the simple cake ball recipe from the book (also found here http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/). As for decoration, I dug through my cabinet of sprinkles (yes an entire cabinet dedicated to sprinkles) and found some adorable ones appropriate for this special occasion: pink, white, and red nonpareils, purple and white jimmies with red lips, and pink and red X's and O's (personally my favorite). I wish I could tell you where I found all of these, but honestly it could have been anywhere. I shop at an assortment of craft stores and randomly buy sprinkles as I find ones I can't live without.
I only made 12 and quickly found out that was not near enough. This was like an afternoon snack for my husband.
After success with the first batch, I decided to make more a couple weeks later for my Mom's birthday. She isn't a huge "sweets" eater but I knew the rest of the family would enjoy them (particular my father). For this batch I decided to get a little more creative. She has a crazy obsession for pigs so I decided to give that a shot. After about twelve I decided to switch back to only sprinkles! The pig were a little more work than I was interested in. Especially considering I had 48 cake pops to decorate.
They were relatively simple. The ears were large heart sprinkles interested upside down before the candy had a chance to melt. The nose consisted of a pink m&m attached with extra candy melts after the main coating hardened. The eyes, nose, and mouth were done with an edible food writer. This was my first try at one and I wasn't exactly impressed. Basically they didn't work. At least not immediately. I tried again the following day when the candy melts had 12 hours to completely dry and it worked perfectly.
The best part about these little guys, is that my mother loved them for appearance and taste! She couldn't stop eating them. Her exact words, "don't ever bring those things to my house again." I guess you can say they were a success.
