I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, I don't really like fancy dress and I am a huge wimp so the last thing I want is to be surrounded by people in scary costumes trying to scare me. I do however like to take the opportunity to whip up a few treats and this year for Halloween I decided to give cake pops a try.
What you will need:
Makes approx. 20 cake pops.
A cake pop mould
Lollipop sticks
110g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
110g plain flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
To decorate:
A large bar of white chocolate
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Orange gel food colouring
Black fondant
White fondant
Green fondant
Edible glue
1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºc and grease your cake pop mould well with butter. You can get a cake pop mould pretty much anywhere online but I got mine for about £3 from Aldi and it came with 20 lollipop sticks too.
2. Mix together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs in a large bowl using an electric whisk or stand mixer. Then fill the bottom half of the cake pop mould with the cake mixture and cover with the top half of the mould. As it is a silicone mould I also like to stand it on a baking tray before putting it in the oven so the mould stands straight on the oven shelf. Bake for 15-18 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. I like to remove the cake balls whilst they are still slightly warm as I find they pop out of the mould a little easier without crumbling, although if the mould has been greased well you should have no problem anyway. Then leave them too cool completely on a cooling rack.
4. Once they are fully cooled, melt a small amount of the chocolate in a bowl, then dip the end of the lollipop stick into the chocolate before inserting it into the cake ball and pop into the fridge for 10 minutes. This will hold the stick in place and make the cake pops easier to decorate.
To make the ghost cake pops:
Melt half the white chocolate in a bowl. I like to add a teaspoon of vegetable oil, as it thins the chocolate slightly making it easier to dip. Dip the cake ball into the chocolate until it is completely covered. You can buy cake pop stands to stand the cake pops in but they can be a little pricey so I just stand mine in a block of polystyrene and leave to set.
Cut out a large circle of white fondant, making sure it is big enough to cover the cake ball and drape down. Then just gently lay the circle of fondant over the top of the cake pop and gently cover the top with your hand to mould it to the cake pop and it will naturally drape around the bottom which you can shape as you like. Then roll two small balls of black fondant for the eyes and a larger oval for the mouth. Then stick on with some edible glue or if you don't have any wetting it slightly should help it to stick.
To make the pumpkin cake pops:
Melt the rest the other half of the chocolate in a bowl and add a little bit of orange food colouring. This is where is gets a little tricky, I used Dr Oetker's gel food colouring and as soon as I mixed it in the chocolate started to thicken and set again. So you need to use it sparingly and mix it in as quickly as you can, again adding a teaspoon of vegetable oil to thin it slightly. Then dip the cake balls as quickly and evenly as you possibly can. If you can find some orange candy melts then these will be a lot easier to work with. Then stand in polystyrene to set.
Once the orange cake pops set cut a long thin strip of black fondant which I then cut diagonally to make small triangles so they would all be equal in size. Use two the right way up for the eyes and one upside down for the nose and again stick to the cake pop using edible glue or water. For the mouth cut out a crescent moon shape and cut out two tiny squares, one in the top and one in the bottom and stick to the cake pop. Then roll a small piece of green fondant and stick to the centre of the top of the cake pop to create the stem of the pumpkin.
What treats have you been cooking up this Halloween? Let me know if you give these a try I'd love to see, you can find me on twitter and instagram.
