pre-made truffle shells as a sub for cake balls.....

[JeanneCake]

I have an order for 300 beach ball cake pops this week; I'm looking for ways to make them less expensive for the client, and less aggravation for the staff. 

 

There's a picture on the Internet of them; they are basically white cake pops with four colored stripes of sugar (red, blue, yellow, green).  The method the original creator uses is to dip the cake balls into white candy melts, paint a stripe of clear piping gel and then apply colored sugar to the stripe.  They are time consuming, to say the least.  And time=money and I'd have to charge something like $3.50/stick to even break even.  So, I am looking for ways to reduce the amount of time, and cost - if possible.  we've made them two years  in a row, and the staff HATES these because the cake balls crack when dipped (when we made cake balls from our scraps); then we bought a cake pop waffle-iron wanna be thing, which meant they didn't crack but one side of the sphere browns more than the other and you can tell even after dipping in white... and now we are at Year Three.

 

I can buy pre-made white round truffle shells from AUI; I was thinking to fill them with some flavored ganache (the flavor doesn't matter, I just want to pipe it in) then put a stick in, and let them set up.  I'm not convinced I'd have to cap them because they need to be on sticks and they are presented to the guests with the sticks in a base of sugar "sand". 

 

Then I was thinking to paint some piping gel and then dip that into the colored non-pareils.  That's the time consuming part I can't reduce. 

 

Can any of you think of why this would not work?

[Kerry Beal]

Sounds like it’s worth a try!

[Darienne]

Please post photos....and good luck.

[Tri2Cook]

As long as they're not sticklers for the "cake" part of cake pop, it sounds like a good solution to me. I was gonna say you could pipe in a layer of ganache, dump in a layer of cake crumbs and then pipe another layer of ganache but that would greatly take away from any time-saving gains you made using the purchased shells.

[Kerry Beal]

18 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

As long as they're not sticklers for the "cake" part of cake pop, it sounds like a good solution to me. I was gonna say you could pipe in a layer of ganache, dump in a layer of cake crumbs and then pipe another layer of ganache but that would greatly take away from any time-saving gains you made using the purchased shells.

Or a cake crumb ganache!

[pastrygirl]

Can you paint the shells with colored cocoa butter instead of the two-step goo and sprinkles?

[Jim D.]

19 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Or a cake crumb ganache!

 

Or you could make a gianduja or meltaway and incorporate cake or feuilletine crumbs, which would maintain any texture they have and give a close impression of a cake pop. Piping the mixture into the shells might be a challenge, but it's certainly doable.

[pastrygirl]

How about something like these from Savour School? 

 

 

Of course you don't want the point and maybe not the swirl, but ... Draw your primary colors on white chocolate then dip into the center so the colors go down the sides.  A little more abstract but if your colors are bright it could work.

[pastrygirl]

Or this effect but 3D- dip in color then pipe around the shell then dip in sprinkles.  Still a few steps but maybe less tedious?

 

You could do a variety.

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by pastrygirl (log)

[keychris]

3 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

How about something like these from Savour School? 

 

 

Of course you don't want the point and maybe not the swirl, but ... Draw your primary colors on white chocolate then dip into the center so the colors go down the sides.  A little more abstract but if your colors are bright it could work.

 

There's a how-to on YouTube:

 

[JeanneCake]

This is what they want them to look like: 

[pastrygirl]

what a nightmare!

 

 

[JeanneCake]

EXACTLY! 🤣

[JeanneCake]

I like the idea of painting colored cocoa butter or even colored choc for the stripes.  The sugar gets messy during transport (some of it gets on the white, even though we pack them in cupcake papers); at least the painted stripes would stay put!

[Tri2Cook]

1 minute ago, JeanneCake said:

I like the idea of painting colored cocoa butter or even colored choc for the stripes.  The sugar gets messy during transport (some of it gets on the white, even though we pack them in cupcake papers); at least the painted stripes would stay put!

That only sounds very slightly (if any) less tedious to me but it would look nice and you'd get the stability during transport you mentioned.

[keychris]

hope they're paying by the hour, because that would take hours!

[JeanneCake]

Update:  the truffle shells were far too small to be useful or believable as a cake pop.  I suggested we paint the truffles as beach balls anyway and perch them atop a blue marshmallow in a tiny ice cream cone but the client wants the cake pops.  And is paying for them.  I figure I'll sleep on Sunday after they are delivered.....

 

In terms of lessons learned: 1) paint with colored cocoa butter or luster dust or apply colored chocolate with a cornet (not a brush) and 2) don't buy these, they are a PITA to get out of the plastic and lastly, I am really good at some things but not cake pops.  I'm sure having the right materials helps a lot with this (the only coating chocolate I have is Felchlin's Ultra rondos and the white is very very thin when melted.  Perfect for cheesecake pops  and cookies but not for cake pops!)

 

Thank you all for your help and encouragement!

[Tri2Cook]

The eternal struggle between the desire to say "no" and the customer's money.  

[caroled]

@JeanneCake, I'm sure yours were beautiful. 

Please remember however, that the photo you were going by is straight off the site of the lady who originated the cake pop, a lady who has made her fortune coming up with all these cute, fussy little designs for any and all holidays and occasions.  I'd also venture a guess that when she is making them, it's as a small batch, 2 dz or less, not hundreds.

I'd say as long as the customer was pleased, and you were able to charge what they were worth in terms of ingredients, time and effort,  then pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

 

Now, any chance we can see how they turned out? 

 

 

 

[JeanneCake]

18 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

The eternal struggle between the desire to say "no" and the customer's money.  

 

 

LOL, I said no last year after we did them; I told the Chef I wasn't doing them this year.  Clearly I was wrong

 

I found these adorable tiny sugar cones, filled them with flavored marshmallow, dipped them in chocolate and sprinkles and they liked them but they weren't big enough. So I did them again with the Mini Joy cones and they liked the size but apparently someone wants the beach ball pops and so they are done and boxed and waiting to go out for delivery tomorrow....

 

Que Emily from The Devil Wears Prada .... I  love my  job, I love my job, I love my job.....