Use it Up: Cake Pops!

Many things are tossed into the garbage can when they still have lots of good life left in them. Use It Up is a section on how to use this "trash" to make new, useful items for your home or to re-purpose items to avoid a purchase.

My sister's graduation party is today and I wanted to be able to bring some kind of dessert. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money, but I wanted to bring something nice. I am also taking a Use-it-up challenge with some online friends to try to eat from the freezer and pantry to use up items that have been taking up space too long. Also, it's a terrible thing to have to throw away cakes, cupcakes, muffins or scones that get dry or stale before you use them. Solution: Cake pops!  These cheap, easy desserts are delightful and give new life to lifeless sweets.

I had tons of icing in the pantry that I got awhile back for $.20 per tub using a sale and coupon. I had lots of different sweets in the freezer. When I make a batch of cupcakes or scones at home, I always end up making more than Trucker and I can possibly eat between the two of us. I tend to put them in the freezer and forget about them.

I dug out a lot of those sweets: orange scones, toffee ginger scones, chocolate cake, and white cupcakes. Once they thawed, I crumbled them up. I mixed in just enough icing for it to all stick together into one mass. I rolled small amounts into little balls and popped them in the freezer overnight (they really just need to be frozen for at least two hours, but if you have plenty in the freezer, you'll have a quick and easy snack on hand). I stuck each one with a toothpick.

I took a bag of chocolate chips and melted it in the microwave. I added about a tablespoon of veggie oil. This made the chocolate a lot better for dipping, as otherwise it is really thick. I dipped each cake pop into the chocolate and then placed on a piece of waxed paper (in this case, a repurposed cereal bag). After dipping each ball, decorate if you'd like with sprinkles or other decorative bits. For the orange scone pops, I topped each with a tiny piece of dehydrated orange zest.

They are delicious and I think they're going to go over very well at the party this afternoon. Better yet, it used up items I had in the freezer and pantry, so the only out of pocket cost was for the chocolate.

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