Halloween Project #8: Ghost and Skull Cake Pops

I am learning a TON about white chocolate this week. Here are the two most important things:

- If you overheat your chocolate, it will scorch and become absolutely useless.
- Melting/melted chocolate can't get wet! If this happens, it will have the same reaction as overheated chocolate: it will get very stiff and absolutely useless. Bonus annoyance: This means you can't add food coloring to your white chocolate! Perhaps they make a dry food dye, but that's certainly not what I have, and it's something I learned the hard way.

So today, I have some plain white ghost and skull cake pops for you. They're rather easy, and super tasty.

What you'll need:

-Cake, of course! I used a box cake, because I'm lazy. And this isn't teribly important, as this will be crumbs in no time.
- Black Decorating gel
-White Chocolate
-Flavored Creamer of your choice (I used White Chocolate Macadamia Nut)
- Lollipop sticks
-Foam block, or a makeshifted ghetto rigged contraption to keep your pops upright after they've been dipped in chocolate (Mine was foam board and a couple books taped together...)

1. Bake your cake according to package/recipe directions. After it has cooled completely, break it apart into chunks and put them in a large mixing bowl. Using a fork, break apart the chunks until your cake has been turned into crumbs.

2. Add your creamer. I think I end up using somewhere between 1/4 - 1/2 cup, but what I really look for it that it's moist, and that the cake crumbs stick to each other.

3. Shape your cake crumbs into triangles and ovals. Make sure your triangles are thick enough so they won't break once you put them on the lollipop stick. Cover a baking sheet in aluminum foil and place the triangles and ovals onto foil. Freeze for 20 minutes, or refrigerate for an hour.

4. Melt a little white chocolate, and stick the lollipop sticks in the white chocolate, and then insert into the cake pops about 1/3rd of the way through, if not halfway. Refrigerate for about 15 - 25 minutes.

5. Melt the rest of your white chocolate, and dip the cake pops into the white chocolate, placing them in your foam block, or makeshifted ghetto rigged contraption. Refrigerate or freeze one last time to be sure the chocolate has hardened.

6. Give the triangles ghost faces, and the skulls skull faces! Om nom away.

I was really hoping to make some pumpkins, but my heart was broken when I added the food coloring to my chocolate and it completely seized. I like these guys, though. They came out very nicely, and I'm very pleased :)

Gabe is almost finished with his assignment, which is what these are for. He still has some loose ends for some of these projects to tie up, and as they are tied up, more projects will be provided! I have some days off work soon, so hopefully I will be able to manage to do these, and be ready for NaNo come November 1st. I am so nervous! There's no way I'm ready....but I still look forward to writing that victory post!

How to Make Cake Truffles Without Using Frosting (How To Impress People Without Actually Being Impressive III)

If you're anything like me, you've had a Starbucks addiction since there was one digit in your age (yes, I know I'm showing my age :P). Maybe it started with their hot chocolate, or those chocolate-covered graham crackers next to the register, and soon it was frappuccinos and Coldplay CDs when you were young and full of angst, then one day you had a paper due the next day and you sucked down that black coffee for hours until they closed. Then one day, even further down the line, you realized you're a grown up and you're sitting by their fire place drinking a half-caff mega galactic whatever-ma-bob mochaccino with your New York Times, and one of their muffins and you think "Oh Dear God. I have to kick this habit."

So you stay away. You start brewing coffee at home, and soon you're looking at prices of espresso machines at 2 A.M. and Googling "How do I make a blueberry streusel muffin like Starbucks?" because it's been like two whole weeks since you've had one, but you're so close to overcoming your addiction. And then one day, word gets to you. They have cake truffles. On a stick.

How can you compete? What does that even mean? How can cake be a truffle?

Let me tell you, you can stop googling "Cake Pop + Starbucks", because I've beat the competition. With three ingredients and almost no time at all, you can make cake pops better than those guys, and impress everyone you know.

Most cake truffle recipes call for frosting, which to me, sounds too sugary, too distracting, and doesn't let the cake reach peak moisture for optimum enjoyment. By using flavored creamer, not only can you add diversity to your truffles, but you can turn around and have matching-flavored coffee (or a latte, if you bought that espresso machine at 2 A.M.). A lot of truffles are also covered in just plain melted chocolate, but I used ganache instead because, well, it's tastier. If you're feeling adventurous, you could always cover your layer of ganache with a layer of chocolate...who could say no to that?

If you made my Oreo Cheesecake, then you already have some of the stuff you need, if you didn't, here's the whole recipe.

What you'll need:

I already have ganache made, but if you don't, it's very easy!

-A cake (I used a Dark Chocolate Box mix)
-Ganache (Heavy Whipping cream + Chocolate Chips)
-Flavored creamer

How to make it:

1. Break your cake up into chunks and place in a large mixing bowl.

2. Using a fork, break it up into crumbs. This will take awhile, so I would recommend putting on an episode of your favorite sitcom to make things a little more interesting as you do so.

3. I did not measure out my creamer, I put it in slowly, and moistened all crumbs with a fork. I put in enough that it's almost like wet dough (If I were to guess, I'd say close to 1/4th of a cup for one 9" round cake). It should be moist enough to stick together, but not puddle-y. Add slowly, and stop when it seems right. For me, I thought 'this is just a tad too wet!', and they were perfect.

4. If you're looking for perfect proportions, ou can use a melon-baller, but I just used my hands to roll the gooey crumbs into balls.

5. Freeze for 60 - 90 minutes.

6. When your truffles are in the freezer, make some ganache. To do this, use a 1:3 ratio of Heavy Whipping Cream:Chocolate (I used 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can make more or less). Heat the heavy whipping cream in a sauce pan until it's simmering, then slowly add the chocolate chips. Stir in with a fork or whisk until a thick, frosting-like substance is formed. This is ganache. Know it. Love it. It is your friend. If you already have leftover ganache, microwave for about a minute.

7. With the help of a spoon, roll your truffles in the ganache.

8. Decorate if desired (rainbows for me, of course!)

9. Keep refrigerated until serving. They will get a little melty, so be sure to keep them cold.

The insides will be moist and gooey, and the outside will provide a wonderful thick chocolate shell. I used french vanilla and dark chocolate and they turned out wonderfully! Some other good combinations would be amaretto cream with chocolate cake, or hazelnut with chocolate, caramel with white cake, or you could get adventurous! I use a lot of flavored creamers, and I can tell you that they have white chocolate macadamia nut, butter pecan, chai, toffee...so many to choose from, and combine with different kinds of cake!

Experiment, and impress people with this simple recipe, and tell Starbucks to fuck off once and for all.