Super Bowl Football Cakepops!

My son, Zack, is a huge Patriots fan and I wanted to surprise him with Football Cake Pops to enjoy during Super Bowl this weekend.   I just learned how to make cake balls and cake pops last weekend when the kids and I were visiting my brother and nieces in Arizona.  They were so much fun to make and even more fun to eat!  I do not have an actual recipe for the pops but I can tell you how I made them and give you some tips that helped me!

Pick any flavor of cake mix you like and prepare it according to the directions on the box.  When the cake is still warm crumble it into a bowl and add a tub of your favorite frosting flavor (mix and match any flavors you like, I chose white cake with white frosting).  Mix the cake and frosting until it is completely smooth, then stick this mixture into the refrigerator for about an hour to make the cake mixture easier to work with.  Roll the mixture into balls or desired shape and place onto parchment lined baking sheets and stick back in the refrigerator.  I found these balls much easier to work with if they were really cold.  

I went to our local craft store and picked up candy sticks and candy coating.  They have tons of  different colors of candy coating to chose from.  I chose dark chocolate for the footballs but I picked up some fun colors for another time (I'm thinking pink cake pops for Valentine's Day)!  I also picked up a tube of white decorator gel to make the strings on the footballs.  Melt a small amount of the candy coating and dip the stick into it about 1/2" deep, then stick into a cake ball and stick back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so.  This will glue the ball to the stick so it doesn't slide off of the stick.  Melt your candy coating in small batches, I melted mine in a coffee mug in the microwave.  Dip football pops into candy coating and let excess drip off into the mug.  When the cake pop stops dripping you can stick them into Styrofoam to dry, this is a great way to store the cake pops as well.  Once completely dry, decorate as desired and enjoy!  I stored my cake pops in the refrigerator but I imagine you can store them at room temp as well.

Enjoy these yummy and adorable little footballs!!  Below are some pictures of my nieces teaching me how to make cake balls last weekend!  We had so much fun baking together and making a mess in the kitchen, even more fun was eating our yummy treats.  Cake balls and cake pops are a great project for the family!