Little Shop of Cake Pop Horrors & Meeting Bakerella

Yay, I finally get to tell you about my little Halloween project.  I was invited to Foodbuzz headquarters to bring Halloween themed cake pops for a little contest with Bakerella.  How could I pass up an opportunity like that?

After I said yes, I quickly realized I had never made cake pops before and panic starting setting in. Not only was I a pop newbie, but the "Queen of Cake Pops" would be judging me.  I spent a couple hours on her site reading all her tips.  I realized there just might be a little bit more to these cute pops than I thought.

My first batch fell off the sticks when I went to dip them, oops.  Second batch, I had issues getting the melts the right consistency.  I guess it's true that the third time is a charm, because these ones I felt were worthy of setting before the "Queen of Cake Pops".

I was joined by some fellow Bay Area bloggers and got to see their wonderful creations, Eat, Live, Run, Bonnibella, and Eat, Drink and Just Be!  All fantastic writers and fellow pop stars too.  The Federated Media staff made some amazing ones too.

"Three Blind Mice, the Queen cut off their tails with a Bloody Butcher Knife."

My secret weapon for these came from Sarah-Jane of Silicone Moulds, I won a giveaway she was having a couple of weeks ago.  This mould worked perfectly for my evil intentions.  Pack a small amount of the cake pop mixture into the mice and refrigerate until hard, and then turn the mould inside out to release.  Thank you again for the moulds, cookbook and thermometer you sent, I have a few other ideas for using them.

"This is what happens when you criticize your wife's meatloaf."  

The knives are pretty scary, huh?  They are made from miniature Swedish fish and cut to the shape of a knife and sprayed with Duff's silver food color spray and the handle is painted with black gel paste food color using a small brush.  I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of these left to use, they kept disappearing off my counter.  To make inserting the knife easier after dipping the cake ball in the candy coating, use a lollipop stick and poke a 1/2" deep hole into the uncoated cake ball where you would like the knife to go.

I used Red Velvet Cake and cream cheese icing on the inside of the darker colored ones.  I found it works better if you use white cake for the lighter color candy melts, so I used a vanilla-orange cake inside of the white ones.  All you do is add enough frosting to the cake to moisten it and so that it loosely sticks together, then you can shape it from there.

I used Wilton candy melts, thinned with a little bit of vegetable oil to get a smoother coating.

My friend Jennifer suggested I make Devils, I think these ended up looking a bit angelic though.

These were molded by hand, sugar google eyes were added on after the coating was set and additional melted candy coating was piped on.  For adding extra shape to the pops, make a round ball then take little bits of the cake mixture and add it on where you want projection.

"I thought the sign said Barber, not Butcher!"

Start with a round cake ball, dip it in white candy coating and let firm up.  Melt pink candy coating and place in a piping bag, draw a circle around the middle top third and then fill in messily with the pink.  When dry, glue on eyes, mouth (confetti sprinkle) and small candy nose.  Food color markers were used for the veins, but I wasn't having much luck with the markers.  Angie gave me a good tip I will try next time, I think I was pressing too hard.

How to glue:  Use a toothpick and dip it in melted candy coating and add it to the back of whatever you want to attach and hold it in place for a few seconds.

For piping:  I used a disposable piping bag and cut the smallest amount possible off the end.

"Happy Hellraising!"

Start with a round pop and break angel hair pasta noodles into 1/4" lengths and insert into face of pop. Dip whole thing in white candy melts.  Once set, attach eyes (sprinkles), draw face with black food color marker and spray with Duff silver food color spray and hopefully scare all the kids on the block.

To display the my winning (hint, hint) cake pops, cut a piece of styrofoam to fit snugly into a container, cut a rough shape of black fabric and tuck it inside to cover the foam.  All you have to do is put the cake pops in and you have a really cute display.  The count's coffin was purchased at the craft store too.

The FMer's winning cake pops, are these too cute for words or what?  They were all so cute, I bet it was a hard decision for Angie to make.

Angie, her Mom, the other bloggers and FM staff were so delightful, I just want to say thank you to them for the experience.  

Enjoy,

Gina