So anybody who has seen “Despicable Me” knows all about Gru’s mission to steal the moon. If you are not familiar – In order to steal the moon, Gru has to obtain a shrink ray and shrink the moon so that he can fit it in his pocket.
Emmy watches this movie at least once a week, and is now obsessed with the moon. She looks for it in the sky night and day, and stares at it in one of Avery’s books about the solar system. She also pretends a little plastic golf ball is her moon and carries it in her pocket.
(She is such a little weirdo, and I just love it! She flies her freak flag with no cares. Hey kid, what’s in your pocket? THE MOON. Obviously.)
So when I was searching Pinterest for “Despicable Me” party ideas, I came across this pin with a picture of shrunken moon pops. I knew I had to serve these up at Emmy’s party, because she is my little moon-obsessed minion wannabe!
I used my usual cake pop recipe, with chocolate cake on the inside and a white candy coating on the outside. It gave the pops a very moon-like look.
Read on to make your own shrunken moon cake pops!
Gru’s Shrunken Moon Cake Pops For A “Despicable Me” Party!
Ingredients:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix, prepared and baked according to the box directions.
- 1 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 2 packages of Wilton candy melts in white
- 1 package of lollipop sticks
What to do:
Grab your box of chocolate cake mix. Any brand will do. I used this one:
Prepare the mix according to the box directions and bake the cake.
Once the cake is baked, allow it too cool COMPLETELY before you move on to the next step.
Dump about 2/3 of the baked, cooled cake into the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment.
Add the block of softened cream cheese.
Mix on low until it all starts to come together.
Crumble the remaining 1/3 of your cake slowly into the mixing bowl. Continue to mix on low until the mixture resembles a crumbly play dough.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Grab small handfuls of the chocolate cake dough and roll them between your hands to make balls. About 1 inch diameter for size seems to work well.
Once you have them all rolled, grab your lollipop sticks.
Poke a lollipop stick into each ball, about 3/4 of the way in. (You do not want them to poke through the other side, because your cake pops will fall apart when it is time to dip them in the candy coating.) Once they all have lollipop sticks, put them in the fridge for a few minutes while you prepare the candy coating.
Now grab your candy coating, and follow the directions on the package for melting.
I melt both packages together in the microwave in a medium glass bowl, but I follow the melting instructions on the package EXACTLY. Do not try to rush it, because they will seize up and become grainy – a.k.a. totally unusable. YOU WILL HAVE TO THROW THE WHOLE BATCH OUT. Just follow the instructions. I know it’s annoying. I know it seems like they will never melt on low power. I know it takes forever.
Just trust. OK? Good.
Dump the candy into your microwave safe bowl.
Follow the melting instructions. Pull it out and stir it well in-between each interval in the microwave.
Oh look! It is finallyyyy starting to melt.
Getting closer….Don’t give up now!
Thank God that finally happened. It is melted. Sheesh. Now add a splash of vegetable oil to the melted candy to thin it out a bit, and mix well. Grab your cake pops out of the fridge and start dipping! Try to swirl the pop out of the candy, so that it makes a more moon-like effect.
(I know this is blurry. Cody was gone on a business trip. I was dipping and swirling and trying to take pictures while the kids were running amok in the only-2-days-before-party-mayhem. Just be happy you even have this picture.)
As you dip them, place them back on the parchment paper. If the candy starts to get too thick, put it back in the microwave on low power for 15 second intervals until it is nice and melted again. You can also add another splash of vegetable oil to thin it out. Once they are all dipped and swirled, pop them back in the fridge until party time!
That tray was full of cake pop moons about 3 seconds before this picture was taken! Hopefully you can get a nice picture of yours before the minions attack and devour!
Enjoy!
🙂 Kaitlyn