DEEP BLUE Cake Pops Waterfire Saga

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My daughter Audrey and I had such a great time together reading book one DEEP BLUE of the WaterFire Saga. DEEP BLUE is the newest book by bestselling author Jennifer Donnelly. To celebrate the release on May 6TH we decided to make some DEEP BLUE Cake Pops Waterfire Saga.

DEEP BLUE is book one in the newest young adult series written by Jennifer Donnelly. We enjoyed the first book of this series so much! I hope we don’t have to wait an entire year for the second book!

About the book: DEEP BLUE is the first book in a series of epic tales set in the depths of the ocean, where six mermaids seek to protect and save their hidden world.

What better way to celebrate a book titled DEEP BLUE then to create something sweet, delicious and a deep blue color.

Cake Pops are so easy to make. All you need is a box of cake mix and the ingredients to make the cake, a can of frosting, a bag of Wilton Candy Melts, a small amount of Crisco shortening and some lollipop sticks. There is a trick to dipping anything in chocolate but I will let you in on the secret below.

If you are going to be serving cake pops at a DEEP BLUE book party you can wrap them up in plastic treat bags and decorate them with pretty ribbons like I did.

Wrapping cake pops up in treat bags and tying them up with pretty ribbons makes cake pops a real special treat. It’s like getting a sweet little present each time you open one up and bite into the chocolate coating to find the sweet and moist center of the cake pop. Cake pops are like a little bite of heaven.

Making DEEP BLUE Cake Pops

My daughter Audrey took most of our cake pops to school and shared them with her friends. I made a little mini book cover hang tag and tied them on with ribbon. We loved the book so much we wanted to let all her friends and classmates know about it so they could read and enjoy DEEP BLUE as much as we did.

Cake Pop Ingredients

1 box white cake mix

ingredients to make cake

1 can cream cheese frosting

1-2 bags Wilton Bright White Candy Melts

1 Bag Wilton Dark Blue Candy Melts

3-6 tablespoons Crisco solid shortening

3/4 teaspoon Wilton Dark Blue Gel Food Coloring

lollipop sticks

Make the cake following the directions on the box. Adding the gel food coloring to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mixing the cake following the directions. Bake as directed and allow the cake to cool completely.

Once the cake is cold to the touch using a fork break the cake up until it is nothing but fine crumbs. If the edges of the cake are a bit hard and will not crumble remove them from the bowl.

Using a large spoon add about 2 heaping tablespoons of frosting at a time to the bowl. After each addition of frosting mix well until the crumbs and frosting start forming a paste like texture.

You want the cake and frosting to be just moist enough to hold together when formed into a ball. Go slow with the frosting. You do not want the mixture to be too moist. If you add too much frosting the cake ball will not stay on the stick when it comes time to dip the cake pops into the melted chocolate. If this should happen forget about using the lollipop sticks and just dip the cake balls.

Once your cake and frosting have reached the perfect consistency scoop a heaping teaspoon of cake pop filling up and roll it into a ball.

Place the cake pop balls on a cookie sheet. Chill the cake pop balls in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to firm up. While the cake pop balls are firming up melt one bag white candy melts with 2 tablespoons of crisco in a small but deep container.

I didn’t forget that I promised you a trick to dipping anything in chocolate. To get the perfect consistency of chocolate to perfectly dip cake pops I add 2-3 tablespoons of Crisco shortening to the candy melts as I melt them in the microwave.

My trick to dipping cake pops

You need to melt the chocolate candy melts slowly in the microwave with the crisco. I start by heating the candy melts for 35 seconds the first time. Then 20 seconds the second time. I stir them and put them back in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until all the candy melts are melted.

Here we are using a Wilton dipping bowl to melt our candy melts but in the past I have used toddler sippy cups because they are the perfect depth to dip a cake pop.

Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted candy melts and insert it into a cake pop ball about 1/3 of the way into the center. Repeat for the remaining cake pops. This will help secure the stick to the cake pop. Allow the melted chocolate to set up about 10 minutes.

Once the melted chocolate on the sticks is firm it is time to dip the cake pops into the melted chocolate. This is the trickiest part of dipping cake pops.

Firmly hold the end on a lollipop stick and plunge the cake pop down into the melted chocolate up to the lollipop stick. Gently pull the cake pop out of the melted chocolate slowly twirling the lollipop stick so the excess chocolate drips back into the bowl.

Place the cake pop onto a cookie sheet that has been covered with parchment or wax paper. Repeat with the remaining cake pops.

Allow the candy coating to firm up completely. This may take an hour or two depending on the temperature of your home.

Time to sample the DEEP BLUE Cake Pop

These DEEP BLUE Cake Pops are pretty and delicious just the way they are but we want to add a little more DEEP BLUE to them.

Decorating and wrapping DEEP BLUE Cake Pops

We melted some of the dark blue candy melts in a decorator bag with a small round tip and added some decorations to the Deep Blue Cake Pops.

Visit the Waterfire Saga website

Visit Jennifer Donnelly at her official website

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Pick up a copy of DEEP BLUE the Waterfire Saga at your favorite bookstore today!