How to Make Natural LEGO Cake Pops

I threw my son a Lego party recently and wanted to make these adorable Lego cake pops after I saw them at Living Locurto (pictured below). If you've never made cake pops before, here's the skinny. You make a cake mix, combine it with a tub of frosting, shape into balls, and then dip into melted candy melts. They are beyond delicious, but full of iffy ingredients and preservatives I'd rather avoid. So I made my own natural version.


Traditional Cake Pop Ingredients:

Flour, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Cocoa, Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Corn Starch, Modified Corn Starch, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil and/or Cottonseed Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono and Diesters of Fatty Acids, Distilled Monoglycerides, Carob Powder, Salt, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Artificial Coloring Yellow 5&6, Polysorbate 60, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel oil, Reduced Mineral Whey Powder, Whole milk solids, Nonfat Dry Milk Solids, Soy Lecithin, Artificial Coloring FD & C #5
(based on Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix, Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting, Yellow Wilton Candy Melts)

My Natural Cake Pop Ingredients:

Butter, Sugar, Eggs, Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, Cocoa Powder, Milk, Vanilla Extract, Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar, Turmeric, White Chocolate




Natural LEGO Cake PopsYou can avoid trans fat, preservatives, and artificial coloring by making cake and frosting from scratch and dipping it into naturally dyed white chocolate. Here's how I did it.


1. Make Cake from Scratch
I made a delicious chocolate cake recipe from my favorite cook book, The Best Recipe, by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated. I included the recipe at the end of this post. It's yummy, but any standard cake recipe should work.


2. Mix Cake With Homemade Frosting
I made this delicious cream cheese frosting from allrecipes.com. I would suggest using at least half the sugar the recipe calls for (or omit sugar altogether!). Cake pops are sugar overload. You're combining cake and frosting which is normal, but then you are taking it to the next level by covering it with sweetened chocolate.


3. Shape.
Roll into a ball and then roll on waxed paper to make LEGO head shape. For the connector, add a little piece of cake/frosting mixture to the top of the LEGO head. Insert a stick and freeze. Freezing the cake pop will help it to not fall off the stick as you are dipping into melted chocolate.


4. Melt White Chocolate
I melted two 8 ounce Ghirardelli white chocolate baking bars in a makeshift double broiler (a metal bowl on top of a pot of simmering water). You can also melt it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30 second increment.

16 oz. of chocolate wasn't enough to dip all the cake pops, but it was enough to cover the number of cake pops I needed. The white chocolate was so thick, each cake pop ended up with too much chocolate. Some of the cake pops actually fell off the stick because of the weight of the chocolate. Next time I would thin the chocolate with vegetable oil.


5. Naturally Dye White Chocolate
Add 1 teaspoon turmeric to naturally color chocolate a perfect yellow color. I could taste a tiny hint of turmeric since I knew it was there, but the chocolate still tasted great. If you need a different color, check out my post about natural food coloring.




6. Dip Cake Pops
Dip frozen cake pops into chocolate. Place stick in styrofoam to dry. Store in refrigerator.




7. Draw LEGO Faces
Okay, okay, the edible ink is not natural. I'm pretty sure there is no such thing. But I couldn't resist such cute faces!




Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake
adapted from The Best Recipe by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 cake pan with vegetable oil and dust with flour. Tap out excess flour.

2. Beat butter in bowl with electric mixer on medium-high until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in sugar, beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.

3. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa in medium bowl. Combine milk and vanilla in measuring cup. With mixer on lowest speed, add about one-third of dry ingredients to batter, followed immediately by about one-third of milk mixture; mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into batter. Repeat process twice more. When batter appears blended, stop mixer and scrape bowl sides with rubber spatula. Return mixer to low speed; beat until batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.

4. Fill pan with batter. Bake cake until it feels firm in center when lightly pressed and toothpick comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 23 to 30 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack; cool.


Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: allrecipes.com

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar (I would use half this amount)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In bowl, mix together cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in powdered sugar. Store in the fridge.



I can't help but add one more pic of this cute guy! You can see my post about the LEGO party favors I put together for my son's birthday here. My next blog post is going to be about a more simple (but still natural) non-Lego cake pop. Stay tuned!


This post was shared at: Show Me What Ya Got Tuesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Thirty Handmade Days, Simply Sweet Home Friday Favorites, Happy Hour Friday, Whipperberry Friday Flair, It's a Keeper Thursday, Catch a Glimpse Thursday, Homemaker on a Dime, Motivate Me Monday, More the Merrier Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Alderberry Hill, Makin' You Crave Mondays, Jam's Corner Marvelous Mondays, Melt in Your Mouth Mondays, One Creative Weekend, Country Momma Cooks Saturday, Saturday Show & Tell, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Get Schooled Saturday, Tatertots & Jello, Show & Tell Saturday, Once Upon a Weekend

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