Spooky Desserts for Halloween: Learn How to Make Monster Cake Pops

Halloween is a few weeks away, and your house will soon be flocked with guests and family members, expecting you to treat them with spooky desserts for Halloween. Of course, there's an option that you run to the nearest bakery before their stocks run out. But there's a better way to deal with this situation – by making your own unique and spine-tingling treats. This recipe reveals how you can whip up the scary and adorable Monster Cake Pops, and make your Halloween entertainment fuss-free.

Monster Pops, a treat for young and old Halloween revelers, has been pleasing trick-or-treaters and partygoers for decades. Originally an offspring of the 1970s, created in response to candy companies' needs to provide seasonal treats with an ever-increasing popularity of Halloween celebrations, Monster Pops has become synonymous with the wonderful spooky activities on All Hallows' Eve.

In the early days, these colored candies were known as the "Monster Lollipops," and included some of the most recognizable Halloween characters: witches, ghosts, and monsters. The original flavors were orange for the pumpkin, grape for the purple, and lemon for the green. Over time, new characters and flavors were developed following contemporary pop culture references.

To this day, Monster Pops are a staple in Halloween parades, a testament to the power of nostalgia. It doesn't matter if you are 5 or 50 - it'll put a big smile across your face.

Monster Pops

Here’s how you can make Monster Pops for your spooky Halloween desserts platter. If you prefer natural colors over synthetic, store-bought ones, you can use fruit extracts. For example, beetroot juice is a natural colorant with dark red pigment.

Ingredients:

• 250 gm cake mix
• 120 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 60 gm butter
• 250 gm cream cheese frosting
• 100 gm white chocolate chips
• Food coloring
• Edible eyes and decorations

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C, and grease a baking pan using unsalted butter.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, whole milk, eggs, and softened unsalted butter, and mix everything very well.
3. Next, you have to pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, and then smooth out the top. Bake it for about half an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Wait to let it cool down completely.
4. Then, move on to slowly making crumbles of the whole cake. Use a fork or a bread knife to break it apart in small chunks, so that it is easy to work with them. You can use a day-old cake or a cake that has been left out in the open for a few hours for this recipe. The cake needs to lose its moisture content before you start working with it.
5. Then, use your hands to make small balls of the mix. If the mixture is too sticky to shape with your hands, put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to firm it up, and then continue.
6. Insert a lollipop stick in each of the cake pops.
7. To make the coating for the cake pops, melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler or the microwave, whichever is more convenient for you. However, when using a microwave, melt the chocolate in 15-second bursts to prevent the bottom from burning.
8. Next, dip each cake ball completely in melted chocolate, ensuring it is coated on all sides. Now, use your cake scraps to make a base where you will stick your lollipop sticks to let the chocolate harden up in the refrigerator. Wait for half an hour before moving on to decorating.
9. To decorate the pops, you have to add a mix of green, blue, and purple food coloring to produce a monster-like effect.
10. Since it's not very easy or practical to make edible eyes, hands and other monster decorations, you'll have to pick them up from your nearest supermarket to give your monster their face. Once you have put on their features and ornaments, all you have to do is let the chocolate set for another 30 minutes.
11. To prepare them for serving, store your Monster Cake Pops in cellophane bags for treats, and serve them on the dinner table or hand them out to children.

Much like other Halloween desserts recipes, these pops can be made with other autumn flavors like cinnamon or pumpkin.