Watermelon Cake Pops

Finished Watermelon Cake Pops

I saw a recipe for watermelon cake pops on Pinterest (from hearttreehome) and thought, "I can do that."  It turned out that the blogger had used a picture she found for inspiration (with no recipe - which means that she had to make one up).  She used strawberry cake mix and store bought cream cheese icing.  I like to make everything from scratch and wanted to try making a fresh watermelon cake.  Below is my recipe and my adventure!

I chose to use fresh watermelon in my cake.

Watermelon Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (I use coconut oil)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites
1/2 to 1 cup of fresh watermelon (chopped or crushed)
Red food coloring

Combine dry ingredients in mixer bowl.  Add shortening, milk, and flavorings.   Mix about 1 minute at low speed.  Stop and scrape bowl.  Add egg whites.  Mix at medium/high speed about 1 minute.  Add watermelon and red food coloring and mix at medium/high speed until smooth and fluffy.

Bake in two greased 9-inch round cake pans for 30-35 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).  Cool.

The cake turned out ok.  I would add more watermelon next time because it didn't really have much watermelon flavor.  I would also add a little more red food coloring.  My cake was pink, and I would have preferred a deeper red.

Creating the Cake Balls

Once the cake cools, crumble it into a bowl.  Add cream cheese icing and semisweet chocolate chips.

Cake, Cream Cheese and Chocolate Chip Mixture

I used homemade cream cheese icing using a recipe that I found at Not So Humble Pie (recipe below).  I used an entire 12-oz package of chocolate chips, which turned out to be too many so if I do this again, I will use fewer!  You will want to half the cream cheese frosting recipe for the cake balls.  (I made the whole recipe and turned half of it into chocolate cream cheese frosting for cupcakes - post to come later).

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:
16oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream, cold.

Beat the cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks, then add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture and quickly and briefly beat to combine. Do not over beat.

Make the mixture into balls and chill in the refrigerator (this step could possibly be skipped if you're going to dip them on the same day - just put them in the freezer).

Cake Balls in the Refrigerator

Dipping the Cake Balls

 From most things I read, it seemed like this step would be pretty easy.  Put the sticks in the cake balls, melt the chocolate, dip, done... it didn't work out quite the way that I had hoped.  The cake balls fell apart and the sticks wouldn't stay in them.  I became frustrated but persevered (with my husband's help).  I decided to use melted chocolate to "glue" the sticks into the cake balls and my husband suggested that we put them in the freezer.  When we took them out of the freezer, the sticks were "glued" in and the cake balls were holding much better!

Melting the chocolate wasn't so easy either.  I used Wilton Candy Melts (which come in colors - much easier than using food coloring to get the right color - purchased at Michael's) and used the microwave directions on the bake of the package.  I could never quite get the chocolate thin enough for dipping and had to use vegetable oil to thin the chocolate.

Once everything was in order, dipping wasn't so bad!  We first dipped the cake balls in white chocolate (some, like the one in the photo below, we dipped in light green instead of white because I ran out of white).  We put them in the freezer for 10-20 minutes (then transferred them to the fridge to wait for the next step) then dipped them in green chocolate.

Once they dried, I used a homemade piping bag (made from parchment paper) to pipe the "details" onto the cake balls.  All in all, I think they turned out pretty well for my first try at making cake balls.

They were a big hit at the Generation Church Fourth of July Celebration Youth Bake Sale!

Inside View