After discovering the most amazing instagram account, @katherine_sabbath, with her amazing ice-cream cake pops, I knew I had to have a go at making a vegan version before semester started. It may have taken nearly 4 hours to make these bad boys, but it was so worth it! Expect a giant mess and clean up afterwards, but you will be rewarded with delicious cake pops that look like ice-cream! Mine may not have turned out perfectly, but I am so happy them regardless! I used a cake pop recipe from Oh She Glows because I haven't make cake pops for so long and would have had no clue how to make them vegan. Moreover, because I used rather large waffle cones, this recipe only resulted in four cake pops. If you use smaller cones, you will get more cake pops, but will need to make more icing. It is also a good idea to make quick sketches of what you want each cake pop to look like, so that you have an idea of what colours you need and what kind of sprinkles etc you want. Kapeesh? Without further ado, here are the cake pops!

For the cake (should make 12 cupcakes), recipe altered from Oh She Glows:

Approx. 10 minutes preparation and 23 minutes baking, and 30 minutes cooling time.

1 cup almond milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp fine grain sea salt

+ to make cake pops you will need 1 can of full fat coconut cream (refrigerated).

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. In a large bowl, mix almond milk and apple cider vinegar. Leave for 5 minutes.
2. With an electric beater, beat in the oil, vanilla, and sugar into the almond milk mixture. 
3. Add sifted dry ingredients and beat until smooth.
4. Evenly distribute batter between 12 cupcake patties.
5. Place in oven and bake for 20-23 minutes.


6. When skewer comes out clean, remove cupcakes from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes.
7. Once cool, crumble cupcakes in a bowl.


8. Add a spoon at a time of coconut cream to the mixture and combine with hands. You will probably need around 1/2 to 3/4 cup of coconut cream, but do it a spoon at a time. Once it is sticky enough to roll into balls, that should be enough coconut cream.


9. Roll the cake mix into 4 large balls.


For the ice-cream cake pops:
 
Serves 4, at least one hour of putting them together.


You will need:

4 large balls of cake 
4 vegan ice-cream waffle cones
vegan sprinkles, fancy straws to decorate
4 hazelnuts (or alternatively, 4 vegan spherical lollies)
food colouring of your choice
4 + 1/4 cups of icing sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp almond milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Place waffle cones in tall flute glasses. This will make it easier to put these bad boys together.
2. Gently put each cake ball into each waffle cone.


3. Plain icing: mix 3 cups + 1/4 cup icing sugar with 1/4 cup almond mix. Blend with a mixture until smooth. 
4. Here comes the tricky part: you need to decide which colours you want. Divide mixture into how many colours you want into different bowls: e.g. if you are using green, blue, pink and purple divide the icing between 4 bowls. Add the food colouring to each respective bowl and mix, making sure not to mix spoons etc. Dip 4 hazelnuts into different colours, and place on a plate to set. Set aside for now.

5. Using a piping bag, spread the desired base colour on your cake pop. The icing should be smooth enough that if you put the icing on the top it should spread downwards and cover the cake. Place in the fridge so that the icing sets (at least 10 minutes), and repeat this base for each cake pop. If you are just using a base and covering it in for example sprinkles, now is the time to do it.


6. For the chocolate topping: mix 1 cup of icing sugar with 1 tbsp almond milk and 1 tbsp cocoa in a bowl. Place in a piping bag and place a little bit of icing on the top of your cake pop, and gently spread out so there are dribbles. Cover with sprinkles and top with an icing covered hazelnut. Repeat for icing of different colours.  


7. Cut a fancy straw in half and stick into two of the cake pops.
8. Place in the fridge for at least 10 more minutes before serving.
8. Done! Exhausted yet? I am!