Drop of Disney

This week, The Little Mermaid, celebrated its 30th anniversary and I’m so excited to join in the celebration with these adorable cake pops!

The things that I remember the most about The Little Mermaid are the bright colors in the animation and the wonderful music. The music in particular has stuck with me throughout my life, especially the song “Part of Your World.” I think the song perfectly captures the feeling of what it’s like to feel out of place and the desire to be a somewhere else that so many people feel at some point in their life. That song in particular helped me connect with Ariel and so I chose to make a dessert inspired by her curiosity for another world.

I’ll start by saying that while I do enjoy cakes pops, for some reason, I have the hardest time making them and so I was really nervous about making these. While I definitely had some struggles with the dipping of the pops, I think overall they came out well.

For these pops, I used a modified cake box mix. When I was doing some research, a lot of bakers recommended using a a cake box mix combined with pudding mix as a way to make sure the cake that will be the right consistency when shaped into a ball. Also, since you’re just mixing it with frosting and giving it a candy coating, the cake itself doesn’t have to be the fanciest.

For my cake pops, I ended up making two different kinds as I wanted to try out different cake mixes. For the first set of pops, I used vanilla cake that I dyed blue to be reminiscent of the sea. For the second, I used a lemon cake. Instead of the traditional lollipop sticks, I used silver plastic forks, or dinglehoppers, as they’re one of Ariel’s finds from the human world.

As always, I had some trouble dipping my pops. I suspect it’s because I added a little too much frosting to the mix, so definitely make sure to add the frosting in small amounts and only use enough to keep the cake pop shaped in a ball.

For the coating, I used candy melts mixed with a bit of vegetable shortening. The shortening makes the candy melts a bit runnier and lighter when coating. For the vanilla cake pops, I used bright white candy melts and for the lemon cake pops I used blue candy melts.

To decorate my dinglehopper pops, I used candy seashells, pearl sprinkles, and edible pearl mist. To make the candy seashells, I used purple and turquoise candy melts. Since I still associate The Little Mermaid with bright colors, I thought these would really pop against the more muted white and blue.

To shape the candy melts into seashells, I used small shell molds that I found on Amazon. I found the easiest way to do this was to melt the candy melts in disposable candy piping bags and then pipe the melted candy into the molds. Overall, these candies were super easy to make and I loved how they turned out.

I placed one shell of each color onto the pops as well as some green pearl sprinkles. To top it all off, I add a light spray of edible pearl mist. I had never used pearl mist before, but I loved how it added a little sparkle. It can be a lot if you spray it on close, so make sure you’re holding the cake pop at least an arm’s length away.

Overall, I loved how these cake pops turned out and think they’re the perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of a classic Disney film!

Print

Dinglehopper Pops

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Little Mermaid with these cake pops inspired by Ariel’s collection! With seashell candies and a moist sea blue cake, they’ll make you feel part of her world!

Course Dessert

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Chill Time 2 hours

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 24 pops

Ingredients

Cake Pops

• 1 box vanilla cake mix
• 1 3.4oz box instant vanilla pudding and pie filling mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• blue gel food coloring

Frosting

• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• ½ cup unsalted butter, soft
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Candy Coating

• bright white candy melts
• blue candy melts
• vegetable shortening

Candy Seashells

• purple candy melts
• turquoise candy melts
• small seashell candy molds
• 2 plastic candy piping bags

Decorations

• silver plastic forks
• green pearl sprinkles
• edible pearl mist spray

Instructions

Cake Pops

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease a 9×9 inch cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, and oil. Beat at medium speed until smooth. Add in the blue food coloring and mix until combined. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Once cake is cooled, trim the top, edges, and bottom of the cake.
5. Place the rest of the cake into a bowl and crumble it until no large chunks remain. Add icing, ½ cup at a time, mixing with fingers until well combined. You’ll most likely need ½ to 1 cup of frosting. Mixture should be combined but not overly wet/moist.
6. Using a tablespoon, form mixtures into cake balls. Place on parchment lined baking sheet and chill until set, about 2 hours.

Candy Seashells

1. Fill one candy piping bag with purple candy melts and another with the turquoise candy melts.
2. Melt in candy melts in the microwave, one at a time, squishing and moving the candy melts in the bag every 30 seconds.
3. Once melted, cut the tip of the bag off and pipe the candy melts into the molds.
4. Place the molds into the refrigerator for 5 minutes to set.
5. Once set, remove from the refrigerator and remove from the molds.
6. Repeat the process with the second color.

Frosting

1. In a medium size bowl, beat butter until smooth.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract.
3. On low speed, gradually beat in the powdered sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Add the milk and beat until combined.
5. Beat on high speed until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Cake Pop Assembly

1. Once the cake balls have set, start preparing the candy melt coating.
2. Melt white candy melts in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds.
3. Add ½ to 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening to the candy melts, stirring until dissolved.
4. Dip the tip of a plastic fork into the melted candy, then into the cake ball. Let set, about 10 minutes. Repeat with all of the cake pops.
5. Dip the cake pops, one at a time, into the melted candy. Tap gently on the side of the bowl to remove excess. Place dipped ball onto a parchment paper covered surface. Immediately place candy seashells and sprinkle pearls onto the cake pop. Repeat will all of the cake pops and chill until set, about 10-15 minutes.
6. Once set, spray each cake pop lightly with the pearl mist. It’s best to spray it from arms distance away.
7. Let dry and serve.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from Wilton