Holiday Cake Bites

photo: Joanne Rice

These festive cake bites are a fun and delicious finish to any culinary gathering.  The decorating and arrangement possibilities are endless.  I prepared these for the Christmas Holidays.  They were so well received, they were reprised for the New Year.  

I titled this post "Cake Bites" to stress the difference between this technique and that used for the traditional yet similar "Cake Pops".  

Cake pops are made with prepared cake which has been crumbled, mixed with frosting, chilled, and then and formed into balls.  In my opinion, this approach results in a product overly sweet, dense, and hard to the bite.  This is also a lot of work.

Baked directly into their spherical shapes, these cake bites present succulent bites of cake.  The perfect serving size and the perfect amount of sweetness.  These are frosted with a simple and traditional butter based cake frosting.

Prep Time:   15 minutes

Cook Time:  30 minutes

Total Time:   2-1/2 hours (includes decorating and wait time)

Servings:     about 24 cake bites

Special Equipment:  cake pops pan

Cake Bites Ingredients: 

3/4 cup (125 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (120 g) butter
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
3 tablespoons (20 g) cocoa
2 eggs
3/4 cup (90 g) flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
24 lollipop sticks
1/4 cup light cocoa candy melts

cake frosting
assorted sprinkles

Method:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease pan; set aside.
• In medium saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips and butter together; stir until smooth.
• Remove from heat and pour into medium bowl.
• Add sugar and cocoa; mix until blended.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Add flour and salt; stir until blended.
• Spoon batter into bottom half of pan (without holes) filling each so that it mounds over the top of the pan.
• Place top half of pan on top and secure with keys.
• Bake for 16-18 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.
• Cool 5 minutes in pan, remove cake bites from pan to cool completely.

• Cool 5 minutes in pan, remove cake bites from pan to cool completely.
• Melt candy melts according to package directions.
• Dip lollipop sticks into stick into candy melts and insert into cakes; repeat with all cakes.
• Allow melts to cool to secure stick in place.

• Once cooled, frost with your favorite frosting, and decorate with sprinkles.
• Serve in any arrangement you choose.

Recipe Links:

Here is a Cake Pops Baking Pan video showing the entire baking and decorating process.

Here is another video version which includes the full recipe.

Grab them while the gettin's good!