Sorry for the radio silence this month. I have been very busy making Halloween costumes and getting ready for Christmas!! It's not long you know! I will be sharing some of my favourite picks for homemade presents and decorations as well as what I have been making! Plus this week I lost a lot of my dinner service to a shelf collapsing in one of my kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately the set is no longer made so I am on a quest to source replacements from around the web. So with all that trauma, some cake is definitely called for and as Halloween is just over a week away I thought I would share my spooky cake pops.
These were super fun to make and the pops themselves were very easy thanks to my cake pop maker.
Said cake pop maker! This makes 6 pops at a time. The recipe states to cook the pops for 4 minutes but I found 5-6 was more accurate.
To make these absolutely delicious, chocolate has to be involved right? I made 14 cake pops but the recipe I have given below is to make about 30.
Chocolate Cake Pops
125g softened butter
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
100g self raising flour
8 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
Beat together butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add one egg at a time and beat after each addition until fully incorporated. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and add the milk. Beat until the mixture is smooth and thoroughly mixed.
Bake in the maker for 4 minutes (as I said mine took 5-6 minutes but just keep checking them). The maker suggests 2 tsp of mix per cake pop but they does mean you end up trimming excess once they are baked. I went with a heaping teaspoon per pop instead.
But not for the first batch! Live and learn!
While they were cooling I gathered my decorating supplies together.
I used Wilton candy melts in orange, green and dark cocoa (I wanted black but couldn't get hold of them, in the end it didn't matter), liquorice whirl, edible glitter in steel grey and some lollypop sticks.
To make the pumpkin pops you'll need some of each of the candy melts. Firstly melt a few green candy melts, dip each stick into the melts and stick into a cake pop. Leave them to set, either somewhere cool or in the fridge for a few minutes.
You won't need much just to dip the sticks in.
Setting!
Next melt the orange candy melts. I found I needed about half the bag to do 7 pops and I also used a large pudding bowl so that I could dip the cake pops easily. I found that the orange candy melts were not as smooth as the dark cocoa ones so would recommend adding some vegetable oil to the melts for ease of dipping. I needed to use a teaspoon to spoon some over the tops of the pops. I swirled them in the candy melts and then placed them face down on some grease proof paper.
Leave to set before adding the pumpkin features.
Melt a few of the dark cocoa melts. Get a disposable icing bag and fill with the melted candy melts. Snip a tiny bit of the bag and pipe eyes and mouths onto the pops. You will find that the melts start to harden in the bag, so just pop the bag in the microwave for a few seconds to soften again.
Fine looking Jack O Lantern!
I piped a mixture of expressions onto my pops for a bit of fun!
The spider pops are little more involved but really make a fun addition to your Halloween treats!
Melt some dark cocoa melts as before, dip the lollysticks in the melts and insert into the pops. Once set, melt some more candy melts and dip the whole pop into the melts. Now you need to move quickly. I used nearly my whole pot of glitter on just 7 pops so be aware if you decide to do more! I tipped the glitter into a small bowl (one of the ones that survived the carnage!) and with a teaspoon I spooned the glitter all over the just melted pop until it was covered. I gave it a little shake and left it to set on the greaseproof paper, again stick up.
One of a few bowls that survived!
Some of them turned out a little uneven once dipped but I don't think it matters for something like spiders.
While they set you need to get your licorice whirl and unravel it. String licorice would be a quicker alternative here! Discard the middle and start cutting lengths.
These easily unravel.
I just eyeballed the lengths I needed.
I then got one of my cheese knives as it has a flat wide end. I used this to cut the lengths in half lengthways. This made the perfect size for spider legs.
This was the perfect tool for this task.
7 sets of eight legs, some long, some short!
Take another disposable decorating bag and fill with some melted candy melts. Cut a small hole at the end and pipe small dots on either side of the pop near the top. Attach the legs and let set. This can be tricky especially with the longer legs. You may find you need to fiddle with them to get them to stay where you want them to be, but thankfully as the melts set quickly this doesn't cause too much of a problem. Finally, pipe a dot or 2 on the front of the pop and attach candy eyes to the pop. I used the Wilton candy eyes for my spiders, but you could even pipe some on with green or white candy melts or make some using fondant.
One eyed spider with very long legs!
Little spider with big eyes and short legs, or is it an alien with unruly hair?!
Considering this is only the 4th time I have attempted to make cake pops, I am pleased with the results. They took under 3 hours in total to make and would be a super fun thing to do in the holidays with the kids. Have fun!
These ones are off to the school bake sale!
Spiders I ain't scared of!
