Baking with M&M’s – Peanut M&M’s Cake Pops #BakingIdeas

I’ve been wanting to make cake pops for a long time. I’ve seen all of the delicious pops “popping” up everywhere, and though I may be a little late to the cake pop party, I decided to give them a go.

After picking up a bag of Peanut M&Ms from my local Walmart, I knew that my first attempt at baking cake pops would be Peanut M&Ms Cake Pops.

Peanut M&M’s Cake Pops

4 from 1 vote

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Peanut M&M's Cake Pops

Tasty "from scratch" cake-pops with a Peanut M&M's surprise inside!

Course Dessert

Author Miriam Tirips

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup butter softened
• 3/4 white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tub chocolate frosting
• 1 bar milk chocolate baking chocolate
• Cake Pop Sticks or Skewers
• 1 bag Peanut M&M's

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease bottom of 9" round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Set aside and let cool.
3. In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl or mixer, cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Beat egg in.
6. Mix in vanilla.
7. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture, alternating each. (Add flour, add cocoa, add flour, add cocoa, etc.)
8. Pour batter into pan.
9. Bake in oven for 18-23 minutes.
10. Set the cake aside until cool.
11. Once cooled, put the cake into a large bowl and crumble it into small crumbs.
12. Add frosting in a bit at a time until the cake can hold a ball shape but is still crumbly. (it shouldn't be mostly frosting.)
13. Using your hands, a spoon, or a small ice cream scoop, scoop out two balls of the cake and frosting mixture.
14. Put a Peanut M&M's next to one ball and smush the other ball onto the other side of the Peanut M&M's (so it's a Peanut M&M's sandwich...kind of) then roll into one ball. The cake ball should be ~2 inches in diameter.
15. Put the ball on a plate and repeat until you've used up all the cake.
16. Melt ~2 oz of baking chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave in a mug or small microwave safe bowl.
17. Dip the cake pop sticks or the blunt end of the skewer into the melted chocolate, then insert into the cake ball about half way and set on a plate. Repeat for all the cake pops.
18. Freeze cake pops for about 20 minutes.
19. Meanwhile, crush ~1/4 cup of Peanut M&M's using a food processors, rolling pin, hammer, or whatever tool you use to crush things and put into a shallow bowl or plate.
20. When the freezer time is almost up, melt the remaining chocolate in a mug, making sure there's enough to completely cover the cake pop when dipped.
21. Remove cake balls from freezer.
22. Dip cake balls into the melted chocolate until covered. Let the excess drip off.
23. While the chocolate is still wet, roll the cake pop in the crushed Peanut M&M's.
24. Let the cake pop dry by sticking it into some styrofoam, or a cup filled with Peanut M&M's (the M&M's will help cold the cake pops up.)
25. Put the cake pops back into the freezer to let the chocolate set.
26. Enjoy!

I know this is a lot of steps, but most of it is the “fun” part. Well, I found all of it fun, but some may find making the cake pops part a little more fun, especially if you get the kids involved.

First, we start off making the chocolate cake. Mix up the cocoa mix and the flour mix, then add them to the creamed butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. I do want to note that this recipe is made for high altitude baking, so you may need to reduce the amount of flour you use in your recipe. You can also use store-bought cake mix.

Once the cake was baked, I crumbled it into a bowl. You can use a fork or your hands to crumble. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, but they do need to be mostly crumbles.

Now, we make the cake balls.  The amount of frosting you use will vary. Since my cake was fairly moist, I used a little more than 1/4 cup of frosting. That was enough to get the cake balls to hold their shape without being too gooey. I have a tablespoon that is a half-circle shape, so I used that to make to small ball “halves” by scooping the cake/frosting crumble and smooshing it into the tablespoon.

Then I placed the Peanut M&M’s between the two halves and then carefully smushed the halves together.

They may not look like much now, but appearances can be deceiving.

After I made the cake balls, I dipped the skewers into melted chocolate and put them into the middle of the cake pop. I had to angle a couple a little to dodge the Peanut M&M’s inside. Then everything went into the freezer to harden.

Next, I used my Ninja to chop up the Peanut M&M’s I’d be using to coat the cake pops.

When the freezer time was almost up I started melting the chocolate for dipping. Then it was time to dip the pops and coat them in my crushed Peanut M&M’s.

Finally, I put the dipped pops into the fridge to help the set the chocolate and the Peanut M&M’s coating.

I love that you can use this recipe for every season, since M&M’s usually has seasonal colors (remember their special fall colors?)

If you decide to give this recipe a try, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below! For more fun M&Ms baking ideas visit www.brightideas.com. Before heading to the store to grab your baking ingredients, make sure you download this this coupon to save $2.50 off your bag of M&M’s Chocolate Candies!

Baking is Better with M Pinterest Sweepstakes

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How to Enter

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