Chocolate sponge cake
165 g (6 oz) soft butter
300 g (10½ oz) caster sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
3 beaten eggs
200 g (7 oz) plain flour
65 g (2½ oz) self-raising flour
70 g (2½ oz) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 ml (9 fl oz) buttermilk
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 or 160°C for a fan-assisted electric oven.
2. Grease and line a 20 cm (8 in) round cake tin.
3. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla extract in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs
gradually, incorporating them well after each addition.
4. Mix all the dry ingredients then add them to the mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
5. Spread the cake mixture evenly in your mold and bake for an hour, checking that a skewer can be inserted
clean spring once inserted into the deepest part of the cake. Let cool for five minutes before turning
out of the box.
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Bindings are mixed with the cake crumbs so that the cake pops can be formed into balls and other shapes.
This chocolate buttercream is a perennial favorite. It’s best to buy chocolate in the form of callets, as the smaller pieces melt more evenly. Strawberry and caramel flavored chocolates are also available.
You will need…
125 g (4½ oz) caramel chocolate callets
250 g (9 oz) soft butter
250 g sifted icing sugar
1. Place the chocolate callets in a plastic pitcher and microwave on medium power for two.
minutes then in short bursts until melted
2. Cream the soft butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer at low speed.
3. Add the liquid chocolate, mix and beat on high speed until soft and light.
Crumble the cake into fine crumbs by hand or in a food processor. Prepare the chocolate binder and mix the cake crumbs and binder to create a firm mixture. Take the same amount of mixture for each ball, either in measuring spoons or on a scale, and roll the mixture into a smooth ball.
Use a cake stick to make an indentation, then remove it. Place the balls on parchment paper and place in the refrigerator for an hour. After an hour, prepare the chocolate coating (see below) and pipe it into the hole and immediately insert the cake stick. Place on a plate to let set.
Caramel chocolate coating
It is best to use Belgian chocolate callets, which is a couverture chocolate prepared in the form of small buttons. You can get callets in reasonable quantities and in a range of types, such as white, milk and dark chocolate, and different flavors, such as strawberry, orange, lemon, caramel and cappuccino.
1. Add your chocolate callets to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on medium for up to thirty seconds to start, then remove and stir. It’s easy to think you can leave it twice as long, but it melts so quickly that it will ruin the batch, so be very careful to do this in short bursts.
2. When you see signs that the chocolate is starting to melt, reduce the microwave time to five to ten.
seconds at a time. When you only see a few drops of chocolate remaining, remove them from the
Microwave completely and continue stirring until the residual heat in the bowl has melted the last remaining bits.
Dipping cake pops
Dipping cake pops is easy – just make sure your dip is thoroughly melted. Make sure the bowl you use is deep enough to completely submerge the cake pop shape into the coating.
1. Take your cake pop and dip it completely into the coating. Tilt the bowl if necessary to achieve the desired result.
depth necessary to cover well.
2. Lift the cake pop from the liner and gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl, keeping the cake pop on top of the liner so the excess falls back into the bowl.
3. Remove it from the bowl and tap the base of the stick once or twice on the work surface to make sure the coating has flowed and joined the stick under the lollipop. Then hold it over the bowl and rotate your wrist to remove any additional excess. Once the flow from the pacifier decreases, tap once more and turn it upright again. Set the soaked pacifier aside in a block of Styrofoam to firm it up.
If you have any chocolate left, pour it onto parchment paper or cellophane.
and let it cool. Cut it into small pieces and store it in a bag until needed.
Decoration
For the ears, roll five small balls of caramel flower paste. Flatten them slightly and insert a ball tool in the center to create a hollow. Cut each ball in half.
2. For the snout, roll ten small balls of cream flower paste. Flatten slightly and score with a smile tool on the bottom half. Roll ten small dark brown balls for the noses.
3. Create five small bows in pale pink and five in pale blue.
4. After dipping your lollipops in the melted caramel chocolate, attach the still-wet ears. When
dry to the touch, draw a “seam” line from the back of the head on top between the ears and down to the
center front. Secure the muzzle and nose with glue. Once dry, pipe the eyes with black icing using a no. 1 tip.
5. Use edible glue to attach pink bows to the top of the bears’ heads, slightly to the side. Glue
blue bows under the chin of all the cubs.
