Halloween Cake Pops - Skulls and Ghosts

Halloween is definitely more fun if you have kids - or if you are in your 20s and want an excuse to dress in a sexy costume! This year I'm not doing anything for Halloween - I was going to carve a pumpkin but it's 5pm on October 31 and I haven't been to the supermarket yet!

 

I suddenly remembered a cake pop mould I bought in the Selfridges January sale and had put in a cupboard; I also had some offcuts of another cake in the freezer so I decided to make cake pops.

This mould is made of silicon and is designed so you can actually bake your cake mixture into the appropriate shapes, but I found you can also use it as a mould.

I mixed the crumbled cake with some buttercream until I had a dough-like consistency - I've written several posts before on how to make cake pops so won't explain in detail again.

I then pressed the mixture into the silicon mould, put both sides of the mould together and put it in the fridge for an hour to set.

The shapes came out of the mould very easily - there was a skull, a ghost, a pumpkin and a ball that you can decorate as an eyeball. I stuck the end of some cake pop sticks into some melted candy melts and put them into the cake balls and left them to set.

Unfortunately I hadn't left them quite long enough (or my dough was too soft - you can always pop them in the freezer if you are worried) because the pumpkins and eyeballs fell apart when I was dipping them into the candy melts (I was only making one or two of each as they were only for my fiancé and I - I don't get trick or treaters where I live!).

However, the skulls and ghost turned out really well and you can still see the detail of the shapes, eg the hollows of the skulls eyes.

I dipped them in melted white candy melts and left them to set, then used a brush and a little black food colouring to paint on the details.

For the final touch I stood them in these mini pumpkins, called 'munchkins' - I had to make a hole with a skewer first, then pushed the cake pop sticks in.

Last year I made ghost and Frankenstein cake pops, which you can see here.

The Food Year Linkup on Charlotte's Lively Kitchen is still open so I am sending her these Halloween cake pops.

 

I've also just got time to share this with Treat Petite hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat at the Baking Explorer, as their theme is black and orange.

 

 

Hot Chocolate Dippers - edible Christmas gift

I made a selection of edible gifts for my friends who were visiting just before Christmas and last year saw a few bloggers made these hot chocolate dippers; this year I've also seen them on sale in shops and thought how much cheaper it is to make your own!

The idea is simple- a block of chocolate, perhaps flavoured, on a stick that you use to stir a mug of hot milk. As the chocolate melts, your hot milk turns into hot chocolate!

You can make the dippers any shape; filling an ice cube tray with melted chocolate is a simple approach though I would recommend you use a silicon ice cube tray or you may have trouble getting the chocolate out!

I used these mini sweet moulds I bought a while ago from Lakeland; I ordered them from the website and they were smaller than I thought so I hadn't found anything to use them for yet. They were perfect for these chocolate dippers!

After you have melted the chocolate and added any flavouring, such as peppermint essence or if you are brave, a few dried chilli flakes - pour it into your mould. Place in the fridge for a few minutes and before the chocolate is hard but when it has begun to set a little, insert your stick. I used a cake pop stick which you can buy in most places quite cheaply these days (eg Poundland) but you could also save and wash ice lolly sticks if you plan that far ahead!

Return to the fridge until set then package up attractively to give as a gift.

As I mentioned these are cheaper than the shop bought ones and make a nice low-cost gift I am sharing them with Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

I'm also sharing this with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi, as they have a Christmas theme this month.

 

 

Spooky Halloween Cake Pops

Today is Halloween so there's just time for one more quick spooky recipe. These are great fun to hand out to trick or treaters or to make at home with the children.

First I made some Frankenstein cake pops, which take just moments to make. All you need are some marshmallows, green candy melts (eg Renshaw or Wilton), black writing icing or Dr. Oetker's black gel food colour, some cake pop or lollipop sticks and something to stand your cake pops in - I used a piece of polystyrene.

Melt the candy melts in the microwave following the instructions on the packet. Push a cake pop stick into a marshmallow and dip in the melted candy melt. Stand in the polystyrene or your holder and leave to set- this will only take a few minutes. When set, use the gel colour or writing icing to draw on a jagged mouth, eyes and ears.

The idea for the ghost cake pops came from Dr Oetker, who sent me some of the ingredients needed for the recipe below. You can also use any leftover or shop bought madeira cake crumbled up and mixed with buttercream to make the cake pops.

This Halloween, Dr. Oetker has teamed up with Juliet Sear as part of the Even Better Baking Team to create an exclusive and fun Spooky Ghost Cake Pops recipe. A full video tutorial can be viewed via: http://bit.ly/1vKDMBk

 

SPOOKY GHOST CAKE POPS

Preparation time: 2 hours plus cooling and chilling
Cooking time: 40 minutes plus 10 minutes to melt 2 lots of chocolate

​Ingredients:

For the cake balls:

• 120g Dr. Oetker 72% Cocoa Extra Dark Fine Cooks Chocolate
• 150g soft unsalted butter at room temp
• 200g Light Muscovado Sugar
• 3 medium free range eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla extract
• 125g Plain Flour

For the cake pops:

• 2 X 100g bags of Dr. Oetker White Chocolate Chips melted for sticking the balls onto the sticks & coating the cake pops
• Teaspoon of vegetable oil

To decorate the ghosts:

• 1 x  pack of Dr. Oetker White Regal Ice
• Icing sugar for rolling out
• Dr. Oetker White Designer Icing for sticking the regal ice to the cake pops
• Dr. Oetker Jet Black Gel Food Colour

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F, gas mark 1). Grease and line an 18cm (7 inch) square cake tin
2. To make the fudge brownie mix melt the extra dark chocolate in a microwave on medium power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time until melted,  or in a heat proof bowl on a gentle heat over a bain marie. Leave to cool.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment or electric hand beater for approx. 2 minutes until pale and fluffy. If you haven’t got an electric mixer you can do this with a wooden spoon in a bowl .
4. TIP: if you are in a rush or the butter is quite cold, the addition of a couple of tablespoons of boiling water at this stage, beaten on slow until mixed will speed up this process.
5. Add your eggs on a slow speed about a third at a time, mixing until combined.
6. Add your cooled chocolate stirring continuously.  Add the vanilla Extract and stir. On slow speed mix in the flour until just combined. Do not over beat. Alternatively fold in by hand.
7. Pour the mix into your cake tin and bake for approx 40 mins. Check it with a sharp knife or metal skewer. You want this to be slightly under baked, so the knife should come out pasty, with a nice paste on the knife.
8. Leave to cool, then turn out into a bowl and crumble with your hands to fine fudgy crumb.
9. To make the cake balls, take a handful of fudge cake mix and squeeze together tightly - you are aiming for little balls about the size of a large walnut, approx. 30g each. If the mixture is dry, the addition of a little chocolate or vanilla butter cream will help the mixture stick
10. Once you have all of your balls ready, dip the end of your stick into the melted chocolate chips  and push the stick into each ball, about half way in. Hold the ball to stop it splitting open when the stick goes in
11. Once all the cake pops are ready, refrigerate them for 1-2 hours before dipping them, or pop into the freezer for 30 mins, so the balls are firm enough to hold when dipping in the coating
12. To coat the cake pops melt Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks White Chocolate on low power in a microwave bowl until just melted -  stirring occasionally or over a bain marie on a gentle heat
13. Plunge each cake pop into the chocolate coating until completely covered. Tap the cake pop gently on the side of the bowl to shake off the excess. Once all are covered, dip each cake pop again
14. To decorate the ghosts roll out half the white regal icing into a large rectangle using plenty of icing sugar and a large plastic rolling pin. Roll fairly thinly – 2 to 3mm thick. Squeeze a little Dr. Oetker White Designer Icing onto the tops of the cake pops or brush with some melted white chocolate, to aid sticking of the sugar paste
15. Using a cake cutter or small bowl, cut out circles of regal icing and place on each of the pops, smoothing down with your fingers to create the white sheet effect. Allow a little wavy movement by using your fingers to create smooth waves.

I stood my cake pops inside a pumpkin for a particularly spooky Halloween effect!

Happy Halloween!

Thanks to Dr. Oetker for providing me with some of the ingredients to make the ghost cake pops.

 

 

 

Heart-Shaped Cake Balls

I described in a previous post how I made my own Rolo chocolates from a mould provided by the Dot Com Gift Shop. They also sent me a heart-shaped mould and some heart-shaped petit four cases to review.

I decided not to make chocolates this time however and instead make cake pops. Usually these are on sticks but they taste so delicious I don't see why you couldn't just make them as bite-sized nibbles and enjoy them that way. I had made a chocolate cake that was part of the same project, which you will be able to read about shortly, and had to trim the cake a bit. So I had some leftover cake trimmings which I crumbled up into a bowl.

I mixed it with some chocolate buttercream to make a dough.

Simply press the mixture into the moulds and place in the fridge for a little while to firm up.

As the mould is silicon it is completely flexible, making it very easy to turn the shapes out. You could also dip them in melted chocolate to coat them.

The Dot Com Gift Shop also sent me these mini heart-shaped petit four cases, which are just the right size to use with the mould.

Simply place the cake shapes or your chocolates into the cases to serve.

Disclaimer: I was sent these products free of charge by the Dot Com Gift Shop. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions are my own.

Spring Cake Pops - Tulips and Easter Eggs

Renshaw Baking invited me to take part in a challenge to create some spring themed cake pops and I gladly obliged. Do you like my bunch of tulips with a few Easter eggs hidden in there as well?

Renshaw kindly sent me a selection of products to use for this challenge, including several colours of Colour Melts, which is their equivalent of candy melts, and some sprinkles as well as some flower modelling paste. I thought about making a selection of animals like bunnies and chicks, or a set of Easter eggs, but liked the idea of making a bunch of flowers. I associate tulips particularly with spring, so I decided to make tulips out of cake and the petals from the flower paste. I created the design and technique myself.

 

To make cake pops, you need to start with a cake, which you can either make yourself or use a shop bought one. I used an Angel Cake from Sainsburys to save time, but also because I thought the three colours of the cake - white, yellow and pink - would work well with the cake pop design. Once you have your cake, crumble it into a large bowl.

Mix with enough buttercream until you have a dough consistency. Normally for cake pops I would then roll the dough into a ball but for tulips you want more of an oval or egg shape, pointed at one end.

Here are three of the Colour Melt tubs Renshaw sent - I received yellow, red, pink, white, blue and green. These are brilliant - so easy to use. Simply take the lid off the tub and, following the instructions on the side, put the tub in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and then microwave for another 20 seconds. When I use candy melts from another leading brand, as they come in a packet I need to pour the melted colours into a bowl, and eventually realised that I needed a fairly tall, narrow bowl so I use a mug. The tubs that these Renshaw Colour Melts come in is actually the perfect size - deep enough for you to dip your cake pops. And because you are using it in the tub, when the leftover Colour Melts have cooled, all you need to do is put the lid back on and you can use the rest another time.

I began with yellow, so here is my melted Colour Melt. I sometimes add a little oil to melted candy melts from other brands to make them a bit smoother and more runny but I didn't need to with these.

Dip the end of a cake pop stick into the melted Colour Melt and insert into the cake pop. Place in the fridge for half an hour.

In the meantime make the petals; flower and modelling paste can be rolled very thin and it then stiffens more than fondant which is essential here as you are going to dip the petals into the Colour Melts.

You can use a petal cutter if you have one, or just use a sharp knife. Cut out three petals per cake pop in an egg shape and set aside to harden.

When your cake pops are ready to dip, reheat the Colour Melt and dip the cake pop in at an angle, rotate so it is fully coated and then hold over the side of the pot for the excess to drip off. Then stand in either a cake pop stand or a piece of polystyrene to set.

To make the flower, take three of the flower paste petals and while the Colour Melt is still tacky, stick the petals on around the sides. It doesn't matter if they overlap slightly, in fact this looks quite good. Then bend the tops of the petals outwards slightly.

Leave to set and when the petals are firmly attached to the cake pop, dip the whole thing once more in the Colour Melt. Again, allow the excess to run off and place in the polystyrene or stand to dry.

Repeat with the remaining cake pops and petals in different colours.

I also decided to make a few Easter eggs to go in my bouquet. I dipped this cake pop in white Colour Melt and when it had dried, I dipped it again, up to the half way mark this time, in yellow. Finally I dipped the top in Renshaw's coloured sprinkles.

For this Easter egg I dipped the whole cake pop in white Colour Melt and then dipped it into a bowl of Renshaw sprinkles so it was fully covered.

Finally for this Easter egg, I dipped the cake pop in white and then melted some blue and using a teaspoon rotated the cake pop while drizzling the colour over the top.

Here is my finished vase of flowers- I also rolled out some leaves from the Renshaw flower paste and dipped those in the green Colour Melt.

A close-up, top-down view

Can you tell which one is real? Yes of course you can....!

The ultimate test though was when my boyfriend came home; I had made these while he was out for the evening. I said casually "do you like my bunch of flowers?" and he glanced over and said "oh yes, nice" - then did a double take and said "hang on, those are cake!". He was quite impressed and said they tasted very good as well as looking good!

 

Here you can see the inside of the cake pop

I'm sending these to Renshaw Baking's spring cake pop challenge.





I am also sending this to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura at I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The entries don't have to be biscuits, but this month they do have to be fun!

I am also sending this to Love Cake, hosted by Jibber Jabber UK, as the theme is springing into Easter.

The theme for Calendar Cakes,. hosted by Rachel at Dollybakes, is also Easter.