Friendly Little Lion Cake Pops - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 cups chocolate cake crumbs
1/3 cup chocolate frosting
12 oz white chocolate, broken into pieces
None None Orange food color
22 None lollipop sticks
None None Orange fruit roll-ups
None None Brown, yellow, orange and red M&M's
None None Vermicelli noodles, cut into 1-inch lengths
1/4 None quantity royal icing (see below)
None None Black food color
None None FOR THE ROYAL ICING
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 None egg white
1/4 tsp lemon juice

Preparation

Combine cake crumbs and frosting in a large bowl. Using wet hands, shape level tablespoons of mixture into 22 balls, squeezing firmly. Place on a parchment paper-lined tray. Freeze for 1 hour or refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight, until firm.
In a medium heatproof bowl set over a medium saucepan of simmering water, melt white chocolate until smooth (don't let water touch bottom of bowl). Tint chocolate pale orange.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into chocolate, then push it about halfway into a ball of cake. Return to tray. Repeat with remaining sticks and balls of cake. Place tray in the freezer for 5 mins to set.
Meanwhile, cut 22 small triangles from fruit roll-ups for noses. Cut brown M&M's in half; attach to the top of pops with a little of the chocolate to make ears. Let stand upright until set.
Dip one cake pop into the chocolate, covering the ears too, rocking back and forth to coat; don't swirl the pop, or it'll break. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Let stand upright in a styrofoam block until set. Repeat with remaining cake pops. Re-melt chocolate as necessary.
Cut an edge from each of the remaining M&M's; attach them to pops with a little chocolate for the mane. To make whiskers, attach 6 vermicelli pieces to each pop; top with fruit roll-up triangles for a nose. Stand pops upright until set.
For the royal icing, sift the powdered sugar through a fine sieve. Lightly beat the egg white in a small bowl until frothy. Beat in the powdered sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until it reaches desired consistency. Using a wooden spoon, mix in in the lemon juice. Divide into quarters; reserve three-quarters for another use.
Tint royal icing black. Spoon icing into a small piping bag fitted with an 1/8-inch plain tip. Pipe on eyes and mouths.