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.

 

 

Giant Cupcake - Raspberry Flavour

Here is a giant raspberry cupcake I made for my mum's birthday, using candy melts to make a cupcake case - a great technique that I will explain below.

I created the recipe myself though it is fairly straightforward.

Giant Raspberry Cupcake - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

225g caster sugar

225g butter, softened

200g self-raising flour

3 eggs

150g fresh raspberries

For the buttercream:

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar

pink food colouring

For the cupcake case:

200g candy melts in red or pink - I used Renshaw

 It's a good idea to make the candy melt shell first as it needs time to set in the fridge. Melt the candy melts in the microwave according to pack instructions. Use a spoon to spread around the inside of the bottom part of the giant cupcake mould - this is why a silicon mould is much better than a metal tin for this recipe. When you have an even layer around the inside of the mould, making sure you have not left any gaps, place in the fridge for 30 mins- 1 hour to set. Remove from the fridge, melt the rest of the candy melts in the microwave again and spread another layer inside the cake mould and return to the fridge. When that layer has set, carefully peel off the silicon cake mould by turning it slowly inside out until you are left with the candy melt shell (see further down for a photo).

Preheat the oven to 175C. Cream the butter and the sugar then beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour, then the raspberries. I used my Kitchenaid so the raspberries were broken up but not completely blended.

I bought this giant cupcake pan ages ago but hadn't gotten around to using it, after an earlier not particularly successful attempt at a giant cupcake in a metal Wilton tin (which was down to the recipe that I used). I decided to give it a go, so sprayed both parts of the pan with Cake Release, stood it in a roasting tin and poured in the cake batter. I left plenty of room for the cake to rise.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes; test the cake with a skewer or cake tester to make sure it is cooked in the middle. Allow to cool in the silicon mould then turn out onto a wire rack.

You will need to trim the bottom part of the cake a little to fit inside the candy melt shell, as you can see below. You can also see the raspberries in the cake!

Place the trimmed cake inside the candy melt shell. It looks great!

To make the icing, cream the softened butter and icing sugar and add the food colouring. My butter was a bit too soft which meant my icing wasn't stiff enough to pipe, meaning I couldn't pipe the swirls that I wanted to (and I was in a bit of a hurry).

Instead I spread the icing on with a palette knife; I think it looks fine like this.

Dr. Oetker sent me some wafer butterflies recently, and they have also sent me wafer daisies in the past. I think these are brilliant - when you don't have time for fancy decorations on a cake, you can just pop on a couple of these and they will totally transform your cake. The butterflies are particularly pretty in my opinion, though I have to admit I haven't been able to find them in any of the supermarkets I shop at yet!

Here's the finished giant cupcake, decorated with butterflies and wafer flowers.
 The cake tasted very nice but most of all I was pleased by how it looked.

 The letter we have chosen for this month's Alphabakes is R so I am including this raspberry cake. The challenge is hosted by Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker this month.

Raspberries are in season so I am sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Ren Behan.

Shaheen at Allotment2Kitchen has launched a new blog challenge, the Vegetable Palette. This month she is asking for recipes made with any red fruit or vegetable.

I am also entering this in the Bakespiration challenge run by Stuck In The Tree, click on the link to check it out - their site is all about having fun online and off.

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.