So there’s a site called Neopets that I’ve been visiting for several years. It’s a virtual pet site, but it has lots of things to do besides taking care of your pets, of course. One of my favorite activities is the random contest which features completely random assignments, such as making a movie poster or stuffed animal or cupcake, all within a certain theme.

This week we had to make Altador Cup themed snacks.

The Altador Cup is an event that lasts a month or so, where you join a team and play a game called Yooyuball. It’s similar to soccer or handball, except instead of balls, you score with these little critters called yooyus (they roll up into a ball like armadillos). They come in different colors but I only made the regular ones.

They may not be the best cake pops ever but they were a fun project, and definitely yummy. And they got me into the 15 first place winners :) I had been wanting a third random contest trophy forever…

I used chocolate sponge cake, mixed with dulce de leche and a little rum. By the way is it just me or do you guys not have sponge cake mixes? I mean, I love the huge variety of moist and decadent butter cakes, but don’t you ever want a simple sponge cake? With the light, springy texture and the reduced fat content that conspire to make you gorge at least half the cake on your own (not that I have done that). Plus they’re more work to make without a mix, since you have to beat the eggs forever then fold the flour very carefully.

But I’m just rambling here, you can use any kind of cake you like for these.

After rolling the ball and freezing them, I stuck them on a wooden stick with some melted chocolate on the tip. I used chocolate because it’s what I had on hand, but candy coating is easier to work with. I also added chocolate chips to create the arms, legs and tail. My chips were on the tiny side so I used some chopped chocolate on the ears to make them stand out.

I chilled them for a little longer and them dipped them in chocolate. For the record you can also use melted fondant instead of chocolate, but I don’t think it would have worked here since the chips would probably melt in the heat.

At this stage they reminded me of gengar which is one of my favorite pokemon, so those may be next…

To make the eyes I used those round flat sprinkles. I picked out the white ones and colored them with blue and black edible markers. But you can also use blue sprinkles, draw on the black and them dot the white with royal icing or white candy coating.

I spread some yellow candy coating (which was banana flavored and fit nicely) on the front of the yooyu and stuck the eyes. Then I let them dry and drew some details with a black edible marker.
So, I ended up with a simplified version of the yooyu, of course, but I think they were close enough. I also made some plain pops and drew on some lines to resemble the rolled up yooyu.

If you’re on Neopets, don’t forget to support the Lost Desert on this year’s Altador Cup ;D