CAKE POPS!

As a thank you present I made my friend Charlotte some cake pops, she got me a paid temping job as receptionist at her office, so the least I could do was make her something sweet and chocolaty as a gift.

Using another of those delicious chocolate spreads I nabbed, (I used the chocolate coconut spread, I think this maybe my fave?!) I quickly rolled together some cake pops, dipped them in chocolate and shook lashings of sprinkles all over those babies.

These are so easy to make and there is absolutely no cooking involved, oh apart from just nuking the chocolate in a microwave.

Makes 8 lollipops
Ingredients 

• 250g (9oz) of Madeira sponge cake, bought or homemade. (For my gluten free version I used crumbled rusks!)
• 100g (4oz) two large tablespoons of chocolate spread.
• 100g (4oz) your choice of milk chocolate or dark or white, whichever you want to coat your finished pop with.
• A few drops of flavouring essence (you could try lemon, vanilla, coffee, almond again its your choice really, whatever takes your fancy.)
• Sprinkles
• wooden skewers

Method 

1. break and Crumble the cake or rusk into a bowl.
2. Add the chocolate spread to bind the cake crumb,  this gives a 'cookie dough' like texture to the finished pop.
3. Mix it all together with a spoon then your hands, it's ready when it looks like play dough.
4. Take even amounts of the dough, roll into balls a bit smaller than a golf ball. Pop the balls into the fridge, on a prepared tray/container lined with silicone paper, to firm up.
5. Melt the chocolate on a medium setting in the microwave, regulary checking and stirring to vaoid burning the chocolate.
6. take the balls from the fridge, dip the wooden sticks in chocolate and really get it stuck into the ball. 
7. Return the balls to the fridge to let the chocolate set.
8. Remove from the fridge once again and coat / roll each ball in the melted chocolate of choice, add sprinklings.  Return to the fridge to set.

For presentation, as they were a gift, when set, I put my finished cake pops in cellophane bags and add curled ribbon for a finishing touch.