Not a great fan of cakepops unless they are made binded with rum and not buttercream. :) Rum cake balls are certainly not kids friendly but my children are now young adults, so that's not something that I worry about.
However recently, when I saw this cakepop pan, I knew I just had to buy and try it out. Looks promising because I can bake small individual small round cakes instead of smashing and squashing cake into balls. I've seen BabyCakes cake pop maker sold on websites and it certainly looks interesting but this pan is the closest I can get here! I figured even if it doesn't work, I can use it for something else..(which I still have not figured that out yet..LOL!)
Nice red pan - matches my kitchen cabinet...
(any excuse just to buy something!)
Here are how the cake balls look like after they are baked. I used the chocolate recipe that came with the pan. Since the recipe didn't have a leavening agent, it doesn't rise as well and didn't turned up as round as i would like. I was hoping for them to be really round. I have to find another recipe that would be able to bake into rounder cake balls, probably one with some leavening agent.
BakePops after coated with chocolate.
See how the left Bakepop is flatter and oval shaped? I think I didn't put enough batter for that one. But even that supposedly rounder one isn't exactly that round either.
The dark chocolate coating originally was real shiny.. but i dropped them on the table a couple of times after trying to balance them in an empty cup. Didnt work, so i had to hold them with one hand and took photos using my iPhone with the other hand.
BakePops after I took a bite! :)
Verdict: It's delicious! Yes, it's sweet (all cakes, macarons, cookies etc are supposed to be sweet..if they are not sweet, they are either called bread or crackers!!).. but not as sweet as cakepops smashed up with buttercream. The cake is moist and chocolatety and goes every well with the hard chocolate covering it. Most importantly, my son who's such a picky eater, ate them..not just 1 but 2 bakepops! I'm esctatic because this is the first time he tried something new without even flinching or first saying "NO"! My son doesn't eat lollipop candy, so there is no way he would want to eat this just because it looks like lollipop. He took a few weeks to even want to try cupcakes and only after much coaxing! So to me this is already a great pan! LOL!
Pros:
1) Recipe is easy to put together - just hand mix
2) Sweet but not as sweet as the truffle-type of cakepops
3) Firmer cake (like mud cake texture) so the stick doesn't slide out or the cake balls 'loosen' from melting buttercream when our weather gets too hot. So i can take my time to coat with chocolate.
Cons:
1) Only limited to round shapes..(or perhaps oval most of the time..lol!).
2) Limited to that particular size
3) Not exactly round (but i have yet to try other recipes..maybe it might turn out round)
Can't think of anymore now...
