Polar Bear Cake Pops
These adorable Polar Bear Cake Pops are perfect for a teddy bear birthday party or baby shower. They are actually rather easy to make following these simple steps!
Servings 18 cake pops
Equipment
- disposable piping bags
- Plastic tip coupler optional
- Small round piping tip, such as #5 optional
- 18 Cake pop sticks
Ingredients
- Easy Royal Icing optional, for ears and nose
- 1 8-inch cake prepared from a boxed mix or homemade
- ¼-½ cup store bought or homemade frosting such as Easy Vanilla Buttercream, see note
- white candy melts
- black icing powder or white royal icing with black royal icing gel
Instructions
Royal Icing Circles
- Prepare flood consistency Easy Royal Icing and add it to a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip or with the tip of the bag snipped off.
- Pipe drops of icing that measure approximately ½-inch in diameter onto waxed paper.
- Allow the icing to dry for several day at room temperature before carefully removing from the paper.
- These decorations can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for several weeks, perhaps even months.
Mix and Shape the Cake Pops
- Break the cooled cake into pieces and put them in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Process to the cake into crumbs on low speed, then add the buttercream and mix until just incorporated. Add more buttercream if needed to get the mixture to stick together.
- Wearing food safe nitrile gloves, scoop a ball of dough and roll it in your hands until it is round. I like to use a 1-inch dough scoop. Repeat until all of the cake has been formed.
- Add royal icing circles for two ears and a nose to each cake ball, only add the ears and shape the snout by hand, or shape the ball into the polar bear head shape without using the royal icing circles.
- Chill the balls of cake for at least 4 hours or freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Coat the Cake Pops
- Place a small amount of candy melts in a bowl. Melt them in the microwave at 50% power for 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted and smooth.
- Dip the end of the cake pop stick, about ¼- to ½-inch, in the melted white candy melts and then insert it into the bottom of each head. Refrigerate them for 1 hour to set the candy.
- Once the sticks are set, place about a cup of candy melts in a tall glass or mason jar. Melt them in the microwave at 50% power for 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted and smooth.. You want the melted candy to be deep enough that you can submerge then entire cake.
- Holding the stick, submerge the cake into the melted candy until it reaches the level of where the stick meets the cake. Carefully lift the cake out of the candy and let the melted candy run off, gently swirling and shaking the cake pop to get the excess off.
- Place them snout side up on a piece of waxed paper. Move the cake pops around one or two times by lifting with the stick. This prevents the coating from pooling around the bottom of the cake pop. The waxed paper will look messy when you're finished, but that's ok. Refrigerate the cake pops until the coating is completely set.
- After the white chocolate is set, carefully peel the cake pops off the waxed paper and move them to a clean cake pan to store them refrigerated.
Final Decorations
- Mix up a small amount of black royal icing and transfer it to a disposable piping bag fitted with small round tip, such as a #5, or with the tip of the bag cut off.
- Pipe two small dots for eyes and a heart-shape for the nose on the face of each polar bear. Lay the cake pops down on waxed paper, face up, to allow the icing to set.
- If you're packaging the cake pops, make sure that the icing is completely dry before packaging.
Notes
Easy Vanilla Buttercream recipe HERE
Store the cake pops in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months, for best quality. If freezing, chill the cake pops in the refrigerator before freezing to help prevent the coating from cracking. Freezing does risk cracking the coating chocolate. Allow chilled or frozen cake pops to come to near room temperature before serving.
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