It's by a blogger name Bakerella. Check out her blog. It's got great ideas for baking and lots pictures.
Since Halloween is my favourite celebration and year I won't have an interesting costume (plus too much pressure from work to have an amazing costume since my past ones wowed coworkers), I decided to make cake pops instead.
I bought Betty Crocker cake mix since it's what suggested by Cake Pop. I bought extra moist since I thought it would taste better. However I later read that extra moist cake is not suitable since it does not work well for cake pops. I think it makes it too sticky. Doh!!!
I made the cake according to the package instructions.
And baked it as quickly as possible, which is using a big pan.
I let it cool. I was suppose to let it cool completely but I couldn't wait. Mistake ...because it made the cake crumbs a little sticky (though I'm not sure if it's because it's not cooled completely or because it's extra moist cake). So I left the crumbs alone to cool overnight hoping it would be less sticky (it made no difference!)
The next day I mixed with Pre-made frosting. I chose chocolate frosting for chocolate cake. I mixed the cake crumbs and frosting together. I think might have put too much frosting because it was quite sweet but also too soft.
Then rolled into balls and put in the freeze for about 30 minutes. We don't want the balls to freeze but to be firm so that it's easy to work with.
While waiting for the cake balls to become firm, I melted some chocolate wafers in the microwave. It was very thick so I added vegetable oil but still was very thick. I didn't want to add more oil since I didn't want to affect the taste.
When the balls were firmed, I shaped them into ghost like shape. Then I dipped a lollipop stick in the chocolate and pushed it into the cake ghost. I then dipped the ghost into the chocolate and let it dry.
It was hard to dip cake pop into the thick chocolate evenly so the ghost had the thick layer of chocolate. The result was the ghost didn't look so nice. Also I was stupid to use chocolate cake with white chocolate.... made it look quite shoddy.
After, I pasted candy pearls as eyes.
Then I used an edible marker to make the pupils and mouth. Disaster!!! It didn't work!! The pen wouldn't write. I went on the Internet and found many many people had problems with Wilton edible pens. One person returned theirs right away. I'm going to do the same thing. Why keep something that doesn't work?
In this picture, the ghosts look ok with the markers but in reality, the black didn't look black and looked very amateurish.
I was quite upset because I didn't know what to do. I decided that I would pipe the details with a dark chocolate on my ghosts and Frankenstein.
I started working on Frankenstein. Since I expected the wafer to be thick, I added lots of oil before melting. It resulted in a consistency that was easier to work with.
I then tested my piping skills and made Frankenstein hair since the edible markers didn't work.
I piped the eyes, mouth and scars. I was going to make a emotionless mouth but decided to make it a friendly Frankenstein so made him with a smile.
Here are the finished products, both Frankenstein and ghosts. Notice Frankenstein's screws?!?
Since I'm planning to give them away, I put them in a plastic bag and put a ribbon. I forgot to buy treat bags at Michael's so had to use sandwich bags. Actually that worked out well, especially price wise, since sandwich bags are cheaper than treat bags.
Final Thoughts:
Hmmm.... The cake pops are too sweet for me. The recipe book suggested to use cake mix since can control the amount but you can use your own cake. I might do that in the end since it was too sweet from the cake, frosting and chocolate.
I'm disappointed with Wilton products. First their chocolate wafers are quite thick. Of course this is not a fault of theirs, as that consistency might be suitable for making chocolates but not for cake pops. Second, which is a big surprise is their edible pen didn't work at all!!! It wouldn't write. I even tried to write on a cracker, it still didn't work. I thought I was the only person experiencing the above but both were common complaints by other bakers!!!
Because of the above two problems, it took longer than expected to make the cake pops. It also discouraged me because I didn't know what to do.
Lucky I came up with idea of piping details, it not, I would be stuck. I dreaded piping, as I'm not good with piping but had no choice. It worked ok.
The results wasn't too bad. I would try to make this again but not with Wilton products. I'm going to special order my pens and see if I can but the chocolate wafers from a candy store or colour white chocolate myself.
In terms of the recipe book, great pictures and ideas. In terms of the recipes, I think it's not necessary to buy the book, as ALL the details can be found in her website. The book doesn't provide great instructions for making the cake pops, though it's easy to make. I just like looking at the pictures often.
Anyways, time to sleep. Happy Halloween everyone!!!
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