Cake Pops [Hardcover-spiral]

If you like cake balls, then you probably don't need to be told to buy this book. Bakerella is amazing and her ideas are ultra-cute. Personally, I find cake balls way too sweet for my taste (Bakerella herself describes them as "super-sweet" and I agree), but I love the book and it totally deserves 5 stars. I have already bought five as gifts as well as one for myself, for the simple reason that it's full of beautifyully photographed brilliant ideas for decorating sweet truffles. I have been making truffles by combining crushed Oreo cookies with cream cheese for almost 4 years now. The saltiness in the cream cheese cuts the sweetness of the cookies, so (in my opinion) they taste so much nicer than cake balls. Bakerella mentions the possibility of oreo truffles on page 98 of her book, and you'll find the recipe on her website as well as elsewhere (1 pack cream cheese, one pack oreos, one pack almond bark for coating - just 3 ingredients). I live in the USA and have the American version of the book. I don't know whether the British version is any different, but in case it isn't, Brits need to know that the British version of almond bark is called "chocolate flavour cake covering", brands include Silver Spoon and Tesco. I use Bakerella's ideas but with an oreo truffle filling - perfection! I don't bother with sticks though, I just put the decorated balls in paper cases - it's less hassle that way.

First off, I'm not sure why some people are lambasting this for not using home-made cake. Do you honestly buy a book like this for recipes? I could understand the annoyance if this book was for standard cakes or cupcakes, but these are neither, they're little novelties and as such I wouldn't expect a massive variety of recipes for it. In addition, if you are looking at this book I'd be willing to bet you have a pretty good understanding of baking, so knocking up your own cake shouldn't be an issue, especially since it states very clearly what size cake and what weight of frosting is required.

It is explained immediately that the author prefers the shop-bought mixes and frostings as a) they give standard quantities and b) it means she can get to her favourite bit, the designing, more quickly. Personally I don't like mixes so I would use my own recipes, although she does give one or two basic ones at the back of the book.

The designs themselves are very cute, and they are all explained in great detail. Despite the fact they look complex, I think these could be accomplished by anyone so please don't be put off if you're new to baking and decorating. The steps are explained from scratch on each design so you don't need to look back to the beginning for the basics which is a nice touch. I also really like the ideas she has for using sweeties like candy necklaces (robot eyes) and mini marshmallows (popcorn) - that really got my imagination running with ideas for how to create other things:)

Candy melts are available over here online - check the Wilton website for UK suppliers. Googling also brings up a few results. Failing that, use white chocolate (if you're confident with working with chocolate), or if you're not then just use white chocolate flavoured cake covering. Both can be coloured, although you must make sure you don't use water based colourings. Again, candy/chocolate colourings can be bought online or in cake decoration shops. Ebay now has a massive selection of things for the cake pop market too, and is normally a good source for the odd bits of American candy that you can't find here, such as candy corn (although I did think some of them looked very similar to our coke bottles/milkshake bottle sweets).

My one complaint, and it's a small one, is that the spiral binding is one of those that doesn't flow very well. It's only a minor niggle though and nothing that reflects poorly on the content, so this is still a five star book imo.

It's a good book for ideas but every cake pops is realized with pre-processed
ingredients and materials that you cant find in every country. I live in Italy
and it's hard if not impossibilile find the ingredients for the recipes.