Happy Birthday to me! I know it’s a little crazy that I’m making my own birthday treat but I don’t care for store bought (unless its the expensive kind) and I know Jordan won’t know what he’s doing 😂. Instead of the traditional cake or cupcake route I’m making one of my favorite alternatives. This week’s pairing of the week is:
Red Velvet Cake Pops and Cupcake Wine
So I know NOW cake pops are a common thing, but my mother-in-law Cindy introduced these to me about 11 years ago…BEFORE THEY WERE A THING! When they finally hit the shelves at Starbucks in 2011 I was so excited to have one with my morning coffee…but it was SO DRY!!!! I was utterly disappointed, nothing like Cindy’s and there was one major ingredient missing…the frosting! How can you not include the frosting? I decided from there on out to just make my own because of the crushing disappointment I felt from the Starbucks cake pop.
I started making these for just about every family gathering…for Easter I made lemon cake pops, birthdays I made confetti, for Christmas I made chocolate cake pops, stuck some pretzels in and decorated them as reindeer. They were always a hit because its smaller than a cupcake and WAY easier to eat! You don’t get frosting all over your face which is always a plus.
Typically my favorite cake flavor for my birthday is confetti, but I had to go with red velvet to match our parties theme on Saturday night. Jordan is throwing me a 1920’s Speakeasy theme party! We’ll be dressing up and making some fun 1920’s cocktails. I figured red velvet would just work better for the theme, plus you can never go wrong with a red velvet cake pop!
As for my wine pairing…I of course chose Cupcake Vineyards in honor of my birthday! It’s one of my favorite vineyards for a couple of reasons…I haven’t had one of their wines that I don’t like…and cupcakes are my JAM. Anything with the word ‘cupcake’ is an automatic YES for me. I was browsing their website to find a wine that would pair well and came across…can you guess?! A RED VELVET WINE. Could not be more perfect, it was simply meant to be!
**If you haven’t already- be sure to follow my instagram @famfromscratch! I made a live video today showing how to properly dip the cake pops..it will be posted in my IGTV!
From my kitchen to yours… Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 box cake- your choice of flavor
- 1 jar of frosting
- Cake pop sticks
- White chocolate OR chocolate melts (depending on what cake flavor you choose)
- Sprinkles
- 1 piece of Styrofoam
Instructions
- Bake the cake according to the directions on the box (I usually do this the day before I actually make the cake pops)
- Allow the cake to completely cool
- Dump the cake into a large bowl, break it up into fine crumbles
- Scoop about 1/2 cup of frosting into the bowl **Do not use too much! The cake pops will fall apart during the dipping stage**
- **Spoiler alert- Get’s a bit messy😂** Using your hands- combine the cake and the frosting completely- it should become a consistency similar to clay
- Spread parchment paper onto two baking sheets
- Roll cake into balls about 1 1/4 inch in diameter- using a stainless steel ice cream scoop should give you the perfect amount!
- Chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes
- Using a double boiler (you can google how to double boil without a double boiler pan) melt a small amount of chocolate
- Dip the cake pop stick into the chocolate then into a cake ball11. Freeze for about 15 more minutes
- Melt about half of the chocolate with the double boiler, remove from heat- be very careful not to get any water in your chocolate!
- Carefully bring the cake pop straight down into the chocolate, gently tilting the cake pop to fully coat it. Remove the cake pop and stand it in your styrofoam base, decorate with sprinkles of choice immediately- chocolate hardens quickly! (watch my tutorial here)
- Continue with the remaining cake pops, melting more chocolate as needed
- Serve with a bottle of Cupcake Vineyard Red Velvet Wine! Enjoy!
