Ingredients
Equipment
Cake
Decorations
Method
1.Using a fork, combine the cheesecake, including biscuit base, and cake crumbs in a medium bowl. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into strawberry shapes. Place on a baking-paper-lined tray; freeze 1 hour or refrigerate 3 hours or overnight until firm.
2.Stir chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water until smooth (don’t let water touch base of bowl). Tint chocolate red. Pour into a heatproof jug.
3.Dip the end of one stick into the chocolate, then push it about halfway into a strawberry shape. Return to tray. Repeat with remaining sticks and strawberries. Place in the freezer for about 5 minutes to set.
4.Dip one cake pop into the chocolate, rocking back and forth to coat; don’t swirl the pop or it’ll break. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the jug. Slide a straw over the stick, pushing it up into the chocolate. Stand pop upright in a styrofoam block, scatter with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining cake pops, chocolate, straws and sprinkles. Re-melt the chocolate as necessary.
5.Knead ready-made icing on a surface dusted with a little icing sugar until icing loses its stickiness. Tint icing green; roll on a surface dusted with a little icing sugar until 3mm thick.
6.Using a 2.5cm star cutter, cut 18 stars from icing. Working quickly, use a frilling tool to frill edges of stars, making them look like calyxes. Thread frilled leaves onto sticks, securing with a little chocolate. Stand until set.
A frilling tool is a plastic, pointy-ended tool used by cake decorators to create frilled edges on sugar flower petals and leaves by rolling it backwards and forwards around the edge of the petal. They are available from cake decorating suppliers. If you don’t have one, gently pinch the ends of the star shape with your fingers to thin out and make a frill for the calyx. Store cake pops without green calyxes in the refrigerator until ready to serve. They will keep for up to 2 days. A powder or gel-based colour is best to add to chocolate. A liquid colour will seize the chocolate, turning it grainy and unusable.
Note
