A friend and colleague recently departed our workplace to move on to greener pastures at Jack-in-the-Box. No, she’s not a fry cook. She got an amazing job in corporate communications. So naturally, my department sent her off with (what else?) a Jack-in-the-Box themed party.
My contribution was cake bites — essentially cake pops in a Jack style. Cake pops are not difficult to make. However, they require a bit of planning. And since I started the baking process at 10 p.m. the night before the party, I had to modify things a bit (which I’ll explain later).
To make the inside of cake pops, you need a box of cake mix (any flavor) and a jar of frosting. Bake the cake in the 9″ x 13″ pan as directed on the box. When the cake is done – but still slightly warm – crumble the cake into a very large bowl and add nearly the entire can of frosting, and mix together. I chose white cake mix and vanilla frosting.
Next, use your hands to form small balls of cake dough. This is where – if you were making pops – you’d place the stick into the cake ball. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze for about 25 minutes.
Here’s where I modified it a bit. If you were making traditional cake pops or cake bites, you would then remove from the freezer, dip them in melted chocolate or white chocolate candy coating (which you can get at craft supply stores), and freeze again until the shell is hardened. I did not have the chocolate candy to coat the cake balls (this is where the planning ahead comes in). So instead I refrigerated them overnight, put them each in mini cupcake liners, and called it a cake bite. They looked like this.
Here’s where the fun came in. I bought tubes of Wilton’s red, blue and black pre-made icing and the matching cake decorating tips. They sell these in grocery stores, craft stores, and even Target. Armed with a photo of Jack himself, I started replicating his face on the little cake bites. I finished by adding one Buggle chip for his hat. My colleague really liked her Jack-in-the-Box themed party, as well as the cake bites. She’s now ready to face the world of fast food and corporate communication.
