The Common Mistake To Avoid When Dipping Cake Pops In Chocolate

We all love Starbucks' cake pops, but let's be honest: Nobody wants to spend $3 on a bite of cake. They're a nice pick-me-up once in a while, but their price makes them unsustainable as an everyday dessert. Thankfully, making cake pops from scratch is simple and inexpensive. Plus, homemade cake pops can be customized to fit your sweet tooth, whether you're team vanilla, chocolate, or somewhere in between. Before whipping up a batch, it's important to follow some crucial cake pop-making tips. For instance, if you're team chocolate, make sure that the chocolate you're using to dip the pops in stays warm, or else you'll find yourself with a not-so-smooth coating.

"Warm" is the key word here, because you'll want your chocolate coating to be just right. If you melt chocolate and let it sit and get cold, it will be difficult to get it to stick onto the cake pop. On the other hand, if you melt chocolate for too long, it can get burned, making your cake pop coating thick and lumpy. Luckily, it's easy to avoid this issue if you're patient. To begin, make sure you choose the right type of product to melt. Instead of using chocolate chips, it's best to use a chocolate that's designed to melt easier. These don't need to be tempered, and they contain vegetable oil, so they're much less of a hassle.

Melting chocolate is easy as long as you follow these tips. One of our favorites is the double boiler method. Start by filling up your saucepan with an inch of water, and let it come to a boil. While that's heating up, pour your chocolate melts into a stainless steel mixing bowl. When the water has reached a rolling boil, add the bowl over the saucepan. Turn the stove off, but keep the saucepan over it. As you mix the chocolate and watch it melt, use a candy thermometer to ensure that it doesn't reach a temperature higher than 130 degrees Fahrenheit, or it might burn and become too thick. 

If that happens, remove it from the heat and let it cool down to achieve a smoother consistency. If you go for the double boiler method, you can keep an eye on the chocolate's consistency. Leave it over the warm saucepan — off the stove — so that the steam keeps it at a warm temperature throughout the whole process. 

If that method sounds too complicated, you can go the easy route and use the microwave. Pour the chocolate melts into a glass bowl and heat for 30-second intervals. Remove it and stir the melts after each interval until it's reached a smooth consistency that glides off your spoon. This method makes it more difficult to reheat the chocolate because there's a higher chance it will burn, so be prudent when deciding which method is best.