Cara’s Cuisine: Halloween Cake Pops

Forget about midterms, the crazy weather and homework — it’s Halloween on Tuesday! Halloween is a holiday based on various pagan historical traditions where some believed they could hide their children from evil spirits and others believed they were scaring the spirits away. Regardless of its origin, Halloween is now one of the most celebrated U.S. holidays. Fun decorations, costumes that each person can tailor to their own interests be they artistic, fans of all things horror or just wanting to look completely different than their “norm” for the night — and let’s not forget the free candy that will be given out everywhere.

There are also numerous activities going on both on and off campus (where one could get that free candy), but sometimes it’s nice to just sit inside with some snacks and watch Halloween throwbacks like “Hocus Pocus” with some friends. To make these gatherings even more Halloween-centric, here’s an easy, themed recipe to make.

Halloween “Monster Eye” Cake Pops

Makes: 23 Cake Pops

Ingredients:

1 box prepared 9×13 cake mix

4 tablespoons frosting

16 ounces white melting chocolate

23 M&Ms

1 small tube black and red piping frosting

1.       Take the cake you have prepared and crumble it into a bowl, then add in the frosting. TIP: If you add too much frosting to the cake mix, the cake balls will not stay together or will taste mushy and disgusting. Add the frosting slowly and stop adding when the cake is moist and can hold the shape of a ball, but is still slightly crumbly. Because of this, it is easiest to mix the two ingredients together with your hands.
2.       If you intend to use cake sticks, melt a quarter of the melting chocolate and dip the very tip of each stick into the chocolate before inserting it into the cake ball.
3.       Let freeze for 20 minutes while melting the rest of the chocolate.
4.       Remove the cake balls from the freezer and roll in the white melting chocolate. Allow the excess chocolate to drip off. Then place on a plate.
5.       While the chocolate is still gooey, take an M&M and use a small dot of the black piping frosting to attach it to the cake ball to act as the “iris.” Then, use another drop of the frosting in the center to both cover the M&M symbol if it is showing and to be the “pupil.”
6.       Repeat with the rest of the cake balls.
7.       Use the red piping to make the eye’s “blood vessels.” Serve.

What’s great about this recipe is that you can easily customize the cake pops. If you don’t want to make “Monster Eyeballs” you can get orange melting chocolate instead of white and make jack-o-lanterns. Alternatively, if you want to be really creative you can double the amount of white chocolate and replace the M&Ms with 23 mini Reeses cups. If you unwrap and stab the Reeses through with the stick before placing it into the cake ball, then cover both with the white melting chocolate, you can create a ghost Cake pop.

Stay safe, enjoy the treats and Happy Halloween!