Sunday 11 November 2012

Fudgy Cake Pops

Recently I bought a Cake Pop baking Tin from Lakeland.
 I am very impressed with it.  The Cake Pops baked well and turned out of the tin beautifully.
This is the recipe that came with the tin:-

For the Cake Pops
125g dark chocolate drops
120g butter
150g sugar (I used caster)
20g cocoa powder
 2 medium eggs
90g SR flour
0.25tsp salt

To Decorate
24 lolly sticks
chocolate or fondant icing
sprinkles or decorations of your choice

1.  Preheat oven to 160'C fan.  Grease and flour both sides of tin.
2.  In a medium saucepan (or microwave) melt chocolate drops and butter together.
3.  Pour into a medium bowl and add sugar and cocoa powder.  Mix together.
4.  Add eggs, one at a time and mix well.
5.  Add flour and salt and stir until well blended.
6.  Spoon mixture into bottom half of tin (without holes), filling each well so that it is mounded.
 7.  Place top half of tin onto bottom half and lock into place.
8.  Bake for approximately 12 minutes.  Test with a wooden toothpick through the holes in tin.  Toothpick should come out almost clean.
 9.  Remove top of tin and leave to cool for 3 minutes.
 10.  Remove from tin and allow to cool.
11.  Wash and prepare tin for next batch.
12.  Repeat from step 6 with remaining batter.  Makes 24 cake pops.
 13.  When completely cool, trim rim with a sharp knife and decorate.
 I coated my Pumpkins in orange-flavoured chocolate and a added a stalk and tendril.
The Ghosts are simply a circle of fondant icing with 3 circles cut out for eyes and a mouth, using a piping nozzle.
The Toffee Apples are coated in toffee with sprinkles shaken over them.  Set in fridge.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Cake

The original recipe for this cake is by Fiona Cairns and includes beetroot, but my husband and I weren't so keen on the taste, so I adapted the recipe for Halloween and used pumpkin instead of the beetroot.  I also added ground cinnamon and more cocoa powder.  My two posts about this cake can be found here and here
For the Cake
180ml sunflower oil
250g pumpkin - cooked, pureed and drained
3 medium eggs
250g caster sugar
190g SR flour
80g cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5tsp ground cinnamon


For the Icing (optional)
250g icing sugar
water
food colouring
decorations of your choice

1.  Preheat oven to 160'C fan.
2. Grease and base line a deep, 23cm cake tin.
3.  In a large bowl or food processor, beat together the oil, pumpkin and eggs.
4.  Add the sugar and beat.
5.  Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and ground cinnamon.  Add to the mixture and beat well.
6.  Pour into tin and bake for 45-55 minutes, use a skewer to test if cooked (it should be clean when removed from centre of cake).
7.  Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire cooling rack.
8.  Decorate as desired.