Christmas Baking - Christmas Cake Pops

Christmas Cake Pop Recipe

Prep Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 200g madeira cake

• 140g-160g white chocolate

• 1 orange , zest finely grated

To decorate

• 300g dark chocolate , (60-70% cocoa solids, broken into chunks)

• 50g white chocolate , broken into chunks

• sugar holly decorations or red and green writing icing

Method

STEP 1

Pulse the madeira cake in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over just simmering water or in the microwave.

Shop bought madeira cake can vary in texture so you may need to add a little extra melted white chocolate to make the mixture stick into balls.

Stir the orange zest into the chocolate, then work the chocolate into the crumbs using your hands.

STEP 2

Form into 10 small truffle-sized balls, then roll gently in your palms to smooth the surface.

Arrange the balls on a baking parchment-lined dinner plate.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the mixture to set.

STEP 3

Melt the dark chocolate in a microwave or over a bowl of just simmering water.

Dip a lolly stick into the melted chocolate about 1.5cm in and poke half way into a cake ball.

Repeat with the remaining balls.

Put them back on the plate.

Return to the fridge for five minutes.

STEP 4

Dip the cake pops one at a time into the melted chocolate, allowing any excess chocolate to drip off and spin the pops to even out the surface.

Poke the pops into a piece of polystyrene or cake pop holder if you have one, keeping the pops apart. Allow to set for about half an hour.

STEP 5

Heat the white chocolate in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water.

Allow to cool for a few minutes until it has a thick, runny consistency.

If the chocolate is too hot, it will melt the dark chocolate underneath so make sure you do not overheat it. Spoon a small amount on top of the cake pops and tip them back and forth so that it runs down the sides a little.

If you have holly decorations, set one on each pop.

If using writing icing, wait for another 20 minutes or so until the white chocolate has set.

To avoid a bloom on the chocolate, cover the cake pops in chocolate on the day you want to eat them – or the day before at the earliest.

STEP 6

Pipe on holly leaves with the green icing and two little dots for berries using the red.

Once finished, store them in a cool place, though not the fridge