Spooky Ghost Cake Pops

Halloween is almost here - are you ready? I try to bake a few things for Halloween each year but this year has been exceptionally busy so I've not been able to bake as much as I would have liked to. I am going to bake some muffins and cookies if I have time for the trick or treaters. As I've just moved house, I have no idea how many trick or treaters to expect. There may be none in which case there will be a lot of leftover goodies! Do you buy candy or make something for the trick or treaters or do you avoid them altogether? 

Dr Oetker sent me some goodies to create these Ghost Cake Pops. The recipe is in collaboration with Juliet Sears and she has a very clear, detailed video showing you how to make them. I forget how fiddly cake pops are and these don't look as good as Juliet's but luckily at Halloween ugly and scary is good!! They are actually really simple to make but quite time consuming as there are several steps involved and required chilling time and drying time.

 Dr Oetker ingredients for this recipe

I followed the recipe exactly apart from using jam instead of icing to stick the fondant to the cake pop. I also added a little buttercream to the mix as it was really crumbly and I found it difficult to roll into a ball. Luckily I had some leftover coffee buttercream to hand and I quite like the chocolateand coffee flavour combination.

I'm entering this to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from the Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Trick or Treat. These are perfect for Halloween and I'm grateful to Kat for including my extremely late entry.

I am also entering it to Let's Cook for Halloween hosted by Nayna from Simply Food. 

 luckily I'm crumbling this up for cake pops as a bit of it stuck to the pan. 

 melted white chocolate, crumbled brownie and lollipop sticks

 ready to go in the freezer

 My rather large and ugly looking cake pops. I bought the cake pop stand at the BBC Bake and Cake show 

 starting to look like ghosts 

 spooky ghosts especially with the shadows! 

Recipe from Dr Oetker Even Better Baking

SPOOKY GHOST CAKE POPS

Preparation time: 2 hours plus cooling and chilling
Cooking time: 40 minutes plus 10 minutes to melt 2 lots of chocolate

​Ingredients:
For the cake balls:
120g Dr. Oetker 72% Cocoa Extra Dark Fine Cooks Chocolate
150g soft unsalted butter at room temp
200g Light Muscovado Sugar
3 medium free range eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla extract
125g Plain FlourFor the cake pops:
2 X 100g bags of Dr. Oetker White Chocolate Chips melted for sticking the balls onto the sticks & coating the cake pops
Teaspoon of vegetable oil

To decorate the ghosts:
1 x pack of Dr. Oetker White Regal Ice
Icing sugar for rolling out
Dr. Oetker White Designer Icing for sticking the regal ice to the cake pops
Dr. Oetker Jet Black Gel Food Colour

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F, gas mark 1). 
• Grease and line an 18cm (7 inch) square cake tin
• To make the fudge brownie mix melt the extra dark chocolate in a microwave on medium power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time until melted, or in a heat proof bowl on a gentle heat over a bain marie. Leave to cool.
• Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment or electric hand beater for approx. 2 minutes until pale and fluffy. If you haven’t got an electric mixer you can do this with a wooden spoon in a bowl .
• TIP: if you are in a rush or the butter is quite cold, the addition of a couple of tablespoons of boiling water at this stage, beaten on slow until mixed will speed up this process.
• Add your eggs on a slow speed about a third at a time, mixing until combined.
• Add your cooled chocolate stirring continuously. Add the vanilla Extract and stir. On slow speed mix in the flour until just combined. Do not over beat. Alternatively fold in by hand.
• Pour the mix into your cake tin and bake for approx 40 mins. Check it with a sharp knife or metal skewer. You want this to be slightly under baked, so the knife should come out pasty, with a nice paste on the knife.
• Leave to cool, then turn out into a bowl and crumble with your hands to fine fudgy crumb.
• To make the cake balls, take a handful of fudge cake mix and squeeze together tightly - you are aiming for little balls about the size of a large walnut, approx. 30g each. If the mixture is dry, the addition of a little chocolate or vanilla butter cream will help the mixture stick
• Once you have all of your balls ready, dip the end of your stick into the melted chocolate chips and push the stick into each ball, about half way in. Hold the ball to stop it splitting open when the stick goes in
• Once all the cake pops are ready, refrigerate them for 1-2 hours before dipping them, or pop into the freezer for 30 mins, so the balls are firm enough to hold when dipping in the coating
• To coat the cake pops melt Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks White Chocolate on low power in a microwave bowl until just melted - stirring occasionally or over a bain marie on a gentle heat
• Plunge each cake pop into the chocolate coating until completely covered. Tap the cake pop gently on the side of the bowl to shake off the excess. Once all are covered, dip each cake pop again
• To decorate the ghosts roll out half the white regal icing into a large rectangle using plenty of icing sugar and a large plastic rolling pin. Roll fairly thinly – 2 to 3mm thick. Squeeze a little Dr. Oetker White Designer Icing onto the tops of the cake pops or brush with some melted white chocolate, to aid sticking of the sugar paste
• Using a cake cutter or small bowl, cut out circles of regal icing and place on each of the pops, smoothing down with your fingers to create the white sheet effect. Allow a little wavy movement by using your fingers to create smooth creases around the sides. Leave to set for a few hours to dry.
• To add the ghostly expression take some Dr. Oetker black gel colour and squeeze out the eyes and mouth shapes. Leave these to dry overnight.
• TIP: if you want these to look very neat and more painted on rather than squeezed onto the ghost, you can squeeze some gel out on to your surface and use a brush with a tiny bit of water.

Disclaimer: I was sent ingredients from Dr Oetker to create this recipe. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post and I paid for the remaining ingredients myself.