Happy Rainbow cloud cake pops

OK - I'm just gonna say it - these are pretty much the cutest pops I have made.

Rainbows + clouds with smiley faces = too cute for words....well I think so anyway.

Actually come to think of it they also look super cute without any faces as well - so I guess maybe edible+cloud+rainbows X on a stick = cute.
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And you know what would be even cuter, it's ok I've stopped with the weird maths.

But there would be even more cuteness if they were rainbow inside. I didn't think of it for these trial ones, they are just white tim tam truffle cookie pops. But after I remembered I have a receipe in my book for a type of fun-fetti multi colored sprinkle cake pop which would look totally and completely rainbowlicious awesome.

 This cloud pop is not so happy, in fact he looks downright sad. 

This must be how rain happens :(

Oh and best news ever, my publisher just told me that they have received copies of the book, that it looks great and next week in will be in the warehouse and a few will be sent to me. Then they will be sending them out from the warehouse to the distributors and then I kinda lost track of what happens in the excitement........ but it should be out in the stores in the US and online in around a month..



I know YAY!

These particular pops are not in the book. But I use this technique in the instruction of stacks of other cute shaped pops.

OK I have to interrupt now before the instructions (and not to let everyone know that the above statement may or may not be true in regards to how rain occurs). Have you ever noticed how most of the pops in the blog pictures are Tim Tam or Oreo truffle pops - no you haven't - well I feel like I have to explain cause in real life I do make other types of cake pops, I promise.

The cookie ones are just faster - when I come up with a new cake pop idea I want to make it NOW - so I have packets of biscuits and cookies sitting around ready to go at any time. You know for cake pop decorating emergencies, it happens all the time around here.

Happy Rainbow cloud cake pops

You will need to make the fondant rainbows at least one day ahead to allow time to set. Alternatively you can leave the rainbows off and just have cloud pops.

1 batch cake or cookie pop mixture
Candy Coating (like Wilton candy melts) and copha or paramount crystals
Fondant (in rainbow colors)
Edible black pen
pink edible petal dust and brush
sharp knife
cornflour/ cornstarch
small rolling pin
water and brush
lollipop sticks
small cloud cutter (you can make a cloud cutter by taking a tin blossom (flower) cutter and squeezing the top on bottom together a little)

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.

Day 2
Line a tray with parchment paper and place the cloud cutter ontop 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 with the remaining mixture.

Place 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 - now is not the time to be stingy you need a stack 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 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). Repeat for remaining clouds and then pop into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so until the sticks are secure.

Line a fresh tray with parchment paper and place the fondant rainbows on the tray with the rainbow side facing up.

Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted. 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. Before the chocolate/candy coating has a chance to set place it ontop of one of the rainbows on the tray  so that the rainbow arc is sticking out the side (see picture). Repeat with remaining mixture and allow to set still laying down on the tray.

Once set use the edible pen to carefully draw on a cute face. If you have pink petal dust you can use a brush to brush tiny little pink circles for the cheeks. Use a dry brush to wipe away any excess dust.

Updates

I used Wilton White Candy Melts for these pops
The edible pens are available in Australia at Cakes around Town and Baking Pleasures online (and lots of other places) I prefer Americolor brand
Recipe for Tim Tam pop here:http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/2010/11/lolli-cake-pops-tutorial-and-cake-pop.html
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Eyes without a face.... Make your own Royal Icing Edible Eyes

 
When ever I make cookies I always end up with left over Royal Icing.

If it's white or pink or some other normal colour I don't mind. I know it's wasteful, I usually throw it away. But I seem to have some kind of huge problem throwing away perfectly good black royal icing.

Maybe it's all the black food color that makes it seem so hard to do, I don't know why all I know is I really really want to use up all that extra black icing.

So here is one of the things I do.

Rows and rows and rows......and rows of edible eyes.

It's pretty easy, just lay down some baking paper/parchment paper. Pipe on rows of little white dots around the size you might like the eyes to be. I like to make mine a few different sizes.

Allow the white dots to dry, overnight is perfect, but at least for a couple of hours until set, and then pipe little black dots on top of the white royal icing dots.

Voila edible eyes

Let them set until the easily come off the paper - you should be able to lift it and shake it and they will move by themselves.

Then you can just store them in a container to use as needed.

If you use powdered egg whites and you made them hygienically these eyes should last in an air tight container for many months.

and what do I do with all those eyes you might ask. Well they sure came in handy when I was testing out ideas for Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!. Yes these eyes are perfect for all types of cake, cookie or pie pops. Whenever you need a cute little face you'll be thankful that you have these little eyes sitting around handy.

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.