how to make this gorgeous little Totoro Cakepop and our little Soot Sprite.

Tools and equipment that we will be using today:

I'm resting my completed pops in a polystyrene block.

I've got a pair of scissors. 2 zip lock bags.

And a little piece of either greaseproof or wax paper.

I've got a couple of cakepop balls. I've got some lollipop sticks and some toothpicks.

I've got some black candy melts. Some gray candy melts. Now the gray today,

I've used 50% white and 50% black to get that gray color.

I've got some of our black candy melts sprinkles. Now I do have a whole tutorial showing you

how to make these sprinkles. But it is basically just grated, hardened black candy melt.

I've got some melted white chocolate. A few of our little pre-prepared decorations.

As well as some Wilton candy eyes there. A couple of unmelted white chocolate melts.

A knife. And 2 spoons.

So let's get started. Now the first thing we're going to do is make

our little Soot Sprite. He is super easy. So we'll get him done and out of the way first

and then we'll move on to Totoro. So you want to take our cakepop ball. If you

don't have a great recipe for getting your cakepop balls to this stage, ready to dip

and decorate, I will leave a link in the description box below to our cakepop ball recipe. And

this one has been refrigerated for about 15 minutes so it's really really nice and firm.

So I'm going to take my lollipop stick and I'm just going to dip it in. and while I'm

dipping it in, I'm just giving those candy melts just a little bit of a stir so that

they're nice and fluid when it comes to dipping our cakepop ball.

And turning your ball upside down, insert your cakepop stick. So that can go either

just off to the side or into the fridge to dry. And you want to make sure that that seal

is really really nice and firm. We'll pop off to the side.

Now to get started on our little Totoro decorations, you're going to take some of those candy melts

in one of those zip lock bags, and just spoon in a little bit to make some of his little

whiskers. So you just want to push down your candy melts

into the corner of the bag. We're going to snip off just a really really tiny little

corner. [We'll that's] be quite fine. That's supposed to fashion it into a little bit of

a piping bag for us. Then we're just going to pipe 6 or maybe 8. So we'll only going

to use 6 whiskers. But maybe pipe 8. I think a couple of them get broken. And it's just

as easy as piping just 6 or 8 little lines. Don't make these ones too thin. You don't

want them to be too thick because they are whiskers. Those first two, one of them obviously

is not going to work because that's one a little bit too thin. You pipe them too thin,

you're going to have a nightmare of a time getting them on to your Totoro. Try to make

them roughly the same length. So pop a few extras than what we need there.

That seal there is really well-set now so it's time to dip. Now as always with candy

melts, I do like to give them a really nice little stir. Candy melts are quite thick to

work with and I normally add a little bit of Copha, which is a vegetable shortening.

You can also use Crisco if you're in the US. Otherwise, just any vegetable shortening that's

going to set hard so when you melt it, it comes down quite soft, quite liquid. But when

you.... When it comes back to a set temperature, it is hot.

Now, this is a really really easy cakepop as I mentioned. I am just going to dip my

little Soot Spirit ball there. Make sure that that candy melt meets all the way up with

that chocolate seal that we've made. And give it a quick couple of taps.

Now the other thing you want to do with this is just clean up around the bottom. So just

run your finger around the bottom and just make sure that you're getting rid of any excess

candy melt that might be there. And you want to work quite quickly here while that candy

melt is still nice and wet. Don't worry if you don't have a perfect ball. There's a lot

of room for error in this one. So you want to take those 2 eyes and just pop them on

the front -- 1 and 2. And then you're just going to take your candy sprinkles and just

sprinkle them on. This is why you want to do it while this is wet. It is going to make

a little bit of a mess. But what's cooking if can't make a bit of mess? But you want

to make sure that that candy melt is still nice and wet when you do this so that the

candy melt sprinkles have something to stick to.

Alright, so there you have your completed and really really easy little Soot Spirit

Totoro cakepop. We'll pop him in the polystyrene block. We'll have a little bit of a tidy up

and we'll come back to get in to Totoro. Alright, so our Soot Sprite is done and now

it's time to get going on the main character, Totoro. So I've got my cakepop ball. I've

got one pre-prepared and pre-refrigerated here. But I want to show you how I get this

shape. So for this shape, I'm just taking a regular ball and I'm just going to rock

it in the palms of my hand a little, kind of make it almost like a bit of a teardrop

shape, so a little bit fatter at the bottom than it is at the top. And just push the top

down a little bit so that it's little bit flat on the top. That's where his little ears

are going to go. So just something like that. And that's going to go into the refrigerator

for about 10 or 15 minutes so that it's really really nice and firm. Now as I mentioned,

I've got my one here which has already been refrigerated. So to save time, that one is

ready to go. We're going to take our lollipop stick. Give

those candy melts a little bit of a stir. Dip it in the end of... Dip it on the end

of the lollipop stick. And we want to push that lollipop stick into the base of Totoro

there. Now we're going to give that a little bit of time to set.

While that one's setting, we also want to take our knife. So I've just got a flat edge

or butter knife. And we're just going to slice on a bit of an angle. So you sort of want

this to go down on a bit of an angle towards the lollipop stick and slide it up towards

you. And not too big. This is just going to be so our candy melt sits nicely on there.

So you can see there, I haven't taken too much off. And I've really just made just a

little bit of an angle there. And that is going to house our... Just make a little bit

of space for our little Totoro tummy. Popping that one off into the refrigerator to allow

that seal to completely set. Alright, so while that one is in the refrigerator,

we're going to make our other little decorations. So taking that other zip lock bag and a little

bit of our gray candy melt, just spoon it in. Now there are few different ways that

you can make these decorations. You can do them out of fondant if you like. But I'm just

trying to stick to, I guess, things that we've all got at home or that we can all find at

our local store. So taking your bag, we're just going to cut

off just a very fine point again. And you can use little piping tips and all those sorts

of things if you've got a lot of decorating equipment. Taking one of those unmelted melts,

we're just going to make this detailing here. So it's going to be as easy as... Just make

sure that the tip of your makeshift bag is nice and clean. And just put in a couple of

just little...the tops of triangle. So I like to put 3 in the top row and 4 in the second

row. We're having had a look on the internet, it looks to me that Totoro only has 2 rows.

So leave the bottom half of his belly nice and clean. Pop that one off to the side to

dry. And for his ears, I'm also going to do the

ears out of candy melts. So you just want to fashion just a bit of an ear shape. His

ears are quite big in some pictures and quite small in others. So little bit hard to [work]

exactly what was what. And I've found I ended up making a few extras of these. Some of them,

I wasn't as happy with. Alright, so as I mentioned, with those ears,

do make a few extras because you're going to want to try and find sort of matching sets

with those so that you've got 2 ears that look quite similar.

So we'll go and grab our cakepop from the fridge and it'll be time to decorate.

So we're back from the fridge. That seal is really nice and set and our cakepop ball is

really nice and firm. So it's time to dip and decorate. Now you do want to work quite

quickly here because we've got a lot of little accessories that we need to stick on.

As always, I'm going to give my candy melts a good stir so that they're as fluid as they

can possibly be before we dip. And we'll take our Totoro. Now, you want to have at the ready

your little Totoro tummy, your ears, and your whiskers. So I've found it easiest to have

them all sort of separated so that you can just grab them quite quickly. First thing

we're going to put on is the tummy, then it's going to be the whiskers and then the ears.

So let's get dipping and decorating. In he goes into that little candy melt bath

and just tilt him from side to side to make sure that you've got a nice, even dip and

it is covering that seal. Give him a few quick taps. Don't tap it too long because you don't

want that chocolate to start drying on you. Alright, I'm happy I've got most of that excess

off. So like what we did with our little Soot Sprite, just run your finger around the bottom.

And taking your candy melts or your white chocolate melts, just position that on his

tummy, sort of push it in a little bit so that it blends in with that chocolate.

Now we want to take our little whiskers. Make sure that your skinniest side is out. And

you're just going to position them -- 1. Little bit of by eye with the positioning here. 2

and 3. Leaving a little bit of space in the middle for his nose. And then on the other

side. And then we're going to take those ears. Now I like to have the flat side facing forward

with the ears and a nice little pointed tip at the top. And you want to push those just

into the actual cakepop itself. So into the chocolate but you feel that it's actually

going into the cakepop itself. Just borderline on that drying on me there.

So here you've got so far your little Totoro and he s just ready for final details.

So for the finishing touches, we're just going to do a little nose and a couple of eyes.

Now I like to use the end of a spare lollipop stick. It just gives you a nice sort of, I

guess, a nicer size and shape for the eyes. So for the eyes, I'm just going to dip into

that little bit of melted white chocolate. Make sure that you don't have too much there.

And I'm just going to rest him on the bench so that I've got a nice, sturdy, I guess,

area. And you want to put those eyes quite low. So just 1 dot. It will have like a little

point on the end of it. So once they're dry, you can just knock that little point off with

the tip of your finger. Don't try to do it once it's wet or it will make a bit of a mess.

Space those eyes quite far apart. Now turn that stick over. Dip into your black candy

melts and we're going to make the nose. The nose is not quite a round. It's sort of almost

a bit of an oval shape. So once you don't want too much candy melt on there. But I'm

just going to sort just almost paint a little bit of an oval shape. You can do this with

cocktail stick or toothpick as well but it does take quite a bit longer.

If you love this tutorial, make sure that you subscribe to our channel My Cupcake Addiction.

We've got lots of great decorating tutorials -- cupcakes, cakepops and lots more. And we'd

love to have you stop by. Now I'm just going to, as I said, just knock

the little tips. It doesn't take long for them to dry. Knock them off or I'm just going

to press them down so he doesn't have little points on his eyes. Then take your toothpick

and we're just going to give him a couple of little eyeballs. Nice point on that toothpick

and just dab down 1 eyeball and the other. Now depending on how neat your little ears

came out. So as we pull these ones off the paper, you can see there, that one there is

actually quite neat. But then you might get some of these little air pockets or little

air holes in there. So if you want and this is a little bit optional, you can take that

toothpick. And it does just help to blend him in a little bit. Take that toothpick and

just run it up those ears. So it's sort of... It stops him from looking so smooth compared

to the rest of the pop. It just blends him in a little bit so they're not quite as flat

on the front. So there you have your gorgeous little Totoro

and the Soot Sprite cakepops ready to go. I hope you've enjoyed watching this tutorial.

And as always, thank you very much for watching.