Spooky Halloween Cake Pops

I like to pride myself on my ability to roll with the punches in the kitchen. There is usually a window of opportunity where I can make something turn from a huge disaster to something delicious.


But sometimes even I miss that window. Or I didn't know there was a window -- so I just keep on trucking and at the end realize I have a huge disaster on my hands. In this case I had a huge cake sized/flavoured gummy bear. Which I am sure you are aware was not the intention!

I do not do well with mistakes, friends! I ruminate. Ohhh boy do I ruminate! So I did lots of research on what would have went wrong. The problem with making your own recipes is -- it's hard to tell! I could have went wrong almost anywhere and I had no idea what to do. Not to mention I have three huge barriers to baking a proper cake: no gluten, no refined sugar and no butter!


THOSE ARE THE THREE MOST CRUCIAL THINGS TO MAKE CAKE!!!!!!!



So like the type-A perfectionist that I am, I complained and stressed and paced and then....fell asleep. And when I woke up the cake recipe had worked itself out in my head and I finally had a CAKE! A proper CAKE! A big fluffy beautiful vanilla flavoured cake! That is, of course, coloured a gruesome green ;)

This was really important to me because I wanted a recipe I could rely on that was not my protein cakes (which you can find here!). Those are delicious, of course, but sometimes I just want a simple cake -- not everyone has or wants the protein in there and it can be tricky to work with protein. I just wanted something that everyone could make! When I took this cake out of the oven today all I could think of was ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! DING DING DING DING DING!

I cannot really describe to you what happened the first few times around -- but it was more or less a flat, gummy/play-dough textured chewy pancake gummy bear round thing. Honestly, that is the best way to describe what happened. I realized that I had to adjust my flour amount, oil amount, liquid amount, pan size....pretty much everything! When I went to make the crumbs for the cake pops I literally COULD NOT break the cake apart. It was so sad.


Anyways enough about my troubles and onto CAKE POPS! I know the instructions are long so I hope with pictures and instructions it will help. Also note that YouTube is  a GREAT resource for technique so if you type cake pops in the videos will help all this make sense.

I LOVE CAKE POPS! I just love how cute and detailed they are. Also they are delicious. Did you know the concept was invented by this wonderful lady at Bakerella? Her site and books are honestly the cutest things I have ever seen.

So well I am nowhere near her talent levels -- I wanted a gluten free cake pop that could be enjoyed on Halloween! And I used some of the usual suspects: mummies and black cats! And monsters for good measure. But you can do any design and shape you want! Or just make round ones. The world is your cake pop!

So let's get to talking about this recipe, shall we? After all... that is the culmination of all my cake fails. And speaking of CAKE...this is the best cake I have ever made. Even if you don't want to make cake pops the cake itself is DELICIOUS! And that's the most important part, after all!

Spooky Halloween Cake Pops

Yields 22- 24 Cake Pops

Gluten Free

Ingredients:

For 1 9-inch Round Cake

• 2 cups gluten free flour blend (1/2 cup each of tapioca flour, oat flour, coconut flour and rice flour) 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup greek yogurt or non-dairy yogurt 
• 3 large eggs, flax eggs or egg replacer equivalent
• 1/2 cup liquid sweetener of choice
• 1/2 cup almond 'buttermilk'* 
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar or organic cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon green gel food colouring (or colour of choice) 

*To make almond 'buttermilk' simple add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to a 1/2 cup measure and fill the rest with almond milk. Allow to set for a few minutes before using

For Frosting

• 1/2 cup cream cheese or vegan cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons Truvia or sweetener of choice

For Cake Pops:

• Lollipop sticks (of desired height)
• 1 cup each candy melts/candy wafers* of black, white and third colour of choice 
• Additional decorative candies of choice (chocolates, Halloween candies, coloured coconut, sprinkles etc) 
• Food markers and food colouring to 'paint' designs 

* Candy melts are definitely on the 'white chocolate' end of the chocolate spectrum. In fact they aren't real chocolate which is why they are called candy melts! They melt and set much easier than regular chocolate and don't need to be tempered like normal chocolate does - I talk about that here. If you wanted to make your cake pops healthier (the cake is healthy after all!) then you can just use dark chocolate but if you don't temper the chocolate it won't set quickly and will melt easily! It does limit your designs but you can be creative! Make black cats, werewolves, monsters, etc. all with dark chocolate instead!* 

Directions:

For Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 9-inch baking pan 
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda and baking powder
3. In a large bowl combine the rest of ingredients and blend fully
4. Gently mix your dry mixture into your wet until mixture comes together 
5. Pour into baking pan and smooth as evenly as possible
6. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean 

For Frosting

1. In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and blend until smooth
2. If mixture separates keep mixing until it eventually comes together
3. Refrigerate for 10 - 15 minutes to thicken (but not too long or the icing will harden due to the coconut oil) 
4. Once cool, set aside until cake has cooled and you are ready to make cake pops 

Assembly:

1. Allow your cake to fully cool before beginning 
2. Begin by 'crumbing' your cake either by mashing it with your fingers or rubbing pieces of cake together to make crumbs
3. Combine your frosting and cake crumbs until they form a large dough ball
4. Using your hands, take 1-2 tablespoons of your mixture and form desired shapes: for mummies: round balls, for the monsters: square balls, for the cat: slightly oval balls
5. Once complete set all your formed balls onto a sheet lined with wax paper and into the fridge or freezer to cool for 30 minutes to an hour
6. Melt your coloured chocolates/candy melts in the microwave in a microwave safe cup or bowl in 30 second increments, one at a time until fully melted
7. Use 1 teaspoon of coconut oil or shortening to each cup/bowl to make it smoother and easier to dip
8. Once all your chocolates are melted and you are ready to decorate, one at a time, dip your lollipop stick about 1 centimeter or so into the chocolate colour that corresponds to the cake pop you are making and dip the stick into the cake pop
9. Allow these to set to the side until chocolate is firm
10. Once all your pops are ready to go, one at a time dip them into the chocolate, gently moving them back and forth until coated and tapping off the excess
11. For the monster cake pops you can roll them in coloured sugar or sprinkles while they are still wet 
12. For the black cat cake pops you make pinch the tops of the cake pop before dipping to create ears or stick on two chocolate chips for the ears and 'glue' them on with a dab of melted chocolate 
13. For the mummy cake pops: dip them as normal and once dry use a small bag to pipe on the bandages 
14. To dry, stick cake pops into a foam block or in a cup where it can stand up to dry (I manufacture my own stand with pieces of foam or cardboard I find around the house) 
15. Repeat this for all your cake pops and re-heat chocolate if necessary 
16. For finishing touches you can paint or draw on details with edible ink and glue on any other decorations using a touch of melted chocolate to stick on the details
17. Allow to cool standing up before serving or packaging 

If that didn't make sense, hopefully these pictures will help!





After I mixed everything together I made my shapes and stuck them in the fridge:

I put all my chocolate in large mugs so I could dip more easily. I microwaved in 30 second increments until it was melted and then added a small amount of coconut oil to help it flow more smoothly.

I dipped each stick, one at a time into the appropriate colour and then 3/4 of the way into the cake pop and let them dry fully.

I then dipped all the cake pops, decorating them as I went and popping them in my make shift foam stand!




For all of them I decorated them straight away by dipping them in the sprinkles or putting on accessories while they were wet. The only exception was the mummy -- you want it to dry before you pipe on the bandages. Aren't the eyes so cute? I found them at Michael's!

For this little guy I just coloured some coconut orange and dipped him in the baggie while the chocolate was still wet. I stuck on the eyes first so they wouldn't get covered -- they won't stick on well if you do them afterwards.

Same thing for this little one! How cute is it?!?

My poor black cats! I used dark chocolate so they didn't turn out really black per se. Also I did not temper my chocolate properly so they were melty :( Still cute but I think it would be easier to use black candy melts in this case unless you could keep them in the fridge. Thankfully I could and these were DELICIOUS with dark chocolate. By the way they did get much darker than they are pictured below once they were fully set.

The entire happy little monster crew!!!! Oh how I adore these little monsters. They were definitely my favourite and the most forgiving and easy to do.  The little guy on the far left is my absolute favourite little thing in the world! My whole family thought he was the best!

I had way too much fun setting up this little table. You know what else would go great with these? Some Spooky Pumpkin Patch Brownies and Candy Corn Squares. I know, I know. GENIUS RIGHT?! It's the perfect balance of something healthy with a little something that isn't! In the spirit of Halloween, I will make that sacrifice. I know, how bold of me, right?

I am sure you are wondering why we made our cake green, right?

How cool! I mean....scary ;)




I think the green cake adds a little somethin' somethin', you know what I mean? Overall I thought these were really cute. But cake pops are not for the faint of heart -- definitely a time consuming process. I would also be sure to temper your chocolate if you are using the real stuff otherwise it's really hard to package the dark chocolate ones. It's not at all a problem if they are in the fridge though! Well worth the effort:

THE CUTE! I love them!



Also -- don't throw away that extra chocolate! I poured mine into chocolate molds. Can you see them up there?



I honestly think these are a really beautiful addition to a Halloween Dessert table -- don't you? The cake itself is absolutely delicious, The smell, texture and taste of bakery cake! And if you are really sugar conscious than I think the dark chocolates are a great choice! I kept mine in the fridge in packaging and they turned out just fine :)


If you are pressed for time or don't have these ingredients the original cake pop method is done using 1 boxed cake mix and 3/4 of a tub of ready made frosting. You'd follow the rest of the steps as usual!



Happy Spooky Cake Poppin!


XO