Birthday Cupcake Bites

By now, you've probably (taste) spotted, ooh and aahed over Bakerella's fabulous cupcake pop creations. I've always admired from afar, thinking nothing could be cuter but well, more time consuming. Though simple in principle, these babies require a cake to be baked then deconstructed, formed into little balls, then stuck into the freezer for multiple intervals and finished with a few baths in chocolate (hmm....can I take a bath in chocolate)?

Well, after much drooling and envy, I decided to take the plunge and try these out. It's hubby's birthday, what could be a more fitting occasion?


I started with homemade red velvet cake, though you can use a boxed cake mix of nearly any flavor. Next time I'll consider this route since it was so painful to take my beautiful cake and feed it to the food processor. Once your pretty cake is reduced to crumbs, mix it up with some good cream cheese frosting and lick your fingers once or twice. It tastes pretty good, just don't double dip.

Fill in your candy mold, and place the cake ball on top. Pop in the freezer to firm up and dip with your favorite artificially colored chocolate :)

Come to think of it, purple isn't the manliest of colors. I hope hubby can forgive me.

Check out Bakerella's more precise and less stream of consciousness instructions for your own darling cupcake bites.
Here's some tips:

• I purchased my supplies at Do It With Icing in San Diego. If you're not in San Diego, find a local baking supply store which will save you from traveling from store to store searching for ingredients. If you're an internet kind of person, you can buy the candy molds here.
  
• Bakerella's recipe doesn't mention putting the cake into a food processor, though it does on her Martha Stewart video. I went ahead and used the food processor and found it to be easy for crumbling the cake
• I used my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer to combine the cream cheese frosting with the cake crumbs.
  
• When rolling the dough into balls, wash your hands periodically so the dough doesn't stick to your hands
• Colored chocolate can be very thick, so unless you have paramount crystals to thin the chocolate, I found twisting the cupcake bite into the chocolate was the best method
• Consider this a weekend activity because it's time consuming though worth it!
  

Have a great rest of the weekend!