1. The bat wings need to be made at least 12 hours ahead of time. Draw a bat-wing shape on a piece of light card to about 7cm long and 3cm wide and cut out with a scissors. Roll out the black fondant icing to about 2mm thick and lay the cut-out in one corner. Using a small sharp knife, cut out a wing shape from the icing. Flip the template over and cut out the bat’s opposite wing. Repeat to give 5 sets of bat wings in total, laying them out on a small tray lined with parchment paper as you go. Roll the remaining icing into a ball and wrap tightly in cling film to keep from drying out. Leave in a warm, dry place like an airing cupboard for at least 12 hours or until crisp and dry.

2. Blend the Oreo cookies to fine crumbs in a food processor. Add the cream cheese and blend again to give a really smooth and shiny dough mixture. Divide the mixture into 15 equal-sized pieces (weighing about 25g each). Shape each piece into a ball, arranging them on a large tray lined with parchment paper as you go. Cover with cling film and chill for about 2 hours until firm.

3. Once they are firm, snap the white chocolate into a small heatproof bowl and either melt in the microwave in 30 second blasts, stirring between each go, or over a pan of simmering water, shallow enough that the water doesn’t touch the bowl. When melted, remove from the heat and leave to cool to body temperature.

4. Dip a lollipop stick or paper straw about 1cm into the melted chocolate and allow the excess to drip off. Then insert this part of the stick or straw through to the centre a ball. Repeat with all the balls and then pop them in the fridge while you prepare the icing decoration. The chocolate will set and glue the stick in place. These can be prepared to this stage up to 2 days in advance.

5. Shape the remaining black icing into 35 tiny balls each about 2mm in diameter. Roll the white fondant icing out to about 2mm thick. Stamp out five rounds with a 9cm straight-sided cutter. Shape some of the leftover icing into 20 tiny balls each about 3mm in diameter. Reroll the remaining icing and cut into 5mm wide strips.

6. Now to assemble each of the Halloween characters, starting with the ghosts. Simply lay a disc of white icing over a cake pop and gently ease it down the sides. Use a little of the melted white chocolate on a small brush to stick two tiny black balls on as eyes and one more as a mouth. Repeat to decorate four more.

7. For the mummies, simply wrap the strips of white icing around five cake pops, leaving gaps, particularly at the front to fit the eyes in. Again glue to eyes on with the melted chocolate, this time using two small white balls of icing on each one as the base of the eye and sticking a tiny black ball on top of each of those.

8. Finally, dip one end of a dried bat wing about 3mm into the melted chocolate and then insert it into the side of a cake pop. Repeat with an opposite wing on the other side. Use the remaining white chocolate to glue two white icing balls on as eyes with the black balls on top once again. Repeat to give five in total.

9. These are fun served standing upright jam jars which have been filled with sugar to stabalise them. Alternatively, stand them in bunches in tall glasses or in small glass bottles of milk to serve. They can be stored for a couple of days covered in the fridge.

Photo © Donal Skehan.