Happy almost Halloween, RMT’ers! It’s about time that I revive my “Treat Tuesday” series; it is “Baketober” after all. Today’s focus is on Halloween treats and sweets, particularly ones you can make into “cakesicles.”

What is a cakesicle, you ask? As you can see, is a small cake, bar, or cookie that is baked into the shape of an ice pop by method of a specific pan (I have the one by Norpro and love it!) or cooking device. Then while the cakes or cookie bars cool you stick a wooden ice pop stick up through the base of the cake so the entire thing resembles a Popsicle. The cooled cake or bar “grabs” the stick once it cools completely. You can stop there, or you can frost or candy-coat them and then decorate and package them up however you desire.

The trick with the cakesicle pan is to be sure you non-stick spray your cakesicle pan molds well (I use the baking type with flour added) and then spread the batter to every bit of the molds’ corners evenly. You can see from my first attempt that simply dropping a ball of cookie dough will not get that exact cakesicle shape, though I can’t say T and his friend complained too much either as they still tasted great.

The box that my cakesicle pan came in provides instructions on how to convert a basic cake mix into cakesicle format along with a few other recipes, but do note that apart from those suggestions, baking times will vary depending on the kind of batter used in your cakesicle pan. I cannot speak for the machine as I do not have it but what I found is that for my easy sugar cookie batter that normally bakes one sheet at a time at 375 for 6-8 minutes, I extended the baking time to around 10 minutes at the same temperature (give or take, use the toothpick test).

With cookie bars, such as Blondies or pumpkin bars that have a consistency somewhere between cookie and cake batter (similar to a brownie batter), for a recipe that normally bakes in an 8×8″ or 9×9″ pan for 25-30 minutes, I baked the same recipes in the cakesicle pan for around 15-20 minutes (again, using the toothpick test to check doneness).

I ran out of time this Halloween season in trying a seemingly endless variety of cakesicle ideas. I’d brainstormed making ghosts (decorate cakesicles by dipping in white candy-coating, coat with shimmery sprinkles, and finish by dotting on two eyes with black candies), tombstones (Love from the Oven has a great looking one here), and monster heads (turn the cakesicle 180-degrees and make the flat base the top as the forehead and hairline and the rounded end the chin). You could put the sticks in or not for any of these depending on how detailed you want to get on presentation. For example, one could bake an additional 9×13 snack cake, frost and decorate it green like a lawn, and then stick the tombstones atop the lawn for a larger graveyard look.

Yeah, so I didn’t get around to any of those elaborate holiday-inspired ideas; remember, this is Real Mom Time and things derail us more often than not (i.e., illness, allergies, and other unplanned events), so my test kitchen shut down mid-week last week before I got to all of those theoretically boo-tastic ideas. But I did manage to bake up this very basic tombstone. I hand-picked the green bones from my Target-brand Halloween sprinkles and put the “RIP” atop the batter before baking so it’d bake right in… and it worked! Fair warning though… hand-picking and placing those sprinkles was painstakingly laborious, so you may want to look into another option, such as a longer, skinnier candy to use to make your lettering (thin licorice rope might work?).

I know Halloween is just two days away, but if you own a cakesicle pan, then maybe I’ve given you a few last-minute ideas to make your upcoming events, parties, and play dates more memorable and sweet. Have a safe, fun, and tasty holiday!

What creations have you made with your own cakesicle pan or machine, RMT’ers? Please share your (p)inspiration!