Cake Pops

I am not the most creative person on the planet. Before one of my children needed a special diet because of food allergies and intolerances, I'd have just purchased food pretties for special occasions from a bakery.


I would still purchase food pretties from a bakery for the sibs on their birthdays, except that I have an added complication. My GFCFSF+++ girl is a twin. And if I buy her twin's cake and make and decorate her cake myself, the purchased cake is beautiful and the one I made stinks by comparison.

Buying one cake and making and decorating the other is nothing but a glaring advertisement for how much help I need in the decorating department.


So, I took a cake decorating class. That helped. But still, I need ideas.

This cake pop craze is too cute, and I need ideas that I can use as I play with homemade coatings (is there a gluten free, milk free, soy free candy coating? I haven't found one yet) so that I can make some cake pops that all of us can make and enjoy together.


Angie Dudley's Cake Pops ($19.95 list price) is a *wonderful* mix of recipes, how-to, beautiful photos, hints and tips to all things cake pops, cupcake bites, and cake balls. Our book arrived in the middle of a busy CHRISTmas season, and we haven't had time to try to make every bit of them from scratch, yet (I can't use canned frosting in the balls/pops because they all contain milk or soy or sunflower oil and I can't use candy coating discs, either). The girls and I have browsed the book, studied it, ooo'ed and ahh'ed over the pictures, and dreamed of what we'll try first.


Angie Dudley blogs at Bakerella.com. Check out the Mrs. Pots cake pops here.

No, the recipes are not allergen-free. If you're baking for an individual with allergies, you'll need to know how to create the cake and other ingredients that are safe for the person you're baking for. (Sidebar FYI: There is a GFCFSFEF recipe here.)


The best part, I think, about Cake Pops is the way Angie Dudley makes my girls and me feel like we can do this, too. She got the creative gene; hopefully, I can try to channel that from her ideas, combined with my (very) little bit of experience with some icing tips, I can come up with a homemade icing that will cover and harden on my cake balls, and we can decorate with another homemade icing. Melted chocolate chips will work. (I wonder if fondant would work in place of candy coating?) She certainly encourages my desire to be creative. (I almost drooled over the photos in the book - they're gorgeous.)

We've gotten quite a bit of time to experience share over the photos in this book, dreaming about what we want to make, ooooing and ahhhhing over the cute treats.

The book is spiral bound under a hard cover, which means it is quite sturdy and lies flat. I don't have to weight it down on the kitchen counter to hold it open to the right page.


Cake Pops is a must have, especially for a mom who has the allergen-free recipes and needs ideas for creating allergen free treats at home.

Chronicle Books sent me a copy of Cake Pops so that I may review it on my blog. I received no financial compensation and am not obligated to provide a positive review.