You knew it was coming: the iconic giant squid! After all, this wouldn’t be a TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES menu without a recipe inspired by one of literature’s most famous sea monsters. 😉
From day one of planning this menu, I knew I was going to include an homage to the giant squid. The big question was HOW. I thought about making sauteed octopus tentacles as the entree, but I was really excited to make tuna steaks instead. Then I considered fried calamari, but I couldn’t get calamari rings (which turned out for the best, because it meant I got to make mock turtle soup, which was delish).
That left dessert as my only option. While hunting for inspiration on Pinterest, I saw these adorable jellyfish lollipops by TheSweetStoryLine. I loved how the height from the stick allowed for long, dangling tendrils. This reminded me I have a killer recipe for cake pops, so I set to work designing a cake pop version of the iconic giant squid from TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES.
And here it is! Say hello to the cutest, sweetest, angriest squids you’ve ever met. These grumpy little guys are stylized versions of giant squids because I like the juxtaposition of a cute yet dangerous sea monster. These squids are blue since it makes the “suckers” on the tentacles more visible, and I had loads of blue candy melts left over from a previous recipe. I also had giant candy eyeballs left over from my other ocean-themed dessert, Colonel Brandon’s Curse Cupcakes. Which also happens to feature a too-adorable-to-be-scary sea monster.
My kids adored these, and I hope you do too. Eat them up fast . . . before they eat you! 😉
A
Captain Nemo’s Squid Cake Pops
“It was a squid of colossal dimensions, fully eight meters long. It was traveling backward with tremendous speed in the same direction as the Nautilus. It gazed with enormous, staring eyes that were tinted sea green . . . its arms stretched a distance twice the length of its body and were writhing like the serpentine hair of the Furies.”
— Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 9-inch unfrosted chocolate cake (I used the cake recipe from my cookbook, A Literary Tea Party.)
- 1/4 cup chocolate frosting (For an amount this small, I don’t think it’s worth making frosting from scratch, so I used some canned Wilton chocolate frosting.)
- 16 oz blue candy melts, divided
- pink pearl sprinkles
- 13 cake pop sticks
- 13 large Wilton candy eyeballs
- black food marker
Makes 13 cake pops
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Break your cake into chunks and put it through a food processor until it is broken up into crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl. Mix in the frosting with a fork until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours. If making the cake the day before assembling, be sure to wrap it in plastic wrap once cooled. If the cake dries out too much, you can taste the staleness in the finished cake pops.
- While the dough chills, melt 4 oz blue candy melts according to package instructions and transfer to a piping bag either fitted with a small round piping tip or cut to create a small, round opening. On one sheet of wax paper (this can be placed on a baking sheet for easy moving if desired), pipe 26 squiggles about 2 inches long. On another sheet of wax paper, pipe 26 squiggles about 3 inches long with an oblong dollop at the bottom about 1/2-inch long. On each of these dollops, add a few pink pearl sprinkles.
- While the tentacles set, shape the chilled dough into 13 balls. Each should weigh 2 oz and be about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Shape each of these into a 3-inch flattened triangle with rounded edges. Place on a sheet of wax paper and set aside.
- Arrange tentacles into groups of 4. In each group should have 1 short tentacle followed by two long tentacles, then another short one. Fan these out as pictured in Step 6, so that the tops of the tentacles are touching but the bottoms are splayed. You will eventually place your coated cake pop on top of this, which will fuse the tentacles to the body of the squid.
- Melt remaining candy melts according to package instructions and transfer to a mug. Dip a cake pop stick 1 inch into the candy and insert into the bottom of a triangle. Repeat with remaining sticks and triangles.
- Submerge a cake pop in the candy and remove. Hold it over the mug for a minute or so to let the excess drip off. To speed up the process and avoid cake pops softening and breaking, I recommend lightly scraping the bottom and sides of the cake pop with a chopstick or extra cake pop stick. Place the coated cake pop on top of a set of tentacles so that 1-2 inches of tentacle are visible underneath the body of the squid. Place a candy eye in the center of the squid body. If desired, use a chopstick or cake pop stick to dab extra candy melt over the top of the eye to create a partially lowered eyelid to make the squid scowl.
- Repeat Step 6 with remaining cake pops. When cake pops are set, use a food marker to draw an offset frown under each eye. Store at room temp for up to 1 week (they can last 2-3 weeks longer if refrigerated). The legs can be delicate, so I recommend not moving them around too much until you’re ready to plate them.
- Serve aboard the Nautilus, to make the crew feel just a tiny bit better about all the terrifying monsters lurking the deep.
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