I Can't Wait for Spring!

It's been awhile.  Between the holidays and school starting up, there just hasn't been much time for baking endeavors.  But, thanks to a little prodding from my friends, I've realized that being busy is hardly an excuse-- especially when there are things as adorable as these out there!

So, in honor of my friends' pestering and my love of Springtime, I present:

Chickies!!

They are so cute I can hardly stand it.  Of course, they are no match to the sweet simplicity of Bakerella, but I think their expressions are just precious.  We had some friends over to help decorate them so I can't take credit for all of their adorable little faces.  I am so pleased with how they turned out.  A positive way to spend my Friday night.

They start off like any other cake balls/pops/truffles (still no consensus on what to call these things):

*  Bake a cake (I used a white cake mix with lemon oil, lemon juice, and buttermilk substitutions).

*  Get some frosting (I used leftover Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Butter Roux frosting that I had frozen).

*  Crumble up the cake.

*  Mush in the frosting until the mix is the consistency of cookie dough and holds together when shaped.

*  Portion out the dough using a melon baller or similar "relatively diminutive spherical portioning device" (to quote Alton Brown).

*  Roll into balls and chill.

As far as the coating for these little guys,  I recommend using candy specifically designed for coating, such as confectionery wafers, almond bark, etc...  The only colors of coating wafers I had on hand this particular night  were pink, green, and white (leftovers from my giant cupcake project).  Thankfully, I had thought ahead enough to purchase Candy Colors, which I was able to use to color my white chocolate yellow.

Candy Colors are like food coloring, but oil based instead of water-- don't use regular food coloring to color chocolate!  It will cause the coating to seize up into an icky mess.

After the coating was colored appropriately, I retrieved the balls from the fridge and inserted the sticks.  To make sure the balls don't slip off when you dip them, dip the tip of the stick into the chocolate before inserting into the ball.  When the chocolate hardens it will provide a better bond for the ball to stick to.

Dip them in a container that is tall and narrow, so they can be completely covered in one dip-- this will minimize the risk of dislodging the ball from its stick, which can get crumbs in your chocolate and make your remaining dips lumpy.

Allow each ball to drip thoroughly before tipping it right-side-up to dry.  I used a styrofoam block for this, but you could use anything tall enough to not touch the base of the candy and narrow enough to hold the pop upright (a highball glass would work well for this, depending on the length of the sticks you used).

While the chocolate was still slightly soft I inserted the sprinkles that would become the Chickies' beaks.  These were just round orange confetti-type sprinkles, but if you wanted to let the coating dry completely you could use a technique like Bakerella did and add orange candy to the outside later. 

I then used a dab of chocolate coating to adhere the feet (star-shaped sprinkles), big dabs of coating on the sides made little wings, and the eyes were made with more confetti sprinkles and edible markers.

The two in front here are my absolute favorites.  I love the slightly...special look about the one on the left, and the shocked surprise on the face of his friend.

Rock star chickie with his groupies (notice the sugar mohawk and soul patch)

 

All packaged up pretty!

There are still at least 50 balls in my refrigerator waiting to be dipped, but I can't decide how to go about it.  I might do more chickies, might do some plain...so many options!