Pumpkin Cake Pops

CAKE:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1¾ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs
15 ounce can pure pumpkin
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 Tbs grated orange peel (or less if you don't want much orange flavor)
2 tubs prepared frosting (I used cream cheese)

OTHER INGREDS:
8-inch long lollipop sticks (or 6-inch), sturdy, thicker ones rather than
the skinny type
Melting chocolate (chocolate disks from baking shops or regular chocolate
chips)
Decor sprinkles, etc.
Ribbon for sticks (optional)

1. Prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans
and dust with flour.

2. Sift flour and next 7 ingredients into a medium bowl.

3. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars and oil in large bowl until
combined (mixture will look grainy). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until
well blended after each addition. Add pumpkin, vanilla, and orange peel;
beat until well blended. Add flour mixture; beat just until incorporated.
Divide batter between prepared pans.

4. Bake cakes until tester comes out clean- about 35-40 minutes. Cool cakes
on rack.

5. Forming the cake balls: Line baking sheet (one that fits in your freezer)
with parchment or waxed paper. Remove cakes in pieces and place them in your
food processor. Process to crumbs; dump crumbs into a large bowl. Add one
tub of frosting to the crumb mixture. Mix with the back of a large spoon (or
your hands). Add additional frosting, if necessary, until the mixture sticks
easily together. Form quarter- sized balls with your hands and place onto
prepared baking sheet. Place balls into freezer and freeze until firm (or
overnight).

6. Melting the chocolate: Melt chocolate in a small glass bowl in microwave
in 30 second intervals. Keep checking and stirring. If you cook it too long,
it will harden. It should take about a minute and a half for about a cup of
chocolate. When using chocolate chips, I add about a half teaspoon of Crisco
to assist with smoothing it out. (FYI- white chocolate chips don't melt
well- for this project, I used white chocolate disks found at a specialty
baking shop).

7. Dipping the cake pops: You'll need to work quickly, so make sure that you
have all of your decorator supplies out. A paper plate is handy to use as a
'catcher' for errant sprinkles. Take out your tray of frozen balls and set
it near your workplace. Place a stick about a half inch into the melted
chocolate and then gently push into one of the frozen balls. Hold the ball
with your other hand to make sure that it goes in nicely and doesn't cause
it to crack. Gently dip the ball into the melted chocolate and turn quickly
to coat. Work over your paper plate to quickly sprinkle decor items onto the
melted chocolate. The chocolate dries pretty fast so you need to do the
decor right away. Place the decorated pop back onto your baking sheet and
let set. Repeat with remaining balls, and melt more chocolate as you go
along.

8. Pops should be stored in freezer or refrigerator until ready to serve.
These are ok to make 24 hours in advance.

Yield: About 50 pops

Cooking Tips
*If you'd like to use ribbon for decorating, you can glue strips of ribbon
and wrap them around your sticks before using. You can also use ribbon to
tie bows on the sticks after decorating.
**You can make this recipe a LOT easier, by using a boxed cake mix. Simply
bake up the cake as directed, process into crumbs, and mix with 1 tub of
frosting.

Read more: http://www.recipegirl.com/2008/10/16/pumpkin-cake-pops/#ixzz0VFhYppAM