Halloween cake pops

Name: Halloween cake pops
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 25 min
Ingredients: For the sponge; 115 g butter (unsaltesoftened; 115 g unrefined golden caster sugar; 2 eggs; 140 g self-raising flour; ½ tsp baking powder; For the buttercream; 200 g icing sugar; 85 g butter (unsaltedsoftened); 1 tsp vanilla extract; For the decoration; FOR THE DECORATION; 200 g orange candy melts (for pumpkin cake pops); 200 g white chocolate (for ghost cake pops); writing icing

Halloween is the perfect excuse to do some spooky baking with kids. They’ll certainly love these ghost and pumpkin halloween cake pops.

Halloween is just round the corner so it’s time to do some spooky baking with these Halloween cake pops! I’ve never made cake pops before and part of me thinks they were a bit of a faff (taking a perfectly good cake and mushing it into balls?!) but Hannah thought they were fun, (possibly because she got to take a perfectly good cake and mush it into balls?!) and they look good for a special occasion.

We made both ghost cake pops and pumpkin cake pops. The ghost ones use white chocolate rather than the candy melts the pumpkins use, which have a few more e-numbers in them than i’d normally like.

How can kids help to make Halloween cake pops?

This is a really fun, hands on bake for kids to help with. If you’re making the cake from scratch, they can help measure and mix all the ingredients together. And then the fun starts. Your kids can use their hands to destroy and smush the cake into pieces and mix in the buttercream.

They can also form the cake pops themselves and help to decorate them. As there are quite a few steps kids don’t need to help with everything. They can dip in and out and just help with some stages.

Other Halloween bakes

Halloween cake pops are a fun bake for this time of year, but we also have lots of other spooky Halloween treats. Why not check them out?!

Monster cookies
Halloween brownies
Halloween spider cookies
Halloween monster biscuits
Spider web biscuits

Useful equipment

You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these Halloween cake pops

Digital scales
Mixing bowl
Hand held mixer
Wooden spoons
Spatula
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Piping bag
Food colour
Cake pop sticks
Orange candy melts

Difficulty: Medium

Time: 1 hour + 25 minutes baking

Serves: approx 12 pops

Ingredients

For the sponge
115g butter (unsalted) softened
115g unrefined golden caster sugar
2 eggs
140g self-raising flour
½tsp baking powder

For the buttercream
200g icing sugar
85g butter (unsalted)softened
1tsp vanilla extract

For the decoration
200g orange candy melts (for pumpkin cake pops),
200g white chocolate (for ghost cake pops),
Writing icing

How to make halloween cake pops

Pre heat the oven to 180C / 160C fan and prepare you tin

Get your toddler to help grease and line an 8 inch round cake tin with baking paper.

Mix the sponge ingredients together

Get your toddler to measure the sugar and flour into bowl then add to your mixing bowl.

Weigh the butter, soften if you need to (a really short blast in the microwave should do the trick) then add to your bowl.

Get your child to crack the eggs into a separate bowl, then add to your mixture.

Add the baking powder. If your child is able to, they could use a measuring spoon to this themselves. If not, get them to use their finger to help level the spoon for you.

Mix everything together until you have a smooth mixture.

Bake your cake

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until it looks golden brown on top and is cooked through.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, before finishing cooling on a wire rack.

Make the buttercream

Get your child to measure the butter and icing sugar and add to a large mixing bowl.
If they can, they can help you add the vanilla extract.

Beat everything together until it’s smooth.

Form the cake pops

Once your sponge has cooled, get your child to crumble it into a large bowl with the buttercream. Mix it together – we used wooden spoons and then went in with our hands – until it has formed a stiff mixture.

Use a small spoon or your hands to scoop out the mixture, then form into small walnut sized balls.

Set aside on a baking tray.

Once all your balls are done, pop them in the fridge for 20 minutes or so, so the balls harden up a little.

Insert the cake pop sticks into each of the balls.

Decorate the halloween cake pops

Weigh the candy melts into a bowl and melt. We did it in the microwave but you could do it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water on the hob.

Dip each of the balls into the chocolate candy melts so they are fully covered. Allow the excess to drip off them pop them back on the baking tray.

Allow the cake pops to set then add facial features with the writing icing.

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