Fourth of July is one of our favorite times of year. We both usually take the week off and head out of the city and to eastern Washington to spend some time at our families lake property…..aka our happy place! We come from a very large extended family and every holiday is a huge gathering and the 4th is no exception. The day beings by the first of many annual traditions, the 4th of July Cabin Crawl, where we walk around the lake stopping at each family members cabin to enjoy a delicious beverage. Up next are the rowboat beer races (which has been going on since 1988), large family potluck and ending the night with s’mores around the campfire as we enjoy a spectacular firework show. Mixed in between all the festivities you can count on a lot of fun in the water.
S’mores are a must around the 4th of July and why should we only enjoy them at night around the campfire! Our s’mores inspired cake pops where the perfect addition to our family potluck. Cake pops are great for gatherings like this because they are so easy to serve. Just display on a platter and guests can easily grab one when they are ready for dessert.
There are a lot of different ways to create a s’mores flavored cake pop. We opted for a chocolate cake version. We mixed chocolate cake with marshmallow fluff, dipped in marshmallow flavored candy melts and decorated with graham cracker crumbs, chocolate drizzle and mini toasted marshmallows.
S’mores Cake Pops
Ingredients
- Chocolate Cake recipe below
- 1-1.5 jars marshmallow fluff
- 1 pound marshmallow flavored candy melts you can substitute vanilla if you can’t find marshmallow
- 1 cup Graham cracker crumbs
- 2 bars Hershey’s Chocolate
- Mini Marshmallows optional
- Lollipop sticks
Instructions
- Make the chocolate cake and allow to fully cool. With an electric mixer, hand mixer or your hands, crumble the cake until it resembles sand.
- Add the marshmallow fluff and fully combined to create your cake ball dough. You can use the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or your hands, but we recommend wearing gloves as the marshmallow fluff is very sticky.
- Roll the dough into balls about the size of a tablespoon and place on a tray lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. Once you remove the cake pops from the frig you can smooth them out a little more to create a perfectly round ball.
- Prior to taking the cake balls out of the frig, melt the candy melts according to the directions on the bag. You will want the candy coating in a tall bowl/glass to easily dunk the cake balls. A glass measuring cup works well. If your candy melts are too thick when melted you can add some EZ thin or shortening to create a thinner consistency.
- Dip the end of the Lollipop stick in the coating and stick in the cake ball. This will act like glue to hold the sticks in as you dip the balls in the coating. Let them sit a minute so the coating can harden a little.
- Dunk the cake balls in the coating and allow the excess to drip off.
- Dip or sprinkle the bottom of the cake pop with graham cracker crumbs and set on the parchment paper.
- Place the Hershey’s chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and microwave in 15 second increments until fully melted, stirring in between. Pour into a small piping bag and cut a small hole at the tip of the bag. Drizzle on each cake pop.
- With a kitchen torch, lightly torch the mini marshmallows and place three on each cake pop.
- Cover and keep at room temperature until you are ready to serve. You can also freeze the finished cake pops once they are fully hardened for 6 weeks.
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray three 6-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
- Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, water and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix a little longer to make sure everything is fully incorporated.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
