So, I finally decided to try making cake pops after crushing on Bakerella’s for so long.  And reaaally go for it by making Golden Snitch cake pops with sugar wings in honor of the newest (and final!) Harry Potter movie that premiered at midnight last night.

To give you an idea of how it went…I started on Monday and just finished them up yesterday!  Slow going!  I used Bakerella’s basic cake pop recipe with Butter Pecan cake mix (hoping it might taste something reminisent of butter beer, which it did!) and Buttercream frosting.

I did run into a few snags along the way…when I tried dipping the cake in melted candy, I had crumbling cake and clumpy, too thick melted candy.  After some googling (Google and I are BFFs), I realized that the pops might dip better if they were frozen and the candy might benefit from thinning out with a bit of shortening.  You can see the difference in Round 1 vs. Round 2 dipping below.  Round 2…still not perfect, but definitely better.

I also had some problems with the candy coating cracking as it cooled, which Google my BFF said had to do with the coating being too thick (still?!?).  Round 2 had fewer cracking, but I think next time I would use even more shortening (I had used about a teaspoon for 14 oz of candy).

Oh!  And here’s my revolutionary method of drying cake pops…coming to a store near you soon!  Egg cartons!

Then, it was time to create the wings to make these look like a Golden Snitch in flight!  I used the same method as making spun sugar, which was another first for me.  1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water boiled (no stirring!) until it starts turning a golden (snitch) yellow (this probably took seven minutes).  Then, let the syrup cool a few minutes while it thickens.  On my first batch, I waited too long and was only able to make a few wings before the whole batch hardened.  So, the second time around I just started testing it out to see how it was coming along.  I made the wings on parchment paper – just an arch shape with three-ish loops beneath.  These need to cool for a bit before handling.

To attach the wings onto the body of the Snitch, I cut a notch in the sides of the cake pops with a paring knife…and experienced more cracking.  Warming the paring knife with water helped, as did cutting into the pop at an angle.  And I probably shouldn’t have had the cake pops in the freezer right beforehand.  But, I’d love to know an even better way to do this if anyone has one!

CAREFULLY place the wings in the notches.  Don’t push – make the notches larger with the paring knife if you need more room.  Or else guess what?  More cracking.  I realized I probably should have dipped the end of the wing into some melted candy to help “glue” it into place.

Then I sprayed the whole Golden Snitch with Duff’s cake graffiti in gold.  The coverage wasn’t as heavy as I would have liked, but it is edible, so I can’t expect the same kind of coverage I’d get from Rustoleum, right?

VOILA!  Harry Potter Golden Snitch Cake Pops, just in time for the end of an era.  These would be great for a Harry Potter birthday party or viewing party!

In full disclosure, I definitely ran into some bumps along the road with this one, but I know that if anyone else tries to make them, they may come up with a great tip or trick to ease the pain (and the cracks).  So, I still wanted to share them!