Last week we went DIY on the cake pop, with a trip to Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo's home kitchen on the west side. Today we're in Tempe with a baker who's gonna tell us how the pros make cake go pop.
The couple didn't start making cake pops until just recently, when the popularity of these tiny, quirky treats could no longer be ignored. But the O'Connors had already been making something similar to cake pops-- rum balls, topped with chocolate ganache.
Asked and answered.
Tim and Joan began adapting their other cake recipes--lemon, red velvet, espresso and more--for cake pops. The Honey Mooners roll tiny balls out of cake crumbs, finding that the cake's moisture is enough to hold the form together. From there, they insert a stick in each ball and freeze them. Afterwards, the balls are dipped in coating. If additional moisture is needed, melted chocolate, ganache or simple syrup with rum in it would add even more moisture to the cake pops, O'Connor advises.
"It's just like a little present on a stick," he says. "A little burst of flavor."
Honey Moon Sweets is located at 606 W. Southern Ave. in Tempe.