Cake pops, cake pops, and more cake pops!

Did you need some inspiration for some valentines day treats?!?!? Well you're in luck because yesterday I whipped out some cake pops to send to some lucky friends and family!

All I can say is ONCE A CHEATER ALWAYS A CHEATER. Not words you expect to hear as we are quickly approaching Valentines day but for me this sentence rings true as I used Betty Crocker's gluten free cake mixes to save on time.

I've been dying to test out my new cake pop maker that arrived two weeks ago and figured Valentines day was the perfect reason to use it! Although the cake mixes are good as is, I ended up adding an ingredient to each. I added 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and the juice of one lemon to the the yellow cake mix and 1/3 cup of greek yogurt to the devils food mix. 

Each batter yields about 50 cake pops a piece, so you'll have leftovers unless you plan to decorate 100 cake pops. After an hour of baking I set all the cake balls to completely cool before decorating. 

I had fully intended to use white, pink, and red candy melts to coat the cake pops but they didn't arrive in the mail in time :( Luckily we had a huge Lindt chocolate bar that I chopped up and melted over a double broiler. 

* If you do not have a double broiler you can get the same effect by simmering some water in a small pot and placing the chocolate in a heat safe bowl on top of the pot of water. 

Once the chocolate has melted, take a lollipop stick and dip it into the chocolate so 1/4 of an inch of the stick is covered with chocolate (this will help the cake pops stay on the stick) and then dip the ball into melted chocolate until it is fully covered. Make sure to tap off excess chocolate as you don't want it to drip down when cooling. Then sprinkle and/or decorate. Place decorated cake pops in cooling stand to set and place in refrigerator so the chocolate hardens a bit. 

After the chocolate and decorations have set, I topped the cake pops with some mini cupcake holders so it was easier to package. 

* I got most of my supplies from Amazon.com and it was actually pretty inexpensive overall. Placing them on mini cupcake holders makes it easier to transport as well :)

Packaged and all ready to be mailed!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please don't be discouraged if you don't have a cake pop maker, please check out Bakerella's video as she will give you a step by step on how to make the cake balls. Super easy and you'll be glad you took the time to watch the video as it has some very helpful tips!!

Also I hope not to always be a "cheater" and use boxed cake mix as I plan to share some of my baking recipes with you that were made from scratch, stay tuned!