Jiballian Fudge Galaxy Cake Pops

Posted June 28, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Are you all ready for dessert? Because I DEFINITELY am! Jiballian fudge cake is an iconic Star Trek Voyager dessert, and I knew I wanted its blue icing and rich chocolatey-ness to have the place on honor in my Voyager menu. I’ve made many chocolate cakes here on the blog, so I wanted to do something a little different. Then I thought: cake pops! I’ve never done them before, and the concept of a Star Trek-inspired pop intrigued me.

The cake in the TV show has blue icing with a few other colors swirled through (looks like purple and silver/white). I thought it would be fun to make galaxy pops reflecting this color scheme, and away we went! I had to try a few different decorating techniques before I found one I liked, but in the end I think these cake pops turned out super cute. What a fun way to end a Star Trek menu!

A

Jiballian Fudge Galaxy Cake Pops: An AWR Original Recipe

Neelix: Wait til you taste this cake! Seven layers of Jiballian fudge, and the icing is made from pureed L’maki nuts—Kes’ favorite!
Captain Janeway: Now make a wish and blow out the candles.
Kes: What do I wish for?
Sandrine: Anything your petite coeur desires, ma cherie.

— Star Trek: Voyager

INGREDIENTS:

1 9-inch chocolate cake (I used the chocolate cake recipe from my new cookbook, but any chocolate cake will do)
1/4 cup chocolate frosting (I made my own, but I’m not sure it’s worth it for so little frosting. You’re probably better off going with store bought.)
1 12-oz bag blue candy melts, separated
30 cake pop sticks
silver sprinkles
1/3 cup (about 65 g) white candy melts
1/3 cup (about 65 g) pink candy melts (Purple would actually look way better, but the 4 stores I visited didn’t have them and the ones online would likely have melted in transit due to the summer heat. If you can find purple in your store, go for it! Or if you’re making these in colder whether, feel free to order online.)

Makes 30 cake pops

INSTRUCTIONS:

Break your cake into chunks and put it through a food processor until it is broken up into crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl. Mix in the frosting with a fork until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours.
If making the cake the day before, be sure to wrap it in plastic wrap once cooled. If the cake dries out too much, you can taste the staleness in the finished cake pops.
Shape the dough into balls a little over 1 inch in diameter. Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
Melt 1/4 cup of the blue candy melts, cutting the time on the package instructions approximately in half (you’ll want to check it every 20 seconds or so). Stir until smooth. Dip the ends of the cake pop sticks in the candy melts and stick these halfway into your cake pops.
I originally used white melts thinking they’d blend in with the sticks better, but in the end I decided blue looked better because it blended in with the rest of the base coat.
When the cake pops are room temperature, heat your remaining blue melts in a bowl according to package instructions. If you have any leftover blue candy coating from dipping the sticks, pour it in and stir until smooth. Dip your cake pops in one at a time until coated, gently shaking them for a few seconds over the bowl to allow the excess to drip away. After coating every 3-5 pops, stop to add a little pinch of silver sprinkles. NOTE: How you prop them up to dry is up to you. You can stick the ends of the sticks in floral foam bricks or a cake pop stand to allow them to stand upright (this allows for the cleanest look). You can also stand them cake-pop-down on wax paper with the stick in the air or lay them flat. Be aware that the latter two alternatives will result in a flattened side of the candy coating.

As hard as I tried to keep my melts from melting in the car, the summer heat won out! 🙁 I was still able to use them, but you can see in the closeups that the coloring isn’t as even as it should be. Luckily, this wasn’t as obvious once I added decorations.

PRO TIP: Dip your pops in the bowl and spoon coating over them if you need too, but don’t rotate them. The warm melts weaken the coating holding the stick to the pop, and it’ll fall off.
In a separate bowl, heat the white melts for about half the amount of time suggested and stir until smooth. Use a spoon to drizzle a line or two of white coating over each pop. Repeat with the pink melts. Allow to set.

You can practice drizzling over the bowl of white melts so you don’t add too much. These pops are small, so a little decoration goes a long way.
Serve at an Ocompan birthday party!
These were fun, and my family loves them! I’m still determined to track down purple candy melts and try it with those some day, but for now I think these little guys look pretty awesome. 🙂