Apple Cake Pops

Teacher's Day is next week. It's great that there's an international day to appreciate teachers! Seriously, I can't claim to have taught my kids half the things I know. It's all their teachers at school. Every time my son surprises me with a cool fact (yesterday it was "mama, do you know how to say "Great Wall of China" in Chinese? It's very easy to say: chong guo!") and I ask him where'd he learn that, he'll say from his teacher! "Teacher teaches me lots of things, mama!" Ok so apparently, that's how you say "China" in Chinese and not the "Great Wall", but still, thank goodness for great teachers!

sparkly apple cake pops!

Anyway, a friend wanted to appreciate her kids' teachers in an extra special way... with cake pops! She left the design up to me. Of course, I had to go with apples! Kids give their teacher a shiny apple on the first day of school right? Dunno why. Must be cuz "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." ha. I hope the teachers like these apple cake pops!

shiny apples for the teachers

These apple cake pops are made of devil's chocolate food cake, crumbled and swirled with dark chocolate ganache. Check out my cake pops basics page for detailed instructions. I dipped them in melted red Wilton Candy melts. Again, the chocolate was waaaay to thick, even though I melted them according to the instructions on the package. I added 2+ tablespoons of melted vegetable shortening and they were still way to thick. I suspect that the packages were old stock, even though I just bought them from the store. They must've been sitting on the shelf for too long. Chocolate loses its nice "melty" consistency when it's old cuz I guess it absorbs water in the air? even though it's sealed in a bag.

Some of the apples have a matte finish (the ones that I managed to get a smooth candy melt coating on, despite the poor dipping consistency) and the rest have been rolled in red sanding sugar to hide the imperfections! to glam them up! 

The "stems" are made of pieces of Pretz corn flavoured stick biscuits (you can use pretzels or Pocky sticks too!). The "leaves" are made from cut up pieces of apple flavoured Hi-Chew. Of course, you can use any other green coloured candy (like Starburst or gummies), green sprinkles or even fondant. It would have been cool to bake up at 3D tree cake and hang these apple cake pops from them, eh?

Thank you, Teachers!! Not just to my children's teachers, but to my own as well! I know a couple of teachers too and they are osome! Happy Teacher's Day, guys!

Happy Teacher's Day to all you fantastic educators!