Silly Cake Pops (Including Response to Intervention Triangles)

Response to Intervention cake pop.

Randomness!

Basically, some of my classmates/friends and I made a bunch of very random cake pops for our brown bag lunch, which is one component of our grad program in which we meet together to listen to someone present on a research topic or project. It's the same thing as colloquium.

What's funny is that this whole cake pop project came about because Jason said something on Facebook about how cake pops are dumb or something (I don't even remember), and then Erin's sister (recent graduate from our program) suggested that we make cake pops for our next brown bag, so we did! Turns out Jason loooves cake pops. Heh heh. Aand we decided to make the cake pops relevant to our program by making RtI-themed cake pops.

So how do you make these? I highly recommend watching Bakerella's step-by-step video. You can also use this process to make brownie pops, which don't even require frosting (Grace and I made them here). Anyway, see below for random craziness.
We made 2 kinds of cake pops:
(1) white cake + cream cheese frosting (candy melts on the outside)
(2) Red velvet cake + cream cheese frosting (melted chocolate chips on the outside)

Not a fan of the taste of these melts (too white chocolate-y),
but they make cake pops so easy!
We also used a darker green for most of the pops

Loren's Spongebob Squarepants & Pineapple Pops

Yeah...that is the chef from Sesame Street with a marshmallow hat. lol

An RtI pyramid (so nerdy!)

RtI Pops! The nerdiness continues....

Inside the red velvet cake pop

Easy Brownie Pops

They're easier to make than cake pops because they're thicker than cake and, therefore, do not require you to mix in frosting (although some people do incorporate it for more fudgy-ness). I had no problems with the brownie balls falling apart, and I honestly think they taste better than the cake pops I've tried, although red velvet cake pops with real homemade cream cheese frosting are soo good. I'm posting on that soon.

Tip: If you don't want the flaky top layer of your brownies included in the balls (that makes it kinda chunky and interesting...), scoop off the top layer after cooling and then make the balls.

Ingredients/materials:
- brownie mix or baked homemade brownies
- chocolate chips - we used semi-sweet
- lollipop sticks (got mine at Michael's, but they're also online and at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store)
- sprinkles (or whatever topping you want)

(1) Make some brownies (1 batch is plenty, & the boxed stuff is fine. I've found that brownie mixes tend to be delicious)
(2) Cool the brownies completely
(3) Mix the brownies together (no need to cut them!)
(4) Form them into balls
(5) Melt chocolate chips
(6) Put one end of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate
(7) Stick the stick (haha) into the brownie ball about halfway through the ball
(8) Freeze the balls for about 10-15 minutes on wax paper on a flat pan or cookie sheet
(9) Dip the cold brownie balls into the melted chocolate chips (you may need to reheat them)
(10) Gently tap each stick against the rim of the cup/mug/bowl/whatever of melted chocolate so that the chocolate coat is even and less thick (unless you want it goopy and uneven) and until the chocolate layer covers the brownie ball all over
(11) Stick the pops in a Styrofoam block so that they are standing up and aren't getting flattened. Another option is to use the holes of a colander, which is what Grace and I did this time.
(12) Cool the pops in the refrigerator

Here is a step-by-step video made my Bakerella, who made cake pops famous. Follow the same steps but use brownies instead and ignore the frosting parts. Here's another decorating idea where you just dip the top half of the ball in chocolate and then the very top in sprinkles.