Mask Cake Pop Tutorial

I almost always stick with round cake pops, for some reason shaped pops intimidate me. A crazy cake? No problem… a shaped pop? Yikes! But when I was asked to do a guest blog post I thought what could I do that I haven’t done yet and haven’t seen yet? Purim is right around the corner and I feel like my thoughts go immediately to masks. I thought I’d go out of my comfort zone and try mask cake pops! Well I think I was pretty successful with it and I hope you will be too. Enjoy my tutorial and have a Happy Purim!

Materials:

• 1 9×13 prepared cake– any flavor (for a fun colorful pop- put food coloring in yellow cake batter)
• ¼-½ cup prepared frosting-any flavor (get creative with flavor combinations!)
• 2-3 different colored Pareve decorating bars (I prefer Lieber’s)-use more colors if desired.
• Lollipop sticks or plastic crazy straws
• Royal Icing in different colors (I prefer the Wilton’s recipe)
• If you’re not familiar with piping royal icing, for a quick cheat use edible markers-found in cake supply stores (such as Michaels)
• Piping bags fitted with tip #2
• Parchment Paper
• Time and Patience, and plenty of it 😉

1) Make the Cake Pop mixture:

1. Remove any burnt or crunchy pieces from your cake.
2. Using your fingers (wear gloves if you have), break up your cake into small pieces (I do this right in the pan I baked it in, but feel free to use a large bowl).
3. Add ½ frosting and mix together with your hands until it resembles  a dough, adding more frosting as needed
4. Cover and pop in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm it up.
5. Place the mixture on a piece of parchment paper and flatten it out to about ½ an inch.
6. Cut out mask shapes

• If you have a small mask or mustache cookie cutter, now’s the time to use it!
• Or you can cut out a small mask template, place it on top of your mixture, and cut around it. Try not to go bigger than about 2 inches wide.

1. Once your masks are all made, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm back up. (Don’t keep it in too long, or it’ll be hard to get the stick in and it could break-if it’s too frozen just give it a minute to warm up a bit)

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2) Melt your decorating bar.

• Different methods work for different people (microwave, double boiler). I prefer to break up the bar in a pyrex measuring cup and stick it in my warming draw on the highest setting. It stays warm until I need it and doesn’t burn.

3) Time for dipping!

• Dip the end of your stick into the melted candy then stick it into your mask. Stick back in the fridge a few minutes to set. This is to merge the straw to the mask to reduce the risk of it falling off the stick when you dip the whole thing. If you notice some cracking in the middle after you insert the stick, using the back of a spoon, spread some melted candy down the center on both sides

• Now you’re ready to dip the whole thing. Make sure you have enough melted candy in your measuring cup (or bowl) so you can submerge the whole mask. Dip quickly-covering the whole mask, lift, and gently turn it and shake off the excess back into the bowl until it’s dry. You may want to dip twice to make sure it’s fully coated. Stick it in styrofoam to finish drying or lay it down on silver foil if it is completely dry. Repeat until you’ve covered all masks.

4) Time to decorate!

• Using black royal icing with a #2 tip (or your black marker), pipe eyes onto your mask.
• Using other colors with a #2 tip, pipe swirls, squiggles, and other “masky” designs.
• Take it up a notch with edible glitter, colored sugar, and pearl sprinkles.
• For a fun display, fill a tall clear vase with jelly beans and stick the pops right in