Penguin Pops

 Ingredients:
-3/4 C flour
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
-1 egg
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 cup sugar
-4 TB milk

White Chocolate (almond bark)
Chocolate dyed black
Butterscotch chips
Googly Eyes

Beat the butter and softened butter together until it is light and creamy.  Add in the egg and the extract and mix.   Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Heat up your Babycakes Cake Pop maker and spray it with cooking spray if you do not have the nonstick one.  I like to use cookie scoops to fill them.  Cook for five minutes and remove.

According to basic Econ, there are trade-offs in cake pop making.  If you don't fill up your wells very much, your cake pops might be odd shaped.  If you fill it up a lot, they will be perfect domes but some will run over it and make all these crazy edges but you can break those off later.

I like to cut cones out of mine and hollow it out a little bit.

I filled these with bavarian cream.  If you do not have a place where you can get any, vanilla pudding would also be an option.  I had a goal of going for a pseudo boston cream pie flavor with these.

I put the tops back on mine when I have them filled.  I take the bottom part of the cone off so that it fits back on well. 

Melt the white chocolate and dip your cake pops in them.  Before the chocolate sets add eyes and a beak. Do this step for all of the cake pops before moving to the chocolate.

Melt the regular chocolate and add some black food coloring to it.  I would suggest not using a water based one if you can avoid it.  My chocolate started to seize up, but I added a splash of cooking oil and mixed vigorously.  I reheated it, added just a touch more oil, and it was ready to go.

I would use a knife and pretty much paint the chocolate on.  I went around the "top" of the penguin head and then used the knife to put on little wedge shapes at the sides for wings.

What I ended up with are super cute little penguins that are almost too darn cute to eat....ALMOST.  I think they will be delicious.

My best tip for cake pops is making them in advance.  Cake pops taste better the next morning, and they taste even better the day after.  They just do well when they set.  Cake pops will often last longer than regular cake because they are coated in chocolate and essentially sealed. 

Flavors like lemon especially have a tendency to be better a couple days after they are made.  Which is really good news for anyone planning a party!

I will have to dedicate this to all my penguin loving friends out there...or maybe just a particular one. 

Merry Christmas!