It’s no secret that I love to bake and decorate cakes, but I recently discovered something just as fun but more more simple to make … candy pops! I was browsing my local Michael’s craft store and saw this incredible display of Halloween baking and candy products and the cutest little pumpkin mold popped out at me. I immediately thought these would be perfect for my son’s 4th grade Fall party except … we’re not allowed to bring anything homemade.
Living in a small community does have the advantage that we can pass out homemade goods to our neighbors kids during Trick-or-Treating. So rather than buying bunches of bags of pre-packaged candy, we’ll be making our own this year.
Tools:
- Wilton Smiling Pumpkins Lollipop Mold
- Parchment Triangles
- 4 inch lollipop sticks
- treat bags
- Halloween ribbon
Ingredients
- 1 bag of orange Wilton candy melts or 1 bag of white candy melts and orange candy melt coloring
I really can’t express enough how easy and inexpensive this project is. Even if you have to buy all of the tools needed, you’ll spend less than $20. I started by removing the packaging from the candy mold which I wish was easier. The label is stapled into the mold which can be a bit of a pain to remove. I’d really like to see a different packaging technique here, something that doesn’t damage the mold.
Now there are a number of ways to melt and distribute the candy melts but I found that using a microwave safe plastic storage container to melt them in the microwave was perfect. One bag of candy was perfectly melted by using the microwave at 3 minutes 30 seconds on a power level of 60%. I stirred the candies every 30 seconds just until they were about 90% melted. Then used a spoon to stir them until completely melted. This helped avoid overheating the candy!
Next, I needed a way to get the melted candy into the molds without creating a mess. The solution? Parchment triangles. At first I was utterly confused how these worked, that is until I found this great parchment folding video on Wilton. Once folded you just fill them about half way with the melted candy and cut the tip.
I just filled the mold, inserted a lollipop stick and tapped the mold on the counter top for about 30 seconds until all of the air bubbles were released.
After about 2 hours in the refrigerator you can easily pop the candies out of the mold and cover them with treat bags tied off with a cute Halloween bow.
The one thing I don’t like about buying holiday themed products is they are often only good for one baking project. For that reason, I often scour the Wilton website for additional project ideas and came across two other fun ways to use the Pumpkin Lollipop Candy Molds including the Piggyback Jacks Candy, a fun Halloween themed krispy treat, and the Double Pumpkin Head Cupcake. They could also be a fun addition to bring some color into a graveyard cake!
