AlcoCake Pops - These are my new favourite things

This story starts a few months ago, so please forgive me if I ramble a bit. I had been on a trip to Northern Ireland. As so often during my masters in Belfast, I decided to stock up on the amazing baking products that UK stores have so readily available and southern irish stores are lacking. Among the many things that I bought were some bags of different flavoured candy covering. I left the bags in the cupboard until about 2 months ago. During a time when I was off chocolate and sweets but craving sweetness I opened the orange flavoured candy covering and was immediately hit by inspiration - cointreau cake pops with orange candy covering!

I stewed the idea for a while and looked for a good opportunity to try it out. My brother's 21st birthday was coming up and I thought this was a good opportunity to try them on others. I spoke with my brother and he said the concept was grand but he appeared unenthused. This didn't discourage me as I was full to the brim with enthusiasm and confidence about my idea.

I planned every detail from another trip up north to get ingredients and equipment (cake-pop sticks are not easy to find here) down to the precise proportion of alcohol to cake. The whole process and the recipe (also adapting a lactose free version for myself) took up all the imagining time I had in the gym for a while.

Finally last week the birthday arrived and I spent days making the alco-cake pops and decorating them and then the moment of truth arrived and I presented the pops to my brother and the party-goers. And the result? My brother said they looked amazing and tasted really really good. He seemed to be properly impressed and happy with the outcome and his friends all ate them up. In fact everyone who tried them had the same the reaction so it's safe to say that these were a success...... now to concoct other flavours ;)

Three different covering types

Chocolate Orange Alco-cake Pops

800g Good Dark Chocolate Cake
250ml Double Cream (Alpro Fresh Soy Cream if you're tending away from lactose)
3/4 Tbsp Cointreau
1 tsp lemon extract
34 cake pop sticks
300g orange candy covering or chocolate

Crush up your cake until it's in large crumbs. Add the cointreau into the cream and mix it gently then let it sit for a few minutes. You can whip the cream until it forms peaks (if using ordinary cream). Fold the cake into the cream until you cannot see any white in the mixture. Form the mixture into 34 balls and let them sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Melt a small amount of your candy covering or chocolate and dip the tops of your cake pop sticks before sticking them upside down into the balls. Let these rest in the fridge again for another 30 minutes.

Then melt the rest of your candy covering, stand your alcocake pops upright in some styrofoam (or a box with holes poked in it) and decorate. I dipped some and did a squiggle design on others. My brother actually preferred the squiggle and I think they look more adult somehow. Here they are anyway so you decide.

 

Wanna bite??

(More pictures coming soon)