Dun dun duh duh DUN dun duh duh DUN dun…
Every time I hear the opening them of GoT I get chills. This Sunday is the premier of Season 7 and I can’t wait! To celebrate I’m creating, or re-creating rather, my Game of Thrones Cake Pops. Recreating?? Why, yes. A few years back I was just fooling around in the kitchen before the Season 3 premier and decided to make some cake pops that looked like the main characters. Here’s how they turned out!
Back Row: Bran (with his poor broken stick), Arya, Catlyn, Jon Snow, Khaleesi. Front Row: Tyrion , Joffrey, Rob Stark, Cersei, Sansa, Jaime Lannister
I posted the picture of Facebook and got an overwhelming number of positive responses. It was the precursor and inspiration for creating Fantasy Food Show! So, now, years later I’m re-creating them for the premiere.
To make my Game of Thrones Cake Pops you will need:
- Cake – either boxed or homemade
- Buttercream frosting (1/2 can or so for the cake pops and more for decorating)
- White candy melts
- Cake pop sticks
- Plastic sandwich bags or piping bags
- A little yellow fondant
- Gold Luster dust
- A Styrofoam block
Store-bought vs. Homemade??
For this recipe I used both canned and homemade frosting. For the cake pop dough you can really use either, but I found that they store bought is too soft for good piping (plus it’s the summer and my apartment was warm), so I use homemade for that. The recipe is the basic buttercream that’s on the back of Domino powdered sugar boxes, but it’s essentially:
- 1 stick softened butter
- 3-4 c. powdered sugar
- 1-2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1-3 Tbls. milk
Beat butter with a mixer for a few minutes until light and fluffy, add in sugar, vanilla and mix again. Add in a splash of milk and continue mixing on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Don’t whip the frosting, you don’t want too much air in it. Adjust the milk/sugar until you have consistency that’s stiff enough for piping but not so stiff that it won’t stick to the cake pops.
I also find that boxed cake mixes tend to be really oily and that can lead to cake pops that are too soft and don’t hold their shape when dipping. This can also lead to oil seeping out of your final product. So, I’d recommend cutting back some of the oil in the recipe, or baking your own. I think a slightly dryer cake with a stiffer buttercream is more ideal for cake pops.
Let me show you how it’s done!
- Bake your cake and let it cool.
- Cut the cake into large squares and crumble into a mixing bowl with your hands.
- Add a few spoonfuls of frosting to the crumbs and mix together to form a dough. You probably won’t need more than 1/2 a can of store bought, but keep adding a bit at a time until you get a smooth but not too mushy consistency.
- Roll a small amount of dough between your hands to create a ball then taper the bottom end to make the chin. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Melt some candy melt either over a double boiler or in the microwave on short bursts stirring in between.
- Insert a cake pop stick into the “chin” end of a cake pop, remove the stick, dip it into some candy melt, then re-insert into the cake pop. Put them on a tray and set in the fridge or freezer until candy has hardened and the dough has firmed up. NOTE: Don’t freeze the cake pops completely. When you go to dip them, the freezing will have contracted the dough and then they warm up they will expand and likely cause the candy shell to crack!
- When dough is chilled dip them completely into more melted candy melt and set in the styrofoam block to set. Again, you can speed this up in the fridge or freezer, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 5-10 minutes. TIP: you can add some cocoa powder or oil-based food coloring to the candy melts to match different skin tones.
- Color your extra buttercream whatever colors you want to use, I had a variety of hues including white, black, brown (chocolate frosting), light brown, coral or red, pink, gray, and blue.
- Put the colored frosting into separate plastic sandwich bags, press out the extra air, seal, and then snip off a tiny corner on each to create piping bags.
- Pipe on the features and decorate to your heart’s content! A few tips: letting the frosting fall from a little bit of height will cause it to swirl and is great for making curly hair. Holding the tip of the bag closer to the cake pop will help you get straighter lines. If you mess up you can scrap off and try again, or just cover it over with more frosting. I piped the faces on first with the cake pop lying flat, then did the hair while the cake pop was upright in the Styrofoam block. Remember that these can be whimsical and fun so don’t worry too much about anatomical accuracy!
- To make a crown for whoever is currently sitting on the Iron Throne, roll out a long snake of yellow fondant and then flatten it with a roller. Use a small round cutter like the bottom of a piping tip to cut out circles along one edge. Cut of any excess from the other side and then use a little water to glue to two ends together forming a crown shape. Let it dry a bit so it’s easier to handle then brush it all over with gold luster dust.
And there they are – my Game of Thrones cake pops!
