Valentine's Day Hearts Cake Pop Bears

I know this is late in posting, but this is probably one of my greatest achievements of the year (sort of kidding) so it is worth the wait. Beware, this was A LOT of work.

As all of you faithful readers know my newest OBSESSION is Cake Pops. (I have big plans for March 14th, stay tuned). In February my cooking club had a Sweetheart-Themed Dinner (everyone had to make something red) and I was in charge of the favor. PERFECT opportunity to make cake pops! They took me all Saturday and I only made 20.

I was inspired by Bakerella (of course) but I made a few changes. I used mostly dark chocolate--dark chocolate wafer melts from AC Moore and dark chocolate hershey kisses. I used a funfetti-type cake with Valentine's-themed sprinkles mixed in. (they were on sale at Giant!!!) Then I used chocolate frosting with it. The edible candy eyes are a must. So much easier to use those then paint eyes on with the edible-ink pens. I used brown M&M's for their paws. I ran out so I switched to goobers and raisenets. The secret was to use chocolate chips, but not just any chocolate chips, special Ghiradelli chocolate baking chips (they are in the baking aisle). They are bigger and flatter so they are perfect for the bear ears and the protruding nose. SOOOOO CUTE!

The secret is with the conversation hearts. I'll admit conversation hearts don't taste very good. There is a special SweetTart brand that does taste good, but I decided to be cheap. (These candy hearts were donated by my mom.) You can always take the candy hearts off before eating. It's more about the presentation. You have to use the LARGE candy hearts, not the normal size that come in the individual boxes. 

After forming the cake balls into longer oblong shapes and freezing them, then press the candy hearts into the bottom half of the "bear's body" to make a little heart imprint. This will give the impression of the bear holding up the hearts in the final product. After this step insert Ghiradelli chips as the ears (use melted chocolate as glue) and an additional chip where the nose would be.

Let dry, dip in chocolate. It needs to be a deep thin cup/dish because the bears are very long compared to a normal cake pop. Quickly now...before the chocolate completely dries press the candy heart into the spot that was previously imprinted. Also attach the hershey kisses as legs and then brown m&m mini's on the nose. You have to work fast to get these all in before it dries. Think about reheating the chocolate after a while.

Once completely dried, individually add the paws & eyes using melted chocolate as glue. Feel free to use the edible pen to add smiles & eyelashes or other features.

SO SO SO CUTE!!! Totally worth the work. Needless to say cooking club enjoyed them.


What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)