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.

Build a Boat - sail boat and pirate ship cookies for Kids to decorate themselves

Build a boat cookies with edible fondant cut outs like a jigsaw that the kids can decorate themselves.They are so simple to make. If you can roll out fondant and use a cookie cutter pretty much you'll have these down pat.

My just turned 3 year old completely decorated this cookie below on his own. OK, granted that's not the normal spot for an anchor or flag, but I'm no ship building engineer so perhaps this design would totally work in real life ;)

Look how serious he is about it. He had already watched the girls make their cookies so he knew exactly what was going on.

and don't even think about trying to help him squeeze out the icing.

Yup all on his own and so proud of it - I think it made the cookie taste even better to him.

These boats were the cookies I made for the boys to decorate at Sophie's birthday party. In case you didn't see the previous post the girls got cookie paper dolls with edible fondant clothing so they could dress up the dolls for real.

Instructions

Make the fondant 'build a boat' pieces a couple of days in advance to allow time to set hard so that it will be easy for the kids to pick up.Roll out the fondant on a workbench dusted with cornflour (cornstarch), until a couple of millimeters (1/8") thick.

 Use the boat cookie cutter to cut out a boat shape and then use a sharp knife to cut out sails and the boat hull so you end up with 3 pieces. I used my knife to draw a couple of shallow lines in the hull to look like wood and then a toothpick to pop in some nail marks.

Once you have the sails and hull sorted you can cut some triangles from the fondant offcuts to make little flags. Place fondant boat pieces on a tray covered with parchment paper to set for at least one day or more if the weather is humid.

I also made some little boat decorations by hand, I shaped some yellow fondant to make little anchors by pinching the fondant into shape and some life buoys by rolling white and red fondant together and shaping it into a little O.

To make the pirate flag I cut out a rectangle and shaped little teensy skull and crossbones.....but while I was doing it I was thinking it might be easier to cut out a white flag and draw a black skull and crossbones on with edible pen.

Once you have the fondant boat pieces ready and they have set for a day or so bake up a batch of boat cookies and allow to cool.

Mix up some royal icing and put into piping bags or ziplock bags with a tiny hole cut from the corner.

and then finally allow kids to squeeze royal icing onto the cookie boat and then stick on boat sections to decorate as they like.

We also added some blue and white sugar confetti to the boat hulls in some to look like little portholes.

- if you haven't already seen the pics you must have a look at the paper doll dress up cookies I created for the girls they were a huge hit. Click Here for the link.