Football Cake Pops

Today is my husband's fantasy football draft with a bunch of his friends.  They do this every year so since I joined the bandwagon on making cake pops I offered to make football ones.

These were the best ones out of just over 2 dozen that I made.  Unfortunately, I learned what many beginner cake pop makers learned, that cake pops can crack and just not turn out.

Here's a clear example of one that decided to pop out some of the cake inside through part of the weakest point of the cake pop.

And here are photos of the many cracked football pops.  It's good to go through something like this because I learned a lot for sure making these.  All the other cake pops I've made I've really lucked out and not had to experience this.  But after reading about them a lot I realized the key errors I made.  First, I shaped them too tightly.  And secondly, I put them in the freezer and then dipped them.  The cake balls need to be shaped tight enough but not too tight that they can't expand once they get dipped in chocolate.  I froze them because I had just shaped them into footballs and needed to dip them.  I typically shape them the night before and dip them the next day.  I ran out of time.  So it's good to have this happen so I know now how to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

Here are all the football cake pops bagged and ready for the party.

And OOps!!  One just HAD to be tested for quality purposes!!!  My hubby requested chocolate cake with Oreos.  Yummy combination!  Though many of them are cracked, his friends sure won't mind!