This Mustache Cake Pops post is courtesy of Sarah (one of our Sunday Sweets contributors)…I “mustache” you a question! I love the look of a great & well groomed mustache, don’t you? Well, are you curious as to why you may have noticed more men with mustaches this month? Or perhaps you haven’t noticed but I guarantee you will now! In 2003, the month of November was designated as “Movember”. It started in Melbourne, Australia. At the beginning of the month Mo Bros (anyone who wants to grow a mustache for a good cause) start the month out clean shaven and then they begin to grow a mo (mustache) for the entire month of November. This Mo growth is not just for looks or to see who can grow one the fastest – it’s for a great cause – prostate cancer awareness as well as other male cancers. This subject is particularly close to my heart as my father died from prostate and kidney cancer. Cancer awareness is a must and what better way to bring on the awareness than bringing on the mustaches!
Since I’m a woman I’m pretty sure I can’t grow a mustache…nor would I want to – ha! So I decided to come up with my own way to contribute to prostate cancer awareness, Mustache Cake Pops! Want to make your own mustache cake pops to honor Movember? Now you can – read on for the tutorial!
I’m starting off with one of my most favorite cake flavors – Marbled.
- Cake:
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1¼ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Frosting - Use whatever frosting fits your fancy
- Heat oven to 350° F.
- Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with vegetable cooking spray; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa, ¼ cup granulated sugar, and ¼ cup water; set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high, beat the butter with the remaining sugar until light and fluffy.
- Reduce speed to low, add the remaining ingredients, and beat until smooth.
- Spoon 2 cups of the vanilla batter into the bowl with the cocoa mixture; blend until smooth.
- Pour the vanilla batter into baking pan.
- Spoon in the chocolate batter to create six puddles on top of the vanilla batter.
- Using a knife, drag through the two batters to marbleize.
- Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
Now let’s getting mustaching!
Mustache Cake Pops:
Since we are making cake pops, we need to take the cooled cake and place it in a bowl or a gallon size bag, whichever you’d prefer. I like to skip the bag and use a bowl so I don’t have the transfer to cake later. First you need to crumble the cake. I always wear gloves for sanitary reasons because I am usually making baked goods for customers; however, if you are making these for you or family and you don’t mind getting a little messy then by all means, dig in and crumble that cake!
Once you’ve got the cake crumbled, you need to mix your choice of frosting into the cake crumbs. Be careful not to add too much or your cake pops won’t be cake pops…they’ll resemble a messy, sticky blob that I promise you won’t be able to stay on the stick. I had some blue frosting left over from one of my cakes this past weekend and used that for mixing with my cake crumbs. Notice how little frosting I used (a little over a tablespoon). Once you have mixed the frosting with the cake crumbs you should end up with a sugar cookie dough consistency. *Note* Once our marbled cake is mixed with the frosting, it will look like a chocolate cake since the darker cake color dominates.
Next, roll and shape your cake pops to your desired shape. For this tutorial, I shaped two different nose cake pops – round for clown noses and standard man looking noses. Feel free to get creative with your own “nose” shapes. Don’t grab too much cake for shaping unless you’d prefer a cake ball and not a pop. Too much will prove to be too heavy and they’ll slip off the stick. I use about a golf ball size or smaller. Cover the rolled and shaped cake pops with plastic wrap and pop them in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
While your cake pops are getting a bit solid in the refrigerator, gather your other cake pop supplies:
- candy coating medium (as you can see from the photo, there are plenty to choose from; for this tutorial I went with pre-colored Merckens chocolate – not shown)
- candy coating oil based food coloring (if desired)
- sticks (I like the sticks from Hobby Lobby versus the Wilton ones because they are longer and cheaper)
- containers for melting the candy coating
- Styrofoam for sitting the cake pops in
- vegetable shortening or oil for thinning the candy coating (about half a tablespoon per batch of candy coating; just don’t make it too thin or you’ll end up having to dip 2-4 more times depending on how thin you made the candy coating)
- mustache mold
- scissors
- piping bags (or plastic candy coating bottles).
Use any containers that won’t melt in the microwave and place your chosen candy coating medium in the containers. Place the thinning medium into the containers with the candy coating (omit thinning one small bowl or container of candy coating; find out why below). Place them in the microwave and melt using 10-15 second intervals, stirring in between the intervals – this prevents the candy coating from burning.
Color the candy coating in your color of choice or use the pre-colored Wilton candy melts or pre-colored Merckens chocolate. Take the cake pops out of the refrigerator. Take your sticks and dip one end of the stick into the candy coating that HAS NOT been thinned by shortening or oil. Then insert the candy-coated side of the stick a little more than half way (my finger in the picture below indicates how far) into your chilled cake pops. Set the cake pops that now have sticks, into the Styrofoam until the candy coating has hardened.
When the candy coating is hardened, dip the cake pops into the thinned candy coating mixtures you have prepared. Tap off the excess candy coating or patiently wait for it to drip off the cake pop. Take extra care not to shake or tap too hard or your cake pop will fall off the stick. Place them back in the Styrofoam for complete drying and hardening.
While you are waiting for the cake pops to completely dry and harden, melt some black and brown candy melts. DO NOT thin them. Fill the piping bags (or plastic candy coating bottles) with the melted brown or black candy melts and begin filling the mustache molds. It won’t look smooth, so gently shake or move the mold back and forth on the table to move the candy melt which will smooth it. Place them into the freezer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take them out of the freezer and pop the mustaches out of the mold.
Take the hardened cake pops and place them on a piece of wax paper or a napkin. Place the front of the nose face down toward the table. Place the hardened mustaches, face down, under the sticks. Use the remaining candy coating from the piping bag to adhere the mustache to the stick. You can also use another stick to apply the candy coating from the bowl/container if the candy coating in the piping bag has already hardened. Hold the stick and the mustache together. Be patient as it may take up to 3 minutes for the candy coating to completely take hold of the stick.
Finally, HAVE FUN and show off your new mustaches in honor of Movember!
We’d like to send Sarah a big THANK YOU for sharing this Mustache Cake Pop tutorial and recipe with us. You can find more delicious creations on her Facebook page. Be sure to follow along as she has some pretty adorable & inspiring creations to share with you.
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Those are so cute! We love making cake pops at our house. Most of the time I “cheat” by using my little cake pop maker because those ones stand up to my three year old a little better but of course that only works if I’m creating something round 🙂
I haven’t attempted to make cake pops on my own for such a long time. I actually never knew about thinning out the coating! I’ve also learned that I was adding way too much frosting. Now I’m going to have to attempt them again.