Fall is my favorite.! Especially pumpkin anything and everything- so I could hardly wait to make these cute little pumpkin and ghost cakepops :) I have to admit, the ideas themselves were found in my cakepop book. They're just so darn cute.! The pumpkin cakepops are pumpkin cake with buttercream icing, and the ghost cakepops are red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. First cakepop tip is that it's simplest to use a box mix with these guys- the ratio of cake to frosting and desired consistency is spot on if you use a boxed cake mix and 3/4 of a can of icing. I've made them with homemade cakes before as well, but it's a lot less time and effort and worry to just use a box mix in the instance of cakepop making. For any cakepop, as I said before, bake a cake..let it cool completely..crumble it by hand in a large mixing bowl with 3/4 of a can of icing. For the pumpkins- shape into pumpkin shapes, for the ghosts- shape into ghost shapes. :) At this point, I like to put the formed cakepops into a pan and stick them in the freezer for a few minutes to solidify a bit, or at least keep them refrigerated. When you're ready to coat and decorate the cakepops, only take a few from the freezer (or refrigerator) at a time, because they are definitely easier to work with chilled. For the pumpkins- I melted orange vanilla flavored candy melts in the microwave, stuck the end of a cakepop stick into the candy melts, and then inserted said stick into a cakepop. Then, coat the entire cakepop, and stick a green tictac on top. I generally stand drying cakepops in a block of foam in the freezer for a few minutes. For the ghosts, repeat the process with white vanilla flavored candy melts. I actually had to do two coats on the ghosts because I chose to use a darker colored cake (red velvet). I thought that the red velvet would look blood-like..and spooky. totally worth it.! To make the faces, I first attempted to draw on the cakepops with an edible marker, but found the result to be less than amazing..so, I simply piped on faces using melted chocolate candy melts. I find that the easiest way to store cakepops and give them as gifts is to individually wrap each in a small clear bag tied with colored ribbon, and pop 'em in the freezer until you need them, let them thaw a bit, and enjoy.! :)
