Easter bunny cake pops

Alright, I admit it. I cheated on these. But I can explain. See, while I haven't used a boxed mix for anything in, well, more than a year, at least, sometimes, they have their place. I usually make everything from scratch, but boxed cakes still taste alright, and besides, I make it a policy to listen to the experts -- if the experts say to use a mix, or to use something pre-packaged, 'cause the results from homemade aren't any better and can actually be worse, well, I listen to those experts. So I made these with a cake mix, a strawberry one, so I'd have cute, spring-y pink bunny innards. I used a can of frosting, too (oh, the horror!), plain white vanilla. Sure, I could've made both from scratch, but the prevailing Internet sentiment was that the results would be way more work and produce less consistent results.

That is not to say that these were easy, though. Not at all. In fact, these took almost three afternoons of work. And decorating is not my strong suit, not at all. Still, I got a lot of compliments on them, and my boyfriend ate two when I'd only asked him to take a taste, so I guess they were worth the work. (Kudos to my boyfriend, btw, for helping me as I went along -- "I'm out of sticks, what do I do?" "How am I gonna dry these so they stay level?" "YOU wanna make some ears? My hands are cramping, and so's my back.")



Cake Pops
Inspired by Bakerella, the cake pop queen

1 boxed cake mix of your choice, plus whatever you need to make it (usually a few eggs and some oil)
1 can of frosting
2 bags of candy coating (to make sure you have enough)
Decorations, if using (for the bunnies, I used a bottle of pink cookie icing and a black edible-ink marker -- you could use candies or other edible things, too, just look at Bakerella's site for inspiration)
A foam block, or something else you can use to hold the pops while they dry.

1. Make the cake as directed in a 9-by-13 pan, then cool completely.
2. Dump the cake out into the biggest bowl you have and crumble it up. Dump in the frosting and mix it all together (a spoon is fine, but your hands are probably better for this task).
3. Form the mixture into balls and place them on a waxed-paper-lined cookie sheet.
4. Chill (in the fridge if you have time, in the freezer if you don't).
5. Assemble your decorations, if you need to. This is when I piped the bunny ears onto waxed paper.
6. Melt some of the candy coating, dip the sticks in it and shove them into the balls (only about halfway in, mind you). Put the pops back in the fridge/freezer for a bit.
7. Dip the pops into the candy coating, then tap gently to remove excess. (This is the point at which I shoved the ears into the tops of the pops, just after coating them.) Shove the pops into the foam block and let dry.
8. Decorate. I dropped little dollops of icing for the noses, then used a toothpick to make the mouths and put pink on the ears. Then, I drew on the eyes with an edible-ink marker. (And I just now, days later, realized that I forgot to draw on whiskers. Oh well. The marker wasn't working all that great on the candy coating, anyway -- that idea probably wouldn't have panned out. *shrug*)