Pumpkin cake pops

I love cake pops. They may be a bit fiddly to make but the look on peoples faces (and when I say people I mean Beau and Darcey) when they see them is worth every minute. We have a bit of an obsession with Halloween in our house and the only reason for this is that it’s my birthday on Halloween. This means anything pumpkin/bat/ghost or witch related is a real draw for us.

These cute little pumpkin cake pops for Halloween aren’t hard to make when you know the little tricks(or treats) which I’ll share with you now.

You will need:

A cake
buttercream (enough to make the crumbs stick so only around 50g butter/50g icing sugar)
orange candy melts
black food colour (professional pastes work best)
cake pop sticks
Green sugarpaste

How to make pumpkin cake pops

Take a cake and turn it into crumbs in a food processor. A cake that has been sitting around a day or two is fine (not that we ever have cake sitting around!)

Add a small amount of buttercream.

Mix the crumbs and buttercream in the food processor until the mixture forms a large ball.

Roll out little balls then make a hole in the top. This is where the stalk of the pumpkin will sit.

To create ridges in the side of the cake pops use a spoon to create dents all around the pumpkin shape.

Heat a few candy melts then coat the end of each stick in turn. Place that end in the bottom of the cake pop. Chill the cake pops in the fridge for at least 20 minutes so that they set hard and can be handled without falling apart. This is essential otherwise the balls fall off the sticks into the candy melts.

Make pumpkin stalks from the green sugarpaste. Set aside to harden while you dip the cake pops.

Heat the rest of the candy melts in a glass bowl set over saucepan of boiling water till they are runny like melted chocolate. You can add a small amount of sunflower oil to candy melts to make the liquid thinner and easier to apply to the cake pops. Don’t ever add water as it will make the candy melts sieze up and you have to start all over again. Dip each cake pop in until the whole pumpkin is covered.

Place the cake pops in a glass full of sugar making sure you allow enough space that they won’t touch each other while setting. Add the green stalks while the candy melts are still wet.

Leave the pops to dry and harden completely (at least an hour).

Using a food only paint brush paint on a pumpkin face in black food colouring. Professional food colours come in a paste form and are much easier to use than supermarket bought colours.