Want a fun and festive individual dessert for Halloween? These Halloween Push Pops are the answer. Alternating dark chocolate cake with piped orange buttercream produces striking dark-and-orange layers that show through the clear containers. Candy corn and Halloween sprinkles add the finishing touch to the tops.
For added convenience, the cake can be baked ahead of time and chilled before cutting, making the Halloween Push Pops easy to assemble when you're ready to decorate and serve them.
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Quick Look at the Recipe
- What it is: Individual Halloween desserts made with layers of dark chocolate cake and orange vanilla buttercream.
- Cake: Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa produces a deep chocolate color without specialty black cocoa.
- Containers: 2¾-inch push-pop containers.
- Frosting: Vanilla buttercream tinted orange with gel food coloring.
- Piping tips: Wilton 1A for filling and Wilton 1M for the decorative top.
- Decorations: Halloween jimmies and candy corn.
- Make ahead: The cake can be baked, cooled, and chilled before cutting and assembling the push pops.
Ingredients for Chocolate Cake
Making the Chocolate Cake: Step-by-Step
- Initial prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Dry ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and fine sea salt.
- Wet ingredients: Add the eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and coffee. Beat on low just until combined. The batter will be thin.
- Transfer and bake: Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan, and bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cake can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until ready to use.
Making the Orange Buttercream: Step-by-Step
- Ingredients: The Orange Buttercream included confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, fine sea salt, vanilla extract, heavy cream, and orange gel food coloring. The push pops' tops were decorated with candy corn and Halloween jimmies.
- Cream butter: Start by beating room-temperature butter and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and cream: Add the confectioners' sugar to the butter, a cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add vanilla extract and enough cream to produce the desired piping consistency, about 3 tablespoons.
- Add food coloring: Beat in the orange gel food coloring until you reach the desired color. I added about 12 drops. The color will darken as the frosting sets.
Assemble the Halloween Push Pops
- Cut cake rounds: Using a 1 ½-inch cutter, cut rounds from the cake, then cut each round in half horizontally.
- Fill piping bags: Add ⅔ of the orange buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1A large round tip. Add the remaining ⅓ of the orange buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M large star tip.
- Layer the cake and buttercream: Place a round of chocolate cake in the bottom of each push-pop container. Pipe an even layer of orange buttercream over the cake. Add another round of chocolate cake and an even layer of orange buttercream. Add the final round of chocolate cake to the push-pop container.
- Finish: Pipe the final layer of buttercream on top with the 1M star tip. Add a piece of candy corn and sprinkle the top with Halloween jimmies.
With a simple dark chocolate cake and orange vanilla buttercream, you can create an eye-catching individual Halloween dessert. The Halloween Push Pops are festive enough for a Halloween party, but straightforward enough to prepare in advance, leaving the assembling and decorating for last. Yum!
PudgeFactor's Test Kitchen Tips
- Special Dark Cocoa: Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa produced a very dark chocolate cake without requiring black cocoa or black food coloring.
- Chill before cutting. The cake is very moist. Chilling it before leveling, cutting the rounds, and splitting the rounds horizontally helps minimize crumbs.
- Level the cake: The cake tends to dome slightly as it bakes. Once the cake is completely cool, use a large knife to trim just enough to make the surface flat.
- Use Special Dark Cocoa for the Halloween effect. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa produced a very dark chocolate cake without requiring black cocoa or black food coloring.
- Use a round tip inside the containers. The Wilton 1A produces smooth frosting bands. Save the Wilton 1M star tip for the decorative swirl on top.
- Use gel food coloring. Gel food coloring produces a bright orange color without adding excess liquid
- Minimize the decorations. A single candy corn and a few Halloween jimmies provide plenty of color without hiding the frosting swirl.
- Check your lid clearance. Make sure the frosting and candy corn will fit before you decorate all the push pops.
In Case You Were Wondering
Yes. Regular natural unsweetened cocoa can be used in the same amount. However, the cake will have a more traditional chocolate-brown color rather than the deep color produced by Special Dark Cocoa.
It's preferable to use buttermilk even with regular cocoa. Buttermilk contributes moisture and tenderness to the cake, and provides acidity for the baking soda.
Initially, I considered using black cocoa, but ultimately chose Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa instead. The main reason was that Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa is easier to find than black cocoa, and still gave the cake a dark Halloween appearance.
The cake can be made up to 3 days in advance if covered and refrigerated, or 3 months if covered and frozen. The actual push pops can be assembled up to a week in advance if refrigerated.
Candy pumpkins, candy eyes, shaped ghost or pumpkin sprinkles, or crushed Oreos can be used.
Other Halloween Treats
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Recipe
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Chocolate Halloween Push Pops with Orange Buttercream
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Electric Mixer
- 9 x 13 inch baking pan
- Nonstick spray
- Parchment paper
- 12 2¾-inch push-pop containers
- 1 ½ inch round cutter
- 2 piping bags
- 1A large round piping tip and 1M large star piping tip
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1½ cups (7.5 ounces, 213 grans) all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups 10.5 ounces, 298 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (1.5 ounces, 43 grams) Hershey's Special Dark cocoa (See Tip 1)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup (6 ounces, 170 grams) buttermilk
- ½ cup (4 ounces, 113 grams) vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup (4 ounces, 113 grams) hot coffee or hot water
Orange Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup (8 ounces, 227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 4 cups 16 ounces, 454 grams) confectioners' sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
- Orange gel food coloring
- 12 pieces candy corn
- Halloween jimmies
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat on low just until combined. Slowly mix in the hot coffee. The batter will be thin.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely. (See Tip 2)
Orange Buttercream Frosting
- Beat the butter and salt on high speed for about 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
- Add the confectioners' sugar about 1 cup at a time, mixing on low speed initially so it doesn't fly everywhere. Add the vanilla and 3 tablespoons of cream; Beat on high for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy. (See Tip 3)
- Add additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary to produce a buttercream that pipes easily but still holds its shape.
- Add orange gel food coloring a little at a time until you get a vivid pumpkin-orange color. (See Tip 4)
Assembly
- Use a long knife to level the top of the cake. Using a 1 ½-inch cutter, cut 12 round cake pieces. Then cut each cake round in half horizontally. (See Tips 5 and 6)
- Transfer ⅔ of the frosting to a piping bag with a 1A large round tip; transfer the remaining frosting to a piping bag with a 1M large star tip
- Place a cake round in the push pop container. Pipe an even layer of orange buttercream on the cake round. Add a second cake round, pipe an even layer of orange buttercream, then add the final cake round.
- Pipe a swirl of orange buttercream on top using the 1M tip. Add a piece of candy corn. Finish with a light sprinkle of Halloween jimmies.
- Yield: 12 Halloween Push Pops
Video
Tips/Notes
- You can use regular unsweetened cocoa in place of the Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate. However, the cake will not be as dark.
- I like to chill the cake for at least 30 minutes before cutting it to minimize crumbs.
- Add additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary, to produce a buttercream that pipes easily but still holds its shape.
- I added about 12 drops of the gel food coloring. The frosting will darken as it sits.
- The cake will be a little over an inch high. Cutting the cake rounds in half produces pieces that are a perfect size for using three per push pop.
- Use the leftover cake for cake pops!
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