Vegan Strawberry Daiquari Cakepops (21+)

Happy July everyone! So I apologize in my lapse in writing. If I am unable to keep up during the summer, not real sure how it's going to go during the school year, but we'll see.  Speaking of school year-- I went to Target yesterday and they have all their back to school stuff- so not ready for that yet. I picked up a couple of items for my room from the $1/ $3 bins, but don't even know what my room looks like so didn't over do it.  This week I'm going to start reviewing my IEPs so some school stuff may be added soon.

So back to summer! One of the enjoyable parts of summer is having a frozen strawberry daiquiri on a hot day, not any of that pre-made sugar water, but using real strawberries.  A couple of weeks ago,  my mom and aunt went strawberry picking and came back with a ton of fresh strawberries.  So cute and tasty.

The sad part is, the season doesn't last to long. So I cut and froze a few knowing I was planning on making these cake pops.  I added a little bit of sugar to them to get them sweet and juicy before freezing them.

For the 4th of July we had a picnic to go to and I was set on making the cake pops. I have a love hate relationship with cake pops.  While they are adorable and delicious, they take forever to make,  mine never come out pretty and perfectly round and beautiful, and I usually get annoyed with them, but I am determined to keep trying-- but I still prefer cupcakes.

All steps can be done in the same day, however it takes a while. My usual way of doing it, is to do step by step over a course of a couple days.  The longer the cake cools, the better it works. If you are short on time, you can use the freezer but make sure the cake balls don't freeze.


Strawberry Daiquiri Cakepops:

Cake:

1 cup sliced strawberries with juice
2 tablespoons white rum
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon strawberry extract (optional)
1/2 teaspoon lime juice (additional)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cake pan by greasing the bottom (I used coconut oil, but cooking spray would also work) and lightly adding flour to line it.
2. Use food processor or magic bullet to blend the sliced strawberries, rum and 1 teaspoon of lime juice.

3. In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the strawberry mixture, soy milk, canola oil, extracts and sugar.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until batter is smooth.  Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes.

4.  Once cake is done, cool in pan until it is cool enough to touch.  Crumble cake into large bowl to cool completely.

For the frosting, you can make a regular butter cream, but I decided to try to make a whipped cream type topping, since it's less sweet and whipped cream on daiquiris seem like they go.

Vegan Whipped Cream Frosting:

Ingredients:

1 can of coconut cream
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Chill can of coconut cream over night in the fridge, or an hour or so in the freezer. NOTE: Make sure that you don't shake the coconut cream.  By chilling it, the cream will float to the top leaving the oils on the bottom.  I accidentally dropped the can on the way to the fridge and it mixed all together and was too watery.
2.  Blend the coconut cream with electric mixture adding sugar and vanilla until it's fluffy. Using a chilled metal bowl helps.

To Make Cakepops:

1.  Take out crumpled cake.  Add 3 tablespoons of the strawberry/ rum/ lime juice mixture. Blend with electric mixture.
2. Add 1/3 cup of the whipped cream mixture blend together until the mixture is crumbly like a dry cookie dough.  Add more confectioners sugar if needed to thicken, or more cream to make it softer.

4. Spoon out mixture and roll into balls and put onto wax paper.  The color and consistency reminded me more of small meatballs than cake.

5. Chill cake balls while preparing melted chocolate.

Vegan White Cocolate:

It is very difficult to find vegan white chocolate. If you're not vegan or do dairy, you can use the melting wafers to cover it.

I ordered raw cocoa butter from Amazon. Just be sure it is FOOD QUALITY.  You don't want to eat body lotion.  It's expensive but goes a long way.

Ingredients:

1. I used 6 chunks of the raw cocoa butter, added up to about 2 cups dry- 1 cup melted.
2. 1 teaspoon coconut oil
3. 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla



Directions:

1. Melt cocoa chunks with coconut oil either using double boiler method or microwave. I used the microwave. If using the microwave, stir every 30 seconds or so.
2. Once melted, add vanilla, and mix confectioners sugar one tablespoon at a time to thicken up the chocolate.  I found letting it cool for about 10 minutes on the counter prior to mixing made it a little thicker.
3. When chocolate is at desired consistency, dip cake pop stick into chocolate and then push 2/3 of a way into cake balls. The chocolate works as a glue so they sticks stay.  Let cake balls with sticks cool in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.
4. Dip cake balls into mix covering completely.  Since this mix is very thin, you'll need 2-3 coats to cover it.  Let chill in the fridge between dippings.
5. If desired, decorate more. I took sparkly blue decorating sugar and a fan brush to add a bit of blue to make them red, white and blue for the holiday.

Like I said, cake pops are a lot of work!  But, they were a huge success. These also make great cupcakes, without all the work of dipping in chocolate.  I was able to make 30 cake pops out of this recipe, or it would make 12 regular size cupcakes, or 24 minis.