Simple, Easy, and Delicious Desserts That Look Great and Taste Better
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! I absolutely love this silly hallmark holiday. I am not only obsessed with the aesthetic of it (best color combo and hearts are so cute) but the idea of having a whole day to celebrate love is so precious.
To get in the spirit and to have an excuse to cover everything around me pink and sparkly, I decided to make some chocolate covered strawberries and cake pops. It ended up being SO easy and SO fun. My mom helped me make and decorate strawberries, and it was such a fun and easy way to spend quality time.
Whether you want to make these with someone, make these for someone, or just eat them yourself, read on.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Ingredients & supplies:
Strawberries
Candy Melts
Vegetable shortening
Sprinkles (optional)
Parchment paper
- Wash your strawberries and completely dry all of them. I got 3 boxes of strawberries, so drying each one individually was a bit tedious, but the chocolate won’t stick as good otherwise.
- Put your candy melts *and a little bit of shortening in a microwave-safe bowl or cup, cooking for one minute, stirring, followed by 30-second intervals and stirring until melted (*this will thin the consistency a bit so the dipping is easier and not too thick on the berry)
- Dip the strawberry into melted chocolate, holding by the stem, then hold it over the bowl for a few moments allowing the excess to drip off.
If you want to decorate with sprinkles, be sure to do it before the chocolate dries (it takes like 45 seconds). - Place the strawberries on parchment paper to let the chocolate harden without sticking to anything. If you want to decorate with melted chocolate, like drizzling or making dots, do it after the initial dip hardens so the colors don’t bleed.
- Refrigerate and enjoy 😀
This batch lasted about a day and a half in my house, maybe two days. But I’d say they stay good for 2-3 days before the strawberry starts getting too juicy under the chocolate shell.
Cake Pops
Ingredients & Supplies
Cake
Frosting
Candy Melts
Vegetable shortening
Cake pop/lollipop sticks
Parchment paper
Sprinkles (optional)
Cake pop holder/styrofoam block (optional)
- Bake a cake and allow it to fully cool. For this recipe, I used my favorite red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting recipe.
- Transfer cake into a bowl and crumble it all up with your hands. Fold in the frosting until both parts are fully combined.
- Begin rolling out balls and placing them on parchment paper. I’m usually pretty good with eyeballing things, so I didn’t use anything to scoop out my cake, but a spoon or watermelon baller would help with accuracy.
- Refrigerate your cake balls for around an hour. I’m impatient so I did 15 minutes in the freezer, and 15 minutes in the fridge. (It worked, but the shape didn’t hold as well)
- Melt a small amount of candy melts. Once your cake balls are nice and cool, dip the tip of the stick into the candy melts and into the cake ball. Refrigerate for like 5-10 minutes just the let that harden and really secure your cake to the stick.
- Melt the candy melts you plan on using for dipping according to the directions in step 2 of the above recipe
Dip each cake pop into the chocolate, holding it/tapping if needed to allow the excess to drip off
Place either in a cake pop holder or on parchment paper. If you use parchment paper, your cake pops will be displayed stick facing up.
(I didn’t get anything to hold my cake pops, so I put a wire cooling rack over a cake pan and stuck the sticks through that) - If you want to use sprinkles, add them while the chocolate is still wet. If you want to add chocolate decorations, wait to add them until the chocolate coating has hardened.
- Eat and enjoy 😀
I put all my cake pops in cups to display and transport them and it worked great.
They don’t have to be refrigerated, but you can. Just note that the chocolate coating will crack if you alter the temperature too much. Whether you decide to leave them out or refrigerate them, stick with your decision.
These were both so fun and so easy. The amount of time it takes depends on how crazy you go with decorating. The strawberries took about an hour, and the cake pops took 2-3 hours total, including the baking, cooling, and decorating. Keep in mind I went a little crazy with the decorating, but I was having too much fun.
Let me know how you enjoy these recipes and if you have any tips or tricks you like when making them! I got all my supplies at Michael’s and Target for these 🙂
