How To... Make Halloween Skull Cake Pops (Guest Post) - Red Ted Art

Welcome to this week’s How to make Halloween Skull Cake Pops! Brought to you by the lovely Ruth From The Pink Whisk.. where you will find baking, recipe and tutorials. I have to say, DON’T go and visit Ruth.. if you visit The Pink Whisk… you will never leave again, or at least not in the dress size you first started out in! You will bake cakes and macaroons and tarts and cake pops all day long… Unsurprisingly, it is one of The Independent’s Top 50 best food sites. So if you are looking for inspiration.. look no further!

Today, Ruth shares her Skull Cake Pops. PERFECT for Halloween or a Pirate party!

You will need:

Cake 300g (ish) for this you can use up excess fairy cakes, the domes trimmed from larger cakes or you can bake up a cake specially. The darkness from chocolate cake works really well against the white chocolate coating
Choc Cake Recipe follow the method here with the following quantities

45g butter
80g caster sugar
1 egg, large
20g self-raising flour
60g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70ml milk mixed with 1 tsp malt vinegar

(Bake at 160c (fan)/180c/GM4 in an 8? square tin for 40-45 minutes)
Chocolate Buttercream

100g butter softened, beaten with 200g icing sugar and 50g melted dark chocolate
Lollipop sticks – Available on Amazon or in Hobbycraft

300g white chocolate for coating
Royal Icing coloured black(gel paste colours are the easiest way to colour icing and sugarpaste a really vibrant colour without changing the consistency – click on the link for the individual colours by Sugarflair on Amazon)

Here’s how…

Crumble the cake into a bowl using your fingertips – you’re aiming for small crumbs.

Add the buttercream and mix it to a fairly dry paste like mixture.

Take a small quantity of the mixture and roll it into a ball between your hands –around 1 1/2” in diameter. Taper one end of the ball to create the skull shape.

Using the rounded end of a wooden spoon indent two eye sockets into each skull.

Line them all up on a baking tray. If you get bored of shaping or decide you have enough you can freeze the rest of the cake pop mixture until the next time you want to make some. These quantities make approx. 24 cake pops.
Place them in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

Melt the white chocolate either in a dedicated chocolate melter or in a small deep bowl in short 30 second bursts in the microwave.

Take a stick and dip the end into the melted chocolate, push this into the base of the cake ball. The stick should go about ¾’s of the way into the skull.

Set it back onto the tray and repeat until all the skulls are on the sticks.

To make a cake pop stand – use an empty egg tray, punch holes through the tall spiky bits to post the cake pop sticks into. Punching the holes initially with a skewer is much easier than trying to do it with a lolly stick. If you buy your eggs from a farm shop or the like they will usually let you have a tray or two! Alternatively you could use a piece of polystyrene to hold them upright.

Take each pop in turn and dip it into the melted chocolate. Twirl the cake pop around as you take it out allowing the excess chocolate to drip away. This does take a bit of patience but it is worth taking your time.

Once the excess has dripped away place the cake pop into your stand to set.

When all the skulls are coated allow the chocolate to set and dry – room temperature is best.

Mix up a batch of royal icing – follow the directions on the box but go sparingly with the water, you need the royal icing thick enough to pipe and stay in shape.
Colour the royal icing using a little black gel paste colouring and use to fill a piping bag. Sugarflair black extra gel paste colour.

Pipe in the eyes, nose and finally the mouth.

Allow the icing to set and then your skull pops are ready to serve!

Cake pops will keep for three days at room temp or upto a week in the fridge. Make sure they are in an airtight container before going in the fridge otherwise they will sweat when you take them out.