Cake Pops {Egg-free}

I am so excited about this post!  Sometimes it feels like certain fun foods are just off limits to people with food allergies.  I love it when I can figure out how to make something like cake pops work for everyone in our family!  I starting thinking . . .  why couldn't I start with our favorite egg-free cupcake and  go from there?

Because these cupcakes are a little more moist than the ones made with egg, you don't need to mix in as much icing as most recipes suggest.  They turned out really good and no one would ever know they don't have egg in them.  They have an almost truffle like texture that is a something between cake and candy.  My kids thought they were pretty awesome.  My husband was excited to try an increasingly popular treat that has pretty much been off-limits for him until now.  I made these using a yellow cake mix and white chocolate candy melts (with sprinkles in the candy) for a very vanilla flavor.  I want to try them again with chocolate!

Cake Pops {Egg-free}  

Method inspired by blog posts from Veronica's Cornucopia, Love from the Oven and Homemaker Chic. 

1 recipe prepared Pillsbury cupcake {made egg-free}

½ c prepared frosting

2 10-12 oz packages Candy Melts*

3 T vegetable shortening

Crumble up prepared, cooled cupcakes in a large bowl with your hands.  Also with your hands, mix in ½ cup of prepared icing until fully incorporated and cake starts to form into a large ball.  With a cookie dough scoop, spoon up batter and roll into a ball with your hands.  Place on a cookie sheet.  (I put parchment paper on my cookie sheet.)  Continue making cake balls until all cake mixture is used up.   Refrigerate cake balls for at least one or up to overnight.  

Melt candy melts in a double boiler with 1 T shortening.  Dip sticks in melted candy and push into the slightly flattened side of the cake ball.  (The side that was on the pan in the refrigerator will be slightly flattened.)  Place cake pop back on the cookie sheet with sticks facing up to allow candy to harden so the stick will stay in place.  Add an additional tablespoon of shortening to melted candy to thin it out slightly before dipping the cake pops.  Dip each pop into melted candy until the all of the cake ball surface is coated.  Lightly tap on the side of the pan to remove excess candy.  Decorate with sprinkles, if desired and stick into a piece of styrofoam or cake pop stand to until candy coating has hardened.  

*I used two packages of candy melts to make sure I had plenty of candy to dip into.  One would probably be enough to coat all of the pops, but you would have to be really careful when dipping and maybe use a smaller container so you don’t have to scrap the sides with the cake pop.

Makes about 2 dozen cake pops

I bought a cake pop stand to to put them in until the candy was hardened.  I would recommend it!

 

I had to sample one before I packaged them up!  Yummy!

 The nice thing about cake pops is that once the candy hardens, they are easy to transport and seem to stay moist for a while.  I used these small clear treat bags and simply tied with blue curling ribbon.  Once they were wrapped up, I was able to just put them in a little bag.  

Dairy-free notes:  These cake pops do contain dairy.  If anyone knows of a good dairy-free candy coating, I may attempt to make an egg-free, dairy-free version.  I know a lot of kids are allergic to both and this would be a fun treat for kids with food allergies!