Speculoos (Biscoff) Cake Pops Recipe

I have always wanted to use Lotus Speculoos Spread in baking, but couldn’t decide on any recipe in particular. Until I saw a photo of Speculoos truffles on Pinterest, which gave me the idea of Speculoos cake pops!

I put together bits and pieces of different recipes I found online and developed the one I am sharing with you today.

A French blog, called Steph a Table, gave me the idea to use madeleines, but instead of the supermarket ones, I made them from scratch.

For the madeleines – Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 125g icing sugar
• 100g plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 125g butter, melted and cooled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 190°C. In a bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and lemon zest with an electric mixer on high speed for five minutes. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, until you obtain a thick mixture.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Gently fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture, 1/4 at a time. Then fold in the melted and cooled butter.

Grease and flour a madeleine mould (I used a Lakeland silicone madeleine mould and baked about 60 mini madeleines). Spoon the cake mixture into the moulds, filling 3/4 full.

Bake for 10/12 minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool the madeleines in the moulds for one minute, then remove them and leave on a rack to cool down completely.

The next steps were: preparing buttercream frosting (I used a recipe from BBC Food); assembling the cake pops (I used my Coffee Cake Pops recipe); coating them with chocolate.

Buttercream Ingredients

• 140g butter
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Cake Pops Ingredients

• 600g cake
• 200g buttercream frosting
• 4 tbsp Speculoos Spread
• 400g chocolate or candy melts
• lollipop sticks
• sprinkles

* These are ballpark measurements and I recommend keeping more of each ingredient at home, in case you need more frosting for the cake mix or more chocolate to coat the cake pops.

Preparation

Prepare the buttercream frosting by beating the butter in a large bowl with the icing sugar, until smooth. Add one or two tablespoons of milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture.

Crumble the madeleines in small pieces using your fingers, then mix the crumbles with the buttercream frosting and the Speculoos spread until you have a dough like mixture.

Place mixture into fridge to firm up for at least 30 minutes (the longer, the better). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

When the dough is firm, scoop out small portions and roll into a ball, then place this on the baking sheet. Repeat until all mixture has gone. Keep the balls in the fridge, so they stay firm (I kept them overnight).

Melt the chocolate or candy melts in a bain–marie or in the microwave. If you are using the microwave, be careful to use medium power and stir the chocolate every 30 seconds.

Dip one lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and then push it in a cold cake bite. Repeat this step until you have used all the sticks, before starting to coat the cake bites. This will allow the chocolate to stiff around the stick.

If the chocolate sets in the bowl, melt it again in the microwave.

Dip the whole cake pop in the chocolate, using a spoon to ensure the chocolate is spread evenly. Gently tap the cake pop on the side of the bowl to let the extra chocolate drip off.

Before the chocolate sets on the cake pop, add the sprinkles. You can dry the cake pop facing up (you will need a foam block) or facing down (placing them on a plate).

Overall, it took me nearly four hours to make these Speculoos Cake Pops! That’s because I made the madeleines from scratch, but if you have leftover cake, then it will be much quicker, obviously!

I also wasted ingredients and time when I had a cooking accident involving three bars of Green & Blacks chocolate and the microwave! :( (use it at low power, seriously!)

And I made so many madeleines that I had enough mixture to make fifty-two cake pops: one hour and a half was needed to roll the pops and coat them in chocolate.

Nonetheless, it was a fun baking experiment and I took great pride in inventing this recipe! Thank you to our friends: Surekha who helped with the preparation and Adam who took the photos of me decorating the cake pops. The end result was truly delicious and many people loved them, which made it all worthwhile!