Army of Ghosts super easy cake pops

What is the scariest thing about Halloween. The evil spirits that supposedly come out....finding the perfect costume.....making sure the candy treats don't run out to minimise the risk of any 'tricks'.

EDIT UPDATE 26/10/2015
I now have a free youtube video tutorial showing how to make the ghosts here:

Yup I know, for most of you the thought of dipping cake pops overshadows it all.
 


But don't you worry, I've solved the problem.

Ghost cake pops with NO STICKS.

So technically that means they are no longer cake pops, but who cares, 'cause I know for a lot of you the dipping is totally the worst part of the whole cake pop experience.

This army of not very scary ghosts are perfect for the pop challenged of you as they consist of an easy little dip and then pouring.

And this technique would be just as perfect for a group of goulish monsters by changing up the candy coating color and adding lots of eyes.....or maybe some gloopy green alien invaders by using green melts and adding one big eye.

Anyhoo the possibilities are endless and the best news is the pooled candy coating at the bottom is part of the decoration.


You can use any type of cake pop recipe you like, the ones in the picture are made with Oreo Truffle, just 'cause we like that in our household :)

Or I have a stack of recipes that can be used in my book:  Sweets on a Stick is available from most online book stores including:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Army of Ghost Oreo Truffles (makes around 20 depending on the size)

1 batch of Oreo Truffle mixture (click here for recipe)

white chocolate melts (Nestle White Melts or Wilton Candy Melts) - I used White Wilton Melts

Edible eyes - buy premade or Click Here for DIY instructions

Shape the Oreo truffle mixture into mounds like a mountain. I made mine around 1 1/2 tablespoons (2 US Tbsp). Place on a tray lined with parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate/ candy melts in the microwave at medium low heat at short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds. Depending on the type of chocolate you have used you may like to thin it down a touch with some copha or paramount crystals melted at the same time. However the chocolate/ candy coating should not be as fluid as it needs to be for pop dipping.

Remove the tray of Oreo Truffle mounds from the fridge. Pick one up and holding the top between your finger tips dip just the bottom into the melted chocolate/ candy coating. Place on parchment paper lined tray and then use a spoon to carefully cover the top of the truffle mound completely with chocolate, only spooning just enough to cover all around. The excess will pool around the bottom which is ok and is part of the look.

Allow the chocolate/ candy coating to set a little and then add 2 eyes for each ghost. (Note that chocolate will take longer to set than candy coating)

Repeat for remaining rounds making sure to leave enough room between each ghost for the chocolate/ candy melts to pool.

Once set you can gently lift off the parchment paper and they are ready to serve.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow cake pops for Saint Patricks Day

I was in the service station waiting to pay for petrol last year and I saw little bags of bubble gum 'nuggets of gold'.

Which I thought were pretty cute, so straight away my sweet obsessed mind started thinking about what I could make with them..........and then I remembered gum + kids = disaster. Shoot that shot down that idea I popped the gum back on the counter.

So I had already thought up these cake pops and I couldn't get the idea out of my mind and I really wanted that gold nugget gum and then luckily the next day I realised that candy nerds would work just as well if not better.

Such a win win situation cause then when I went to pick up the nerds I saw green ones and I realised that they would make great witch cauldron pops (which I posted here last year).


The actual dipping technique for the pops is one I came up with while writing my kids treat decorating book.
I know lots of people, kids especially, have trouble dipping the pops and getting a smooth finish so these ones are great.

Its the upside down method which is really easy and the chocolate pooling makes its own little cauldron shape. How great is that!

If the whole rainbow fondant think is a bit daunting just leave it off and you can still have awesome little pots of gold on a stick.

Pot 'o 'gold Rainbow cake pops

I recommend using the actual candy melt/ coating type of 'chocolate' for this pop (like Wilton) as it really does set much faster than regular chocolate and makes adhering the rainbows much easier.

1 batch cake or cookie pop mixture
Candy Coating (like Wilton candy melts) and copha or paramount crystals
Fondant (in rainbow colors)
sharp knife
cornflour/ cornstarch
small rolling pin
water and brush
lollipop sticks
Yellow nerds
*remember fondant dries very fast. Work quickly and when you are not using it make sure you keep it in air tight containers.

At least one day prior to making pops make the fondant rainbows.Dust a bench lightly with cornflour/ cornstarch roll out some purple fondant and using a sharpe knife (or cutter if you have one) cut out the shape of a rainbow half arc.

Roll out the remaining rainbow colors and cut into thin strips. Attach one strip of each color to the purple arc using a very small amount of water brushed on and then using the rolling pin gently press the colored fondant strips onto the base. Use a sharp knife to trim off any excess colored pieces to make a neat rainbow arc.

Make up a batch of cake pop mixture (that is mush up any cake with some buttercream frosting until moist but still firm). Yellow cake is a great choice for this pop and you may even like to add extra colour.

Line a tray with parchment paper. Roll the mixture between the palms of your hands. I like to weigh my mixture to make sure it is the same size but you can use a small icecream of melon scooper of around 3 tsp. Place each ball onto the parchment paper lined tray and pop into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Melt up a bag of dark chocolate chocolate melts/ candy coating (or black melts if you want). Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals - now is not the time to be delicate you need a stack - look at the picture about a ratio of 1:7 for the wilton brand to give an example (1 being the copha and 7 being the chocolate/candy melts)

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into the cake ball so the stick is upright like the picture. Pop into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so until the sticks are secure.


Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cake ball into the melted chocolate/candy coating lift it to allow a little to fall off so the edges are smooth and round and then push just the top back into the chocolate/candy coating and quickly put the pop with the stick still upright onto parchment paper lined tray.

Continue with the remaining pops and when you are finished carefully peel off the paper to leave the cauldron shaped pops.

Then using the back of a spoon or a knife, spread on a little bit more melted chocolate/candy coating onto the top/flat section of the cake pop and sprinkle yellow nerds onto the still wet chocolate/candy coating and place a rainbow on top (see picture for placement). You will need to hold the rainbow for 10 - 20 seconds until it is secure and can stand up on it's own.

For more great pop ideas check out my book Sweets on a Stick it has more than 150 kid friendly ideas for decorating and serving sweets on a stick and available online here:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Love is in the Air cake pops with cute birds and hearts for valentines day

I actually came up with the name for these cake pops first and then had to work out a design to match. ' Love is in the Air' cake pops sounded ever so sweet, and the original idea I had was to make the clouds with just some hearts. Sweet but simple.

So I made them up but then they weren't quite as sweet as I thought they would be. Maybe I should have made the hearts red - I'm not sure, but I wasn't feeling the love in the air, so I pulled out the 'ole backup plan.

Yup birds, you know they always make everything seem kinda cuter, it's like the bird squared cuteness rule or something ;)

Yeah I'm just making stuff up now, but you all get the idea. Bird is the word - if the word you want is cute.

and talking about cute :)  I had a lovely invitation from the Dollhouse Bake Shoppe to join in their Virtual Valentine Party and it seemed like such a fun idea that I am totally in and this is my contribution.

On the 5th of February the Dollhouse Bake Shop will be showcasing a round up of other blog contributions. Here is a link to the original post opening the Dollhouse doors.

 

By the way I have to apologise for the photo's of these pops (and also the Thought Bubble pops in a previous post). It was the 6th week of school holidays and I had 3 kids behind, in front and underneath me begging to eat the pops. I was desperate, I would have done anything for the few minutes silence that shoveling cake pops in their mouth would bring, so after a couple of photo's I let them take them all. Wasn't until later that I realised how bad the light was and as a result how blurry most of the shots were.

Pretty much the 3 photo's above are the only ones you can actually see anything in.

Oh well - that couple of minutes silence was worth it's weight in gold so I'm sure you all will forgive me.

Love is in the Air cake pops
It is best to start the decorations for these pops the day before to make it easier to handle the fondant decorations. The fondant decorations can be replaced with royal icing or premade - shop purchased decorations if you like.

Ingredients

cake pop mixture (any type)
lollipop sticks
white candy melts
fondant colored blue and pink - you will only need a small amount  about 1/2 the size of your fist.
Flower shaped fondant or cookie cutter (4cm (1 3/4inch) 
Heart shaped fondant cutter - approx 1.5cm (5/8 inch) in height
Tear drop shaped fondant cutter - approx 2cm (3/4 inch) in length
heart shaped sprinkles
edible pen

These are the fondant cutter sets I got my cutters from

1st Day make the heart and bird fondant decorations

Knead the pink fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use a heart shape fondant cutter to cut out hearts and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper. You don't have to but I like to pinch the bottoms of mine to go to the side, or you can leave then like normal hearts. Allow them to set overnight.

Knead the blue fondant and roll out on a corn flour (corn starch) dusted workbench with a small plastic rolling pin. Use the tear drop shaped fondant cutter to cut out shapes and then lay them on a tray lined with parchment paper.

Pinch the tail and pull it up to look like a bird and then quickly press a heart sprinkle into each tear shape (see picture for directions).

If you have worked quickly the sprinkle should stick to the fondant, however if you have taken too long the fondant may have dried out already. In that case you can use a little royal icing, edible glue or melted chocolate to attach the heart.

Use an edible pen to draw on a little black dot for an eye.

Leave to set overnight.

2nd Day make the cake pops

Holding the flower/blossom cutter between your thumb and pointer squish together to shape into a mini cloud.

Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter on top of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray.  Place tray in fridge to chill until firm

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals during the melting process until the mixture is very fluid (but not so much that it is watery). The mixture should be like thick cream.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray. Repeat for remaining clouds.

Place the tray back into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or until the sticks are secure.

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted, if needed remelt in the microwave. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Once set you can lay the cloud pops back down on a tray to work on. Using a toothpick take some of the melted candy coating and stick a bird and heart onto the front of each pop. Allow to set and then using an edible pen draw 2 small lines to look like a beak coming out of the blue bird shape (see pic below)

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

 and if your a bit of a fan of bird pops, check out my book Sweets on a Stick, there are instructions for cute bird cake pops and even cuter birdhouse pops.

here is the link to my book Sweets on a Stick it is a US Release however there is a conversion chart in the back to the book for metric.It's available from bookstores in the US and here online at:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Thought Bubble Cake Pops

I was making up a batch of cloud shaped cake pops the other day when I had a thought.

A thought about thought bubble cake pops. Hmmm I thought to myself that would be kinda cool.

So I made them up and they worked out great. Just like I thought they would.

Now after reading that repetitive story you can truly see how much thought goes into the treats I make :)

And you must excuse my messy 'thoughts' written onto the pops with edible markers. I might have mentioned this before but I am a really messy writer. I can pipe acceptable lines and swirls and other designs if need be, but if it comes to writing - scrawl city. It's always been the case, if you were ever to check out my school report certificates from when I was really young there was a long line of A's and Very Goods and then - next to hand writing a big Not Satisfactory.

Please don't judge me by my hand writing.

If you are a super neat writer and good at piping the words would be lovely piped with candy writers.

Thought Bubble cake pop instructions

1 batch cake pop mixture (click here for oreo pop recipe,mix up your own with cake and buttercream or see my book sweets on a stick for lots of cake pop mixture recipes)
white candy coating
paper lollipop sticks
black edible pen
small flower/blossom cookie or fondant cutter squashed into cloud shape
styrofoam block to hold the pops upright for setting

Holding the flower/blossom cutter between your thumb and pointer squish together to shape into a mini cloud.

Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter on top of the paper lined tray. Take a few teaspoons of the cake pop mixture and press it into the cloud cutter pressing down firmly until it is evenly packed in, turn it over to check that there are no gaps underneath. Use your fingers to gently press the mixture out of the cutter so it remains on the lined tray. Repeat until about 2/3rds of the mixture is used up.

With the remaining 1/3 mixture make up 2 small balls, one a little larger than the other (see picture for example). Those balls will be the bubbles leading up to the 'thought' cloud. Place the balls on the parchment lined tray.

Place tray in fridge to chill until firm.

Melt up a bag of white melts/ candy coating. Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals during the melting process until the mixture is very fluid (but not so much that it is watery). The mixture should be like thick cream.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into a cloud cake pop shape so the stick is sitting in the bottom side of the cloud and the stick is parallel to the tray (see picture above). Repeat for remaining clouds.

Follow the same dipping process for the small ball shaped using toothpicks in place of the lollipop sticks.

Place the tray back into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or until the sticks are secure.

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted, if needed remelt in the microwave. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cloud cake pop into the melted chocolate/candy coating. Lift it up and allow as much of the candy/chocolate mixture to fall off as possible. tap gently on the side of the bowl if necessary. Place upright in a stryofoam block to set.

Follow the same process for the small balls.

Remove the toothpicks from each ball by gently twisting the toothpick and pulling it out. 

Ensure that the candy coating is still melted and holding the larger ball by the sides dip the top into the candy coating and then press it onto the bottom left of the cloud pop. I dipped the side which has the toothpick hole. You can either hold the ball against the cloud shape until secure or place something foodsafe underneath the ball to hold it in place until it is set (I used small sets of metal fondant cutters I had sitting around - you can just use whatever works like scrunched or folded tin foil maybe).

Pop into the fridge until set.

Repeat for the smaller ball, dipping, attaching and waiting for it to set.

Then you can use an edible marker to write words on each pop.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

If you are in a humid area the pops may get condensation when you remove them from the fridge. Condensation will naturally evaporate away, however if you have pops with cream cheese or other ingredients which need to be kept cool, use a small piece of clean paper towel (absorbent paper) to wipe over the area you will be writing on.

 

.........................................................................................................

For more cake pop mixture recipes see my book Sweets on a Stick. It's a cookbook that includes recipes for all types of Sweets on a Stick, from pies to cakpops, cookies to fruit and candy - all on a stick. The recipes are kid friendly. It's a US release for measurements and ingredients although it does have a conversion table in the back for metric. Available here at Amazon:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Caramel Candy Oreo Pops - Valentines for Him (or Her or maybe just because)

Pretty as decorated cookies are for Valentines, some of us have someone special in our lives that like their something sweet to be a bit more substantial.

Like these caramel dipped, chocolate coated, Oreo truffles.

I came up with the idea while I was trialling Caramel Candy Apples for the book, cause you know dipping apples and pops is pretty much the same thing apart from the size. But as it turns out these are way more decadent. Waaaaay more decadent.

I like to think I have pretty good self control around sweet stuff, but when I took a bite out of one of the pops for the blog pictures I ate the whole thing without stopping to getting a single photo. The one in the picture is my second try, lucky I had a whole batch to work with.

For a little bit of crunch and texture I have added some rice krispies as well, although you could change those to chopped pecans or peanuts if you prefer.

If the weather is hot make sure you really ensure that the mixture has chilled between each step otherwise you'll end up with the pops swimming in your chocolate or caramel.

 If you do happen to lose your Oreo truffle don't stress, just grab a couple of forks and dig it out and pop it onto the parchment paper, it'll be just as yummy whether it's on a stick or not.

Caramel Candy Oreo Pops

Oreo Truffles (click here for recipe)
400g (around 14oz) soft caramels (I used Cadbury Pascall Milk Chocolate Caramels) I know they have chocolate on them but it worked out ok.
1 1/2 tbs cream (US 2 Tbsp heavy cream)
1 1/2 cups of rice bubbles (rice krispies) or substitute chopped nuts of your choice.
1 packet Chocolate Candy Melts (or Nestle Chocolate Melts) Plus copha or paramount crystals.
Lollipop sticks

Line a tray with parchment paper.

Shape Oreo Truffle mixture into rounds. Mine were 21grams (3/4 oz). Pop the truffles onto a parchment lined tray. At this stage I like to make a hole in the top of the truffle where the lollipop stick will sit in case the mixture chills too hard. See the picture for example.

Melt the Chocolate candy melts in a microwave safe bowl at medicum/low setting at bursts of 90 seconds. Add some copha or paramount crystals so the mixture is fluid but not too thin. Dip the ends of each lollipop stick into the melted chocolate candy melt and then insert the stick into the premade hole of each Oreo truffle. Repeat for each truffle and return to fridge to chill until set.

Line a new tray with parchment paper, spray the paper with a non stick edible spray - I used canola spray, what ever you have will be fine.

Unwrap the caramels, place in a microwave safe bowl and add 1 1/2 Tablespoons (2 US Tablesoons) cream. Melt the caramel in a microwave at high setting at bursts of 60 seconds until the mixture is bubbling and appears smooth with no lumps when you stir it.

WARNING the melted caramel mixture is super hot, be prepared to use oven gloves or a towel to handle the bowl and make sure you do not get any of the hot caramel mixture on yourself. This step is not suitable for children to undertake on their own.

Holding the end of the lollipop stick carefully dip each Oreo truffle pop into the caramel mixture ensuring the whole pop is covered. You can use a spoon if you like to cover the top near the lollipop stick, allow any excess mixture to drip off whilst still holding it over the bowl.

Then roll the pop in the bowl of rice bubbles (rice krispies) and then carefully place it on the oil sprayed parchment lined tray with the stick facing upwards. Repeat for all pops and then place the tray into the fridge to chill until firm.

Remelt the chocolate candy melts and holding the end of the lollipop stick dip each caramel coated Oreo truffle into the chocolate mixture. Allow excess chocolate to drip off and then return to the parchment tray with the stick once again upright.

Store in the fridge for 4 days in an airtight container. Remove from the fridge before serving to allow the truffles and caramel to soften a little to room temperature - but not too long if it's really hot.

I decorated my lollipop sticks with ribbon and hearts, and then ate way too many of them myself.

OK a bit of quick book news. There is a blog tour of the book happening at the moment with quite a few giveaway's included, so if you've been wanting to buy the book but haven't had a chance yet you might like to try out one of these sites. Pretty much most of them are for US and/or Canadian residents only sorry everyone from other countries :)

If you miss out you could always pick up a copy yourself here at Amazon

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Here are the dates and sites for the Book Blog tour happening right now.........

1/9/12 – Moogie and Pap blog,Review
1/10/12  Still Blonde after all these YEARS Review/Giveaway

1/11/12  Random Cravings Blog Review with recipe/Q&A

1/11/12  Katy and Kid Review/Giveaway

1/12/12 Giveaway Blogs, Review/Giveaway

1/13/12 Consumer Queen, Giveaway

1/14/12 Confessions of an Over-worked Mom Review/Giveaway

1/15/12  Mommy Pants blog Review/Giveaway

1/17/12  Mom Vs. the Boys Blog Review/Giveaway

1/19/12  Mommy’s Free Time blog Review

Christmas Tree Cake pop - Yup double sided cake pops

 Double sided Christmas cake pops.

Yes this solves that age old dilema of what to serve your cake pops in, no running around trying to find the right size Styrofoam block, these pops hold themselves up.

All jokes aside these pops do stand up by themselves as long as you manage to set them to dry on a parchment paper lined tray before the candy coating has dried so they set flat. Also you need to make sure that the bottom pop is a bit bigger than the top pop to weigh it down, and finally as you can not hold onto the stick you need to make sure the coating is the type that sets hard like regular Wilton melts and other types of candy coating that I usually suggest for cake pops. I just know sometime people like the taste of regular chocolate better but in this instance y'all will end up with sticky fingers.

These little trees are decorated with candy writers (melted candy coating in a tube), green sanding sugar, pink sugar pearls and pink sugar sprinkles (for the star topper).

I cut regular 6" sticks in half so that makes the sticks 3" (of course, I know you can work it out I just couldn't help myself).

So anyway time is running out to get a copy of Sweets on a Stick in time for Christmas, you all know I like to be helpful so here are a couple of links to a couple of the online shops:

It's available here at Amazon.



Or the book depository (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)



and I noticed that the publishing house has it for a really great price (HERE) as well.