Elmo & Cookie Monster Cake Pops

My friend texted me looking for ideas for Children's Day gifts for her daughter's classmates...of course, I only have edible ideas! Haaa. She wanted cakes on a stick. How about Sesame Street Cake Pops? Elmo for the girls and Cookie Monster for the boys!

First, the usual steps as per my Cake Pops Basics: Make a cake, crumble it and mix with buttercream frosting. Roll them into balls (the ones for Cookie Monster were rolled into oblongs) and stick them in the freezer. These cake pops were made out of red velvet cake swirled with dark chocolate ganache.

For Elmo, I used red Wilton Candy Melts. Remember that problem I had with the red Candy Melts being too thick the last time I used them for these Apple Cake Pops? I had such a hard time getting the coating to be nice and smooth. But this time, because Elmo is furry, he doesn't need a smooth coating. Thick Candy Melts? No problem! To make Elmo, first melt down the Candy Melts. Stick the cake pop on stick, then dip it into the Candy Melts and let the it dry. It should harden pretty quickly since the cake pops are straight out of the freezer. This base coat is important because of this next step: Elmo's "fur".

I got the technique to make "fur" from a friend that gave me a Christmas tree cake pop last Christmas. All you do is dip the cake pop into the Candy Melts a second time, and then, working quickly, gently tap a toothpick all over the surface before the Candy Melts harden. Voilà, fur! After attaching fondant eyes, nose and mouth on using some melted Candy Melts, our Elmo cake pops are complete.

Elmo Cake Pops

Cookie Monster is pretty similar to Elmo, except instead of Candy Melts, I used white chocolate dyed blue using blue candy oil. Please take note that in order to dye chocolate, an oil-based or powdered food colouring should be used. Liquid and gel food colouring is not suitable because they are water-based and will cause the chocolate to seize and become unusable. Remember, chocolate and water do not mix so always make sure that the bowl you are using to melt your chocolate is nice and dry.

Ok, back to Cookie Monster. As with Elmo, dip the oblong cake pop on a stick into the melted chocolate. Allow to dry completely before dipping a second time and making his "fur" using the tooth pick tapping method. Add fondant eyes (make them googly this time!) and a bigger mouth and boom, we have Cookie Monster cake pops!

Cookie Monster Cake Pops

Did you think that Cookie Monster was missing something? Of course, his trademark cookie! "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me, oh cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C." (Yep, I had this song in my head the entire time I was making these cake pops.) 

Cookie Monster Cake Pops, with "cookies"!

The "cookies" are made of fondant, though if you have teeny tiny cookies lying around, or maybe even Cookie Crisp cereal, you can use those instead and save yourself the trouble of rolling itty bitty balls to make the "chocolate chips" on these cookies. 

Elmo & Cookie Monster Cake Pops

The Elmo and Cooke Monster cake pops were individually packaged in cellophane, with a customized Sesame Street-inspired gift tag to wish the lucky recipients a very Happy Children's Day!

Happy Children's Day!