Halloween Treats: Cakepops!

it’s Halloween, which means one thing: treats! To celebrate this day of treats, Tess has rustled up these spooky cakepops for us to nom upon, why not have a go at making them yourself?

Things you’ll need

• Time -  Do not underestimate the amount of time these will take!
• Cake (homemade or shop bought) can be flavour of your choice
• Buttercream (homemade or shop bought)
• Candy Melts by Wilton (or look in the baking section of the supermarket for their coloured/flavoured buttons) in a colour of your choice
• Lollipop sticks
• A microwave safe bowl, at least 3 inches deep (I used a coffee mug)
• A cake pop stand, or a block of Styrofoam will do
• Decorations (the limit is your imagination!)
• A really useful book is Cake-Pops by Angie Dudley. There’s even a video you can watch on that Amazon Link!

How to make them

• Crumble your cake into fine crumbs in a large bowl. A good way to do it is cut your cake into ¼’s then rub two ¼’s together. You can also throw the cake into a food processor if you have one, and give it a quick blitz. You should have no large lumps of cake left.
• Then add in your buttercream or frosting. You can mix it in with a metal spoon, or if you’re happy to get messy…use your hands! That also means you can feel the consistency of the mix and avoid adding too much frosting. Don’t worry if you do though, just add more cake into the mix to even it back out. You want the mix to be moist enough to roll into balls and hold their shape, too moist and they won’t stay on the sticks.
• When thoroughly combined, take some of the mixture and roll 1 ½ inch balls in your hands.
• Place your rolled up balls onto a baking sheet covered with greaseproof paper and pop into the fridge for an hour or so, or to the freezer for 15 mins.
• When you’re ready, melt your candy melts or buttons in the microwave. Do it in short bursts so you don’t overdo it. Should only take about 90-120 seconds to melt completely. You don’t want it to be too hot though as it will not be as easy to mould when it touches the cold cake ball.
• Remove a few of your cake balls from the fridge at a time, to prevent them warming up too much as then they’ll fall of the stick!
• Take one of your sticks and dip one end in your coating by about ½ an inch, then put it straight into one of the cake balls. You only want to go about half an inch deep, use the ‘dip line’ on the stick for guidance. Then dip!
• Make sure the ball is completely immersed in the coating.
• Pull it straight out (twisting could cause the ball to drop off the stick!) and hold the ball over your bowl or mug and spin it gently to allow the excess coating to fall off. You can encourage it to drip off by using your free hand to gently tap the wrist of the hand holding the cake pop. If you are adding sprinkles or ‘character’ to your pop, now is the time to do it. Then place your pop in your stand to dry completely. Continue until all of your cake balls have been coated.