"Pops and Needles"



Cake Pops: (Left to Right) Vanilla Bean, Banana Nutella, Coco-Lime and Carrot Cream

When you here the word NEEDLE, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The use of needles has a great presence in science. However, it is most commonly associated with an unpleasant experience in a doctor's office, leaving 10% of the population with what is called Needle Phobia.
Hamilton Chromatography Syringe

Methods of injection and infusion date back to the 1600s.  However, Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood were the first to develop a syringe with a needle fine enough to pierce the skin in 1853. This needle is known as the hypodermic syringe. Nevertheless, the use of needles  is not limited to medicine.



In Gas Chromatography and High Pressure Liquid Chromatography needles are used to inject an analyte into machines to begin the separation process through the phases. However, another very common use for syringes today is in cooking. Flavor injectors are a type of syringe used for food. It is most frequently used to add a marinade/ flavor to meats... And now fillings to cake pops!

It so happened that I was concocting Carrot Cream Cake Pops on February 3rd, and during the process it occurred to me to check my National Food Day calendar.  To my surprise it was Carrot Cake Day!! Go figure...  Nevertheless, the Carrot Cream Cake Pop concoction is made from Carrot Ice-Cream cake batter, baked into a cake pop and injected with Cream Cheese Frosting using a cooking syringe. The pops were then covered in orange colored white chocolate.



Cross Section of Carrot Cream Cake Pop 
Carrot Cream Cake Recipe

Materials:
 For Ice-Cream:
    0 . 5 cup heavy cream
    1 cup milk
    1 table spoon of flour
    0. 5 cup sugar
    0. 5cup grated carrots (refrigerated)
 For Cake:
    0. 75 cups Self Rising Flour
    1 cup Carrot Ice-Cream
    0. 5 cup sugar
    3 eggs
    0. 5 tsp 5 Spice Powder
    0. 5 tsp Cinnamon
    0.75 cups butter/ vegetable oil
    

Method:
For Ice-Cream:
Mix the milk and heavy cream with sugar and pour in to sauce pan. Reserve about 1/4 cup of milk mixture and dissolve flour. Add milk and flour back to sauce pan with stove on low heat. Stir mixture with a whisk occasionally. Allow to simmer for about 35 mins. Turn off stove and mix in grated carrots. Take mixture to your ice-cream freezer and follow its instructions (For the Carrot Cream cake you may allow the mixture to cool completely instead of freezing)

For Cake:
Cream/ combine butter and sugar and 5 spice powered. Beat in eggs one at a time until well blended. Add the remaining dry ingredients in three parts alternating twice with melted, cooled carrot ice-cream.
Bake until pick inserted comes out clean. (For these cake pops I experimented with the Bake Pops pan that is currently on the market)

These Carrot Cream cake pops accompanied 3 other infused cake pop flavors for a Black History Month event that weekend: 

Banana Nutella Cake Pops: Banana Cake Pops injected with Nutella and covered in dark chocolate
Coco-Lime Cake Pops: Coconut Cream Cake with Coconut Flakes with a white chocolate coco-lime infused coating
Vanilla Bean Cake Pops: Vanilla Bean Cake Pops covered in red colored white chocolate




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