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Jamaica Ginger Cake Pops with White Chocolate

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Giggly schoolgirls. They saunter towards me cackling in crushed together cliques, not drunk (well I presume not) but barely able to walk in a straight line. They annoy the hell out of me but at the same time I look back in fond memory that I once was one. At school I was one of a threesome, myself, Beccy, Janice. More often than not, we had ribs that ached, bodies bent double at desks trembling with disapproved of laughter.
Something daft would set one of us off. We’d been smirking at the history teacher’s shoes that day or the names of steam engines from the Industrial Revolution were suddenly hilarious. “Be quiet,” we were told. One of us would be sat at a desk immediately in front of the other two desperately trying not to laugh again. Janice, the tallest, would reach forwards and jab a sharp finger into each side of her victim making them crack and get told off again. More giggles. It’s a miracle any of us passed.
Cake pops will not behave either. They slide about cheekily, keep still for a moment and then cave over slowly in comic fashion. Not good for photos. Appearances are deceptive.  Catch one on its own and it’s smartly dressed with its bow, pinned down by fingers. Try standing three of them in a row, even with sticks pressed into some sugar paste and first one goes belly up and then they all do.  I had a terrible time this afternoon trying to get these cake pops to stand still and cooperate.
I have a large box stuffed full of letters that my school friends and I wrote to each other over one summer holiday. It was a church school pulling pupils from a wide area so we didn’t live near each other. They were not just letters, they were complete projects, pictures torn out of magazines with captions, stories and skits written to entertain each other until we were back together in September. I look at them now in amazement, firstly that we wrote them at all and secondly at the sheer amount of effort that went into them. I remember the excitement of getting a letter during the holidays and the joy that it was as good as being in a history lesson having your ribs jabbed.

 

Now and again my husband and I will get a fit of the giggles over something (usually something my dad has done) but nothing comes close to that breathless schoolgirl side splitting laughter.
Today I am still best friends with Beccy and like during those school holidays we are separated. Separated by distance (she moved to Australia shortly after Ted arrived), separated by life, we don’t have the time to write little magazines for each other now, that’s not what grown ups do. (But what are blogs if not magazines…?) Mercifully phone calls are cheaper than back in 1989 and so we spend an hour at a time chatting every month or two. And of course she reads this blog.

 

After admiring cake pops for months on Bakerella, it was a recent post by Claire at Things We Make that spurred me on to make some of my own. I am using again the background paper which Claire had admired here prompting her to find some in the same colour.

Claire’s admission that she’d used shop bought cake was the main thing that propelled me into making these. After all why would I massacre a cake I’d just spent hours making? I had some left over ginger buttercream in the fridge and decided to do ginger cake pops. One day I will get around to writing a “Guilty Pleasures” food post with my top ten slightly (or highly) trashy foods that I enjoy. McVitie’s Jamaica Ginger Cake may well be one of them. They’re also cheap enough to have no qualms about blitzing them into oblivion.

I made the pops to take to a dinner party held in honour of a friend’s birthday. When asked what they were I said “cake on a stick” although “truffle on a stick” might be more accurate.

The buttercream and crumb mix mutates back into thick cake mix with a similar texture to marzipan.  As an alternative to almonds, I’ve heard marzipan can be made with cake crumbs so I expect this comes close to that.

Cake pops are ridiculously easy to make. The hardest bit was finding something suitable to stand them in so they don’t fall over and smudge.  Next time I will use Claire at Things We Make‘s suggestion of wooden stirrers from coffee chains. The cake pops “spin” a bit on the round plastic sticks whereas the wooden ones would grip them better – the length would also make them easier to photograph.

White Chocolate Jamaica Ginger Cake Pops
Makes 12-14 cake pops

Ingredients:
1 bought McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake or 250g of fruitless ginger cake
3-4 tbsp ginger buttercream – see this post
(alternatively you could use Philadelphia cream cheese but it won’t be so gingery which you may prefer anyway)
200g white chocolate
crystalised ginger to decorate
12-14 sticks

 

Method:
1. Pulse the cake in the food processor a few times until you have crumbs.
2. Drop in 3-4 tablespoons of ginger butter cream or cream cheese. Pulse again until you get a ball of dough. Don’t over pulse otherwise the blade chops it up again.
3. Roll golf ball sized blobs of dough with your fingers. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Put in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight or cover with cling film and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Break the chocolate into squares and melt either in a double boiler or the microwave.
5. When the chocolate is melted, roll the balls in it and spear with one of the sticks to remove. Use a teaspoon to drip chocolate all around the ball and let the excess drip from it.
6. Stud pieces of crystalised ginger onto the white chocolate before it starts to set. Finally, stand the cake pop in a cup just the right height to support it but not to smudge the chocolate. Allow to set before serving. Chill if desired but this is not essential.

Comments

  1. My Sarah those look so cute and delicious. Love the serving size too, two would be just right for me. Guess I'll have to find a similiar cake as we don't have that particular brand in U.S.
    Thanks.

    Reply

  2. I'm so jealous you have those. I'm in a fix deciding what to have for brekkie and I would like a cakepop please!! Ginger flavoured baking is my new addiction. Just made ginger cupcakes with saute bananas!

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  4. Wow, these look amazing. I might have to try this one. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
    *kisses* HH

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  5. I think this is my favourite post of yours ever (so far!). Loved hearing about your friends and the letters you wrote. Because, like you say, that's what blogs are really – stories with captions and skits and photos – all made to entertain one another. With love. It's a way of keeping in touch and making new friends. I have just bought a book (because someone I follow told me about it) called A Year of Mornings – 3191 Miles Apart – of photos on two blogs that two friends sent each other every day.

    And I haven't even got started on the cake pops!
    These look so scrummy – if badly behaved. I saw them somewhere else with smarties or sprinkles for kids but these are perfect for grown ups.

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  6. They're fun aren't they? I hope they tasted good. They looked like they do, although they are very rich. Glad to have inspired you to make them.

    I really need to get a new background paper as I am in danger of photographing everything with that colour… 'cos I love it so. In fact I baked lovely vanilla bean scones yesterday that are so pale and uninteresting looking that I am tempted to use it again to zing them up. Do you use some sort of lamp shining on the things you photograph as they seem to have a sort of glow?

    I can just imagine you and your giggling school friends, lolling around like cake pops!

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  11. Wow and wow! Cake on a stick… doesn't get much better than that! What great photos and commentary, too.

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  13. I'm totally with you on McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake – it's fantastic stuff. And this pops look just great. I made something similar with cheesecake as an experiment when a friend was preparing to cater her wedding – we actually made the cheesecake and then smashed it up! Lots of fun, but quite a lot of effort, really, so these ones look much more manageable. 😀

    Reply

  14. Your cake pops are very pretty Sarah! I had a hard time getting mine to stay on the stick, hence I never blogged em!! Bakerella does hers so beautifully and perfectly. I wonder how. 🙂 x

    Reply

  16. These look and sound fabulous! You wouldn't know you'd had any probs photographing them – they look so cute 🙂

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  17. Oh Sarah, your story absolutely cracked me up! 🙂 Oh my, such memories you brought back with your reflections. 🙂 I too had some giggly cohorts of my own. 🙂 I've never heard of cake pops, but these sounds marvy! 🙂

    Reply

  21. Well even if they were badly behaved, they look fab! I was chatting with two other bakers today about using 'shortcuts' – the bought cake is a great idea for these. Next time I make a batch of caramel macaron filling I think there will be cake pops too.

    Reply

  22. Great story. I just saw a friend from high school that I haven't seen in 14 years. Lots of laughing and giggling. These cake pops look great! 🙂

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  26. even though i'm down under you are in my thoughts everyday….so many fantastic memories and we'll have many more to come. love you lots your best friend beccy xx

    Reply

  27. Love cake pops, especially after trying Diva's oreo ones at FBC. I would live this – being a ginger babe. Superb

    Reply

  28. Aww so cute! I love the ribbon too 🙂 You can also do them with biscuits too (another quick way using bought biscuits 🙂 )

    Reply

  29. Maybe wooden lollypop sticks would work better ot even thse cocktale forks, if you could find long handled ones. I love the flavor, yum!
    It looks to me like you did a good job getting them to behave! 🙂

    Reply

  31. Love the lovely yellow ribbon! Very nice. 🙂
    Am not a fan of ginger (in any form) but I wouldn't say no to one of these!

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  32. Love them Sarah, as much as I love the way you told your story, and connected it to these giddy creatures! reminded me of my giggly schooldays too, and sadly those days never come back. Those head in the cloud, hysterical times when anything could trigger off the madness!Gorgeous cake pops… love everything about them, even their bad behaviour once they come together! LOL!!

    Reply

  33. Ah, Bakerella. I love her site and her cute cakepops. I've made a load of them and think it is probably mine that Deerbaby above was thinking of as I've posted them on my blog and she stops by to say hello regularly.

    Not sure if anyone else has said it in the comments, but what you need to hold up your cakepops is a piece of polystryrene (sp wrong, i'm too tired to check it)

    If you go to this page on my blog you'll see standing in a row like cakepop soldiers!

    http://thecurseofthemoderndilemma.blogspot.com/2010/02/wordless-wednesday.html

    Love the idea of your grown up cakepops. May have to give them a try!

    MD xx

    Reply

  34. Wow!! these look delicious, going straight into the kitchen to bake a cake to blitz. I've 'aquired' some wooden sticks.

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  36. Hello all, I make cake pops on a regular basis and I am the proud owner of the bakerella cakepop book. The trick to getting them to stay on the stick and keep in place, is to dip the end of the stick into the chocolate before your insert it into the cake pop. Polestyrene is great for holding them in place, but also a potato works well. Just remember to cut a piece off the potato to give it a flat bottom. I can highly recommend making these with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, they truely are truffles on a stick and the kids love them!

    Reply

  37. Hi Sarah well done. I couldn’t help but notice that you hadn’t dipped the stick into chocolate before pushing them into the cake balls. If you did that and let them set as the cold mixture sets it hard, then that usually prevents them from rolling around on the stick.. Great job. They look devine

    Reply

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