Grisly Ghastly Halloween skulls

 I had so many ideas for Halloween this idea that I just did not get around to making so with 1 day to go I decided to do up a grisly batch of cake pops.

There are already a stack of skull pops around the blogiverse which are generally white with the eyes, nose and teeth drawn on with edible pen. They are pretty cute and cool, but I wanted mine to look a little bit more frightful.

You know that gritty, ghoulish just dug up dirty look so I decided to try out something new and dip the pops and then brush a different color on the top,

Did I succeed in making them look like old decaying skulls. I'm not sure whether they do look like skulls, maybe some kind of Zombie, wolfman, skull hybrid....what do you think?

Oh and this one here kinda looks like the terminator...

I said kinda :)

Whatever you think they look like, they are suitably ghastly for a Halloween display.

Here I am mixing up the bloody body parts....or maybe it's just cookie truffle pops. Either way it looks kinda gruesome.

And a bit of a hint if you can get your hands on actual Black Melts instead of having to colour your own with oil based chocolate colour I say do it. I would say mixing in powdered color to the candy melts my least fav part of the whole process.

Ghastly Skull Cake Pops

Cake pop or Cookie Truffle mix ready to shape - if it's red even better.....
lollipop sticks
Black candy melts (or dark chocolate colored black with special oil based color) mixed with copha or paramount crystals
White candy melts
Marshmallows
Black edible pen
Ready made edible eyes
clean food safe brush

Shape the mixture into little skulls by making ovals and then pressing the bottom in a little smaller and making indents for the eye cavity and mouth.

Place the cake pop mixture skulls onto a parchment lined tray and chill in the fridge until firm.

Melt the black candy melts and the paramount crystals/copha, at medium low heat in the microwave at bursts of 60 - 90 seconds. The mixture should be quite fluid so make sure you add enough copha/paramount crystals (about 1:7 ration 1 being the candy melts - it changes with brands and even colors so see what works). Dip one end of the lollipop stick into the melted black candy melts and insert into the bottom of the skull - where the neck would be and lay back down onto the parchment lined tray. When all the skulls have lollipop sticks inserted return them to the fridge to chill until set.

Once the sticks are secure in the skulls remove them from the fridge. Check that the candy melts are still fluid and if not reheat in the microwave at medium low. Dip the whole skull into the black candy melts and remove, holding the skull upside down to allow excess to drip off and then pop the skull upright into styrofoam block to set. Repeat for remaining skulls.

Melt the white candy melts in the microwave at medium low heat at short bursts. Using a food safe brush brush the white candy over the black dipped skulls starting at the nose area and working your way out. Repeat for all skulls.

Take the edible eyes and using some of the extra melted white candy stick them into the eye sockets.

Using food safe scissors (that is scissors you only use for food purposes) cut up small pieces of marshmallow to fit into the mouth cavity. Using extra white candy melt stick the marshmallow mouth into the skulls mouth cavity and then use the edible black pen to draw on teeth.

If you like you can leave the skulls without the marshmallow mouths or edible eyes and they still look kinda cool.

Have a Happy Halloween Xx

I have a few Halloween recipes in my book Sweets on a Stick which is being released in just over a month in the US. As it is a book for decorating with kids most of the ideas are a little bit more simple than this, but they are great fun, plus I have a made from scratch recipe for red velvet cake pops which are the perfect pop to make your finished treats look extra gruesome. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.

Double Trouble Witch brew cauldron cake pops for Halloween

Double Double toil and Trouble,
Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble......

I brewed up some witchy cauldron cake pops today for the kids in readiness for Halloween.

I know some of you have trouble dipping the pops and getting a smooth finish so these ones are specially for you. Its the upside down method which is really easy and the chocolate pooling makes its own little cauldron shape. How great is that!

Double Trouble Witch Brew Cauldron Cake Pops

Make up a batch of cake balls (these ones are white tim tam cookie truffles coloured with green gel food colour) there is green velvet cake pop version in my cook book coming out in just over a month.

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 wonka nerds onto the still wet chocolate/candy coating.

 I used green as it seemed witchy, but you could use purple, orange or any colour you like.

Allow to set (no cooling with baboon's blood required) and then the pop will be firm and good.....

I used this easy upside down technique to make some other super easy and cute pops in my kids cook book.  If you looking for lots of fun kid friendly recipes here is the link to my book:


Book Depository: Sweets on a Stick

Fishpond: Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Silhouette Bird Halloween Cookies Square of course

I like Halloween.

Apparently it used to be widely celebrated here in Australia before the Depression and then fell out of favor. Well that's what I read in one of the local popular magazines......if it's in a magazine it must be true right?

Um right............Anyway Halloween Love it!

and if the local shops are anything to go by it's coming back into fashion here. Is that a bad thing, I'm not sure? For me the chance for the kids to dress up, interact with the neighbours and eat sweets.......as long as it's supervised and once a year I'm totally ok with that. We don't actually indulge in the tricks if there are no treats so hopefully it's not too great a burden on the neighbours.

Plus Halloween cookies are pretty cool.

These ones are Chocolate cookies made using a square ruffle edge cookie cutter from my d-line set - I picked mine up at Kitchnwear Plus. But you could use a round cutter if you don't have a square cutter or if your not really into square cookies.

Although I really couldn't imagine anyone not being into square cookies, so just if you don't have the cutter on hand I guess. A circle would pretty much work just as well.

and I also made some  matching cookies in a floral pattern with a kinda cute striped flower.

Bird Silhouette Halloween cookies Ingredients and equipment

Square Cookies
Square cookie cuter
Orange Ready Roll Fondant
Black Ready Roll Fondant (I used chocolate fondant colored black with some Americolor super black)
Small rolling pin
PME Robin (bird) butter small
Carnation cutter
Black Royal Icing in a piping bag with a small round tip (eg #2)
brush and water
sharp knife

Roll out some orange fondant (marshmallow or shop bought) on a workbench lightly dusted with cornflour (corn starch) and cut out a square using a cutter a little smaller than cookie. Brush the cookie lightly with water using a clean brush and adhere the fondant to the cookie, using the rolling pin to lightly press it down.

Roll out some black fondant onto a workbench, you can dust it lightly with a bit of cornflour (It's what I use) but if you find that it shows up white on your fondant you can grease the workbench lightly with some crisco or a spay of vegetable or rice bran oil, just a bit. Cut out the bird shapes and carnation shapes then roll out thin pieces of black fondant with your finger tips to make long ropes that you can shape into the branches.# Look at the cookie to see an example of how you can shape the branch and where to place it. You should be able to press the branches directly on the orange fondant without water but if you have used the oil they may not stick. If necessary use a very teensy small amount of water, the brush should nearly be dry otherwise the black will run.

Once the branches are in place adhere a bird so it is sitting on top of the branch and then trim the carnation either using the cookie cutter or a shape knife so it sits in the corner.

Then pipe black dots of royal icing around the edge of the cookie to finish off.

#If you like you can use the black royal icing and pipe branches instead of using the rolled fondant.

Oh and I have noticed that over on Amazon you can peek into a PREVIEW of the first few pages on my book plus the index. Also the cover of the book is different if you pop into the preview and shows up a few different treats in the book.

Vampire Cake Pop Redux

Remember these vampire mouth cake pops I made last year inspired by True Blood........


well it's coming up to Halloween again and although I know any time is a good time for vampire cake pops I have had lots of questions on how to make them recently so here is bit of a better explanation of what I did.

Although sorry still the same mildly blurry over exposed photo's I used the last time :)

I made these from tim tam cookie truffles, or you could use oreo truffles (recipe at the bottom). I find that the consistency of the cookie truffles makes shaped pops a little bit easier, plus it is way quicker.

Shape the cookie truffle mixture into a mouth shape, I made an oval, flattened it down and pinched out the edges with my fingertips, then made a little lip/bow at the top. Pop your mouth shaped cookie truffles onto a parchment lined tray, grab a lollipop stick and make a hole in the bottom of each mouth (see the picture for a guide as to where you will be sticking the lollipop stick), remove the lollipop stick, repeat for the remaining mouths.Stick the tray into the fridge to chill.

Now for the purposes of this post I am going to be calling the chocolate coating 'candy coating' as that is what I buy. You can get compound chocolate melts (nestle brand) from the supermarket in Australian or other types from cake and hobby stores but I use the US candy coating/melts as they are already colored and set well on the pops. In Australia you can get candy melts from Spotlight and specialty cake stores, or online from Cakes Around Town who sell Merckens red candy coating and Baking Pleasures who sell red Wilton Candy Melts.

Melt some red candy coating (melts) in the microwave on medium low heat. Do not be tempted to melt at higher temperatures as you will burn the candy coating. If you like you can add some extra red to make it a deeper color but make sure you use special oil based color or the candy will be ruined (chocolate much like witches is destroyed by water in most instances). Melt the candy coating with some paramount crystals or copha until it is smooth. I use quite a lot of the copha, up to 1 part copha to 7 parts candy coating if I'm using Wilton, different brands will require different amounts of copha or paramount crystals, add it gradually to see what works best, the candy melts should not be thick the mixture should flow easily, kinda like this picture.

Yup I know this is blue and not a mouth it's just an idea of how your candy coating should look

Take lollipop sticks and holding one end dip the other into your melted candy coating and then insert the lollipop stick into the hole you have already made in each mouth. Repeat for remaining mouths and return to the fridge to chill for another 10 minutes.

Make sure the red candy coating is still melted sufficiently, remove the cookie truffle mouths from the fridge and holding the end of the lollipop stick dip each one into the candy coating, submerging the whole truffle and then lift out, tap gently to remove excess candy coating, and allow to set upright. I use large squares of styrofoam covered in glad wrap.

Once the mouths are set you can decorate, I lay mine back down flat on the tray to do this. I used ready rolled fondant (plastic icing) which you can get from specialty cake stores, grocery stores (in Australia) or hobby stores (in the US). Color some black and leave the rest white. Use your fingers to shape the black opening to the mouth and press onto the mouth cookie truffle pops, mine stuck without anything extra but if you have trouble adhering it try using a little royal icing or edible glue.

Shape the white fondant into teeth making four smaller front teeth and then two larger vampire canine type teeth for the edge. Adhere the teeth to the black mouth using a really teensy amount of water (really just a tiny amount of the black will smudge everywhere) and press on lightly.

Allow to set and serve.

The red drops of blood in the top picture are just more ready rolled fondant colored red and shaped into blood droplets.

Oh and Not Quite Nigella made a fun version of these last year for her Halloween party based on my original post - I love the photo where she is holding them up - so fun.


Oreo Cookie Pops

Note for US conversion, for the Oreo's just add half the amount of cream cheese to what ever size packet oreo's you get. So if you have a 16oz package of Oreos add 8oz cream cheese which will make around 23 or 24 Oreo truffles.

300g Oreo Cookies
150g Cream Cheese at room temp

Crush Oreo cookies finely in a food processor add cream cheese and process until the mixture clumps together. Shape mixture into a ball for traditional pops or follow the directions above for vampire pops.

Oh and for lots more fun ideas for sweets on a stick, check out my book being released in the US in December:

Halloween dress up paper doll cookies

Ghost and Witch Sophie Dolls 

Just a bit of fun I had with the left over doll cookies from Sophie's paper doll party.

Pumpkin Sophie Doll Dress up cookie

I thought it would be cute to dress them up for Halloween...

Oh and this last one is supposed to be Lady Gaga, pretty much I just left the doll in it's underwear and stuck on a ruffle, glove, mask and boots. I'm sure the real costume had a lot more to it (hehe).

Sophie is so totally NOT wearing a costume like this out :) But I'm cool with cookie Sophie wearing it.

See my previous post on how to make the Dress Up Doll cookies. I just hand cut all the Halloween costumes.

Halloween Vampire Cake pops, you'll be team cake pop after this

Vampires and cake pops seem to be big at the moment so I thought as a Halloween treat I'd combine them and I came up with these Vampire bite cake pops.

One bite from these and you'll definitely be team cake pop like me.

Now I'll have to admit here that I don't actually follow Twilight or a lot of the vampire stuff around at the moment, not because I don't like it I just never have a lot of time to read books or watch TV.

But.......I have managed to read the Sookie Stackhouse novels (True Blood) and I'm totally Team Eric, well book Team Eric all the way.

I'm not really sure why I thought y'all might like to know that, but maybe it's an insight into how I came up with these cake pops, they were inspired by the cover of the dvd box set.

I know your thinking that's just not normal. I see food everywhere, what can I say.



These pops are chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream inside and raspberry flavour chocolate outside, the teeth were made by hand.

I shaped the cake mixture into lip shapes, popped them into the fridge to set, inserted the sticks/pops with some melted chocolate, back into the fridge and then dipped them into some red chocolate flavoured with raspberry. After they were set I added the decorations with ready rolled fondant.