Pink Champagne Rose Cake Pops

This post is also available in（こちらの言語版もある）: Japanese

I don’t really have a significant other or anything so I just gave them to my friends at work, but these champagne rose cakepops are what I made for Valentine’s Day this year. The roses are pink champagne cake pops, the leaves are marshmallow fondant, the dirt is a champagne brownie, the pot is an ice cream cone…which is to say you can eat all of it but the lollipop stick! To be honest though, I feel like they have more of spring feel to them than a Valentine’s feel to them anyway so that’s why I’m uploading them now despite the fact that Valentine’s is long past.
Frankly, I don’t really care much about Valentine’s Day when it comes to romance or the complicated chocolate-giving traditions women follow in Japan (“true love chocolate” for the boy you’re into, “obligation chocolate” for your male coworkers, “friend chocolate” for your friends, etc.), but as someone who both likes both baking and giving away the products of said baking to friends, Valentine’s serves as the perfect excuse for me to hit the kitchen and bake something festive. I made heart cookies last year, so for a change of pace I chose “roses” and “champagne” as what I hoped would be a sufficiently Valentine’s-y theme this year and made champagne rose cake pops growing out of champagne brownie dirt.

However, once I had them made I realized that they had a decidedly spring feeling to them as well and could easily be just as good for “sakura” (cherry blossom) season or Mother’s Day. If pink champagne is too “romantic” for your spring festivities (not a problem I have ever had, but hey), feel free to use some other variety of pink cake for the cake pops (strawberry, cherry, etc.) and any kind of brownie flavor you like as long as it looks like dirt (as someone who is allergic to chocolate, all brownies kind of remind me of dirt, honestly).

Moreover, since I had pretty good luck with gluten-free cake bites recently and brownies are full of eggs and thus not particularly dependent on gluten, I attempted a gluten-free version of these as well. It worked out just fine in terms of taste and texture and you really couldn’t tell the difference so I am posting gluten-free ingredient swaps as well, but do note that unless you find gluten-free ice cream cones these will not be 100% gluten-free and only the cake, fondant, and brownie will be safe for someone with a gluten allergy.

Finally, these are not difficult to make but they are rather time-consuming so I recommend doing what I did and spacing out the tasks over a few days as follows:

• One week in advance: make pink champagne cake and frosting, form balls, freeze
• Two days in advance: make fondant (store in the refrigerator) and brownies inside cones
• One day in advance: defrost cake balls, dip in chocolate coating, stick in brownie “pots,” and form and stick on fondant leaves
• Day of: Serve!

Pink Champagne Rose Cake Pops

 

Print（印刷）

Prep time（準備時間）

3 hours（時）

Cook time（加熱時間）

52 mins（分）

Total time（合計時間）

3 hours（時） 52 mins（分）

 

Pink champagne rose pops "planted" in champagne dirt-filed ice cream cones--perfect for Valentine's Day, springtime, or anytime!

Author（投稿者）: Xiomare Entropy (adapted from Tattooed Martha, 6 Bittersweets, and Wilton)

Recipe type（レシピカテゴリ）: Dessert

Cuisine（どこの料理）: American

Serves（何人分）: About 18 potted roses

Ingredients （材料）

• For pink champagne cake:
• ½ cup (100g ) sugar
• ¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (112 g) all-purpose flour (or ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (112 g) rice flour mixed with ½ tsp xanthan gum)
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ⅛ tsp baking powder
• ⅛ tsp salt
• ¼ cup (61 g) Greek yogurt (or strained regular yogurt)
• ¼ cup (50 ml) pink champagne or sparkling wine
• red food coloring
• For pink champagne frosting:
• ¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups (258 g) of powdered sugar
• ⅛ cup (25 ml) pink champagne or sparkling wine
• ½ tsp vanilla
• red food coloring
• For coating, decorating, etc:
• 10 oz (300 g) pink candy melts or bar chocolate for coating
• Pink chocolate pen for decorating
• Green chocolate pen for attaching leaves
• 18-20 lollipop sticks
• 18-20 ice cream cones
• For pink champagne brownies:
• 7 oz (200 g) dark chocolate bars, chopped
• 6 tbsp (85 g) unsalted butter
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (176 g) plus ¾ tbsp sugar, divided
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup (64 g) all-purpose flour (or rice flour for gluten-free)
• ½ cup (100 ml) pink champagne or sparkling wine, divided
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• For marshmallow fondant leaves:
• 8 oz (225 g) marshmallows
• 1-3 tbsp water
• 4 cups (512 g) powdered sugar
• ¼ cup (50 g) vegetable shortening
• green food coloring

Instructions（作り方）

1. Make pink champagne cake pops:
2. Make pink champagne cake: Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C) and prepare a cupcake pan or small cake pan/loaf pan.
3. In a small bowl mix together pink champagne, yogurt, and red food coloring. Set aside.
4. In another bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add egg and vanilla and beat well on medium speed.
7. Add the flour mixture alternately with the champagne mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until well on low speed until combined.
8. Pour into prepared pan and bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let cool completely.
10. Make pink champagne frosting: whip the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
11. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and mix on medium speed until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go.
12. Add the champagne and food coloring and mix on medium-high speed until combined and fluffy. If the frosting is too soft or runny, add more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
13. Make cake pops: Break the cooled cake into pieces and finely crumble it in the food processor (or by hand if you don't have a food processor).
14. Put the finely crumbled cake in a bowl, add frosting a little at a time, incorporating it together with your hands until you can easily form balls.
15. Roll the mixture into ping pong ball-sized balls and refrigerate 2 hours-overnight (if you don't have time you can freeze them for about 15 minutes).
16. Melt chocolate in the microwave. If it's too thick for dipping stir in a little vegetable oil to thin it out.
17. One at a time dip the end of the lollipop sticks in the chocolate and insert them halfway through the cake balls. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until the chocolate dries.
18. One at a time, dip the cake balls in chocolate and coat them fully. Stand them upright in a box with holes or similar while they dry.
19. When the coating is dry, use the pink chocolate pen to draw on the petals and let dry.
20. Make pink champagne brownies in ice cream cone pots:
21. Preheat over to 325 F (165 C). Put ice cream cones in muffin tins and set aside.
22. Being careful not over heat the chocolate, melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave.
23. Add the salt, vanilla, and ¾ cup + 2 tbsp of sugar and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Let cool 5 minutes.
24. Add the eggs and beat thoroughly.
25. Add the flour and beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes.
26. Add 7 tbsp of pink champagne and mix thoroughly on low speed.
27. Mix on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes.
28. Pour into ice cream cones until 60-70% full and bake 40-50 minutes.
29. Put remaining sugar and pink champagne in a pan and bring to a boil. Let boil for about a minute and then immediately use a pastry brush to brush the brownies with the champagne glaze.
30. Let brownies cool.
31. Once cool, stick a rose cake pop in each brownie.
32. Make marshmallow fondant leaves:
33. Put marshmallows and 1 tbsp of water in a bowl and microwave until the marshmallow are melted.
34. Add ¾ of the powdered sugar and fold in.
35. Grease hands and counter surface with vegetable shortening and place marshmallow mixture on the counter.
36. Start kneading like you would bread dough, adding the rest of the powdered sugar a little at a time. If the mixture gets too dry and touch and tears, add more water.
37. Keep kneading about 8 minutes or until the marshmallow fondant forms a firm, elastic ball.
38. Add food coloring and thoroughly knead it in.
39. Wrap the fondant in two layers of plastic and store in the refrigerator overnight.
40. Remove fondant from plastic and form ~36 leaf shapes. Any leftover fondant can be stored double wrapped in the refrigerator for a few weeks or in the freezer for a month or two.
41. Use the green chocolate pen to adhere two leaves to the stick of each rose cake pop.
42. Let dry and enjoy!

Notes（コツ・ポイント・注意点）

★I suppose you could make these all in one day, but they are rather time-consuming so I recommend doing what I did and spacing out the tasks over a few days as follows:
One week in advance: make pink champagne cake and frosting, form balls, freeze
Two days in advance: make fondant (refrigerate) and brownies inside cones
One day in advance: defrost cake balls, dip in chocolate coating, stick in brownie "pots," and form and stick on fondant leaves
Day of: Serve!

3.2.2885

Pink champagne brownie recipe adapted from: http://www.6bittersweets.com/2011/12/champagne-brownies-for-nelly.html

Fondant recipe adapted from: http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Rolled-Marshmallow-Fondant