hen cake pops

Published by Meaghan on June 22, 2010 · 16 Comments

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hen cake pops

Well, the cake pops aren’t vintage. Their inspiration is. (And please excuse the chocolate cake oozing most unattractively from the hen pop up there.) These hen cake pops were inspired by my mom’s vintage ceramic hen.

I don’t know why I never make cake pops. I guess I’ve a cookie bias. Yet I love stuff on sticks. From the first time I put a cookie on a stick over a decade-yikes!–ago, I was hooked. And I’ve adored bakerella‘s genius since I saw these way back when.

When I was back home a couple weeks ago (I still call my childhood home “home” though I’ve not lived there for 20 years and I have a firmly established home here) I snagged this vintage hen…candy dish?…from the top of my mom’s fridge. It’s about as old as it would be for my mom to have received it as a wedding shower gift. Does anyone else know about these hens? They are a sort of frosted glass and the top half (the hen) comes off to leave the nest bowl.

{And update: Holly makes a good point in the comments. First I thought “rooster,” too, but I think he/she is supposed to be laying eggs, and so, I thought, “hen.” Feel free to weigh in with your verdict.}

These cake pops honor the hen’s big move from NJ to DC.

to make hen cake pops

you will need:*
1 box of cake mix
1 can of frosting
white candy melts (best buy a couple bags)
lollipop sticks
wax paper
black food coloring pen
styrofoam block
scissors
red gummy bears
yellow fish candy (or something comparable)
“flowerful medley” sprinkles
light corn syrup

*Find the candy melts, lollipop sticks and sprinkles in the baking aisle of the craft store. You can find food coloring pens there, too, though I prefer Ame ricolor Gou rmet Writers, not in the craft store, but available online and in cake decorating stores. The flower confetti sprinkles I used are these from Wilton.

step one: make your cake pops

As this is not my area of expertise, you’re surely better to go HERE to bakerella’s instructions for making cake pops. But to summarize what I did: Make the cake, let it cool, crumble it into a bowl, add about 3/4 of a can of frosting and mix well (I smushed with the back of a big spoon, then stirred), roll balls (not too big!), place on a tray lined with wax paper and freeze about 10 minutes. Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into some melted candy melts and insert into a ball and freeze again for about 15 minutes. Keep balls in refrigerator when not working with them to keep them chilled.

step two: coat your cake pops

Melt candy melts in a bowl set over simmering water or in the microwave (a microwave save measuring cup works well here, as it’s deep enough for dipping). To microwave, nuke on 50 percent power for 1 minute, stir, then continue to microwave at 30 second intervals at 50 percent power, stirring well at each interval, until fully melted. Hold the lollipop stick, submerge the cake ball into the melts, rotate gently if needed until ball is coated and remove, let the excess drip, and stand in the styrofoam block to harden.

step three: decorate your cake pops

For each pop you’ll need: 1 red gummy bear, a yellow Swedish fish, two yellow flower sprinkles and the black marker.

For the comb: Cut a red gummy bear in half vertically (so right between the eyes, ouch! a warning that this does feel murderous). Adhere the gummy bear cut-side down on top of the cake ball. Use a paintbrush, toothpick or your finger to apply light corn syrup as needed to adhere. For the wattle: Snip off a bit more from the the other half of the red gummi bear you used for the comb and adhere to the ball at the side of the beak. For the feet, adhere two flower sprinkles. Add black dots for eyes.

For the beak: Snip off a bit of tailfin from a yellow fish candy (or any candy with triangular things) and adhere to ball.

For the feet: adhere two sprinkles with corn syrup. For the eyes: draw two black dots. The finished version:
And in case you need a quick hen body part tutorial: