Peppermint Candy Christmas Cake pop

I'm not the hugest fan of hard candy like lollipops and hard peppermints but I adore the look of them. I think that is why I am often making fake candy versions out of other sweets that I do like, y'know cookie and cake pops, cupcakes....macarons. Well pretty much mostly everything other than hard candy.

So I made up this version of peppermint candy that is a choc mint flavoured cake pop, it looks pretty, tastes minty, but best of all for me I can easily bite into it.

I also made some candy cane pops, but I was not the hugest fan of these, they worked ok, but there were a few breakages during the dipping and although I think it was the dodgy packet of melts I had I can't be sure so I'll just share the pictures this time.

In Australia we have a cookie called Mint Slice which is made by Arnotts. It is a hard round biscuit (cookie) topped by a layer of mint icing (frosting) and then completely enrobed in dark chocolate.

If you don't have a local cookie like the Mint Slice you can just use a plain Oreo truffle recipe like this one (CLICK HERE) and add peppermint oil or extract to taste.

Peppermint Candy Christmas Cake pop

In this recipe I use a Fondant cake pop decal to decorate the cake pop. I am going to refer to it as a Ca-popper to save time in the recipe

Capopper (Fondant cake pop decals)
White fondant
green fondant
red sanding sugar
royal icing
candy shaped cookie cutter
small rolling pin

Roll out the white fondant onto a bench dusted lightly with cornflour until quite thin and use the cookie cutter to cut out a candy shape.

Roll out the green fondant and cut out the candy shape. Remove the edges so you just have the round middle and then cut the middle into 10 equal (ish) triangles. Pop 5 of the triangles onto the white fondant candy to look like swirls in a hard peppermint candy - use a little water to adhere if necessary.

Fill in the remaining white spaced with a little royal icing and then sprinkle over red sanding sugar.

Allow ca-popper to set for at least a day.

Place flat onto a parchment covered tray

Mint Slice Truffles
1 packet Mint Slice Biscuit
35g full fat cream cheese

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix until well combined.

Candy shaped pops
Ca-popper - see above made at least one day before
cake pop or cookie truffle mixture
hard candy shaped cookie cutter
red or while candy coating (like wilton melts)
lollipop sticks (around 6")
small microwave safe bowl, large enough to dip a whole pop into completely.

Take around 25g (7/8 oz) of the biscuit/ cookie truffle mixture and push into the candy shaped biscuit cutter just filling the inside round as per the picture. Use a lollipop stick to make a hole in the bottom where you will later be inserting the final lollipop stick, place on a parchment lined tray and pop into the fridge until firm.

Melt candy coating in the microwave at bursts of 90 seconds on medium low heat stirring in between until all lumps are melted and the mixture is smooth and fluid. I add copha (or paramount crystals) before I melt the candy coating as I find it is too thick to dip easily without the addition.

Take the chilled rounds out of the fridge and holding the end of a lollipop stick dip one end into the melted candy coating and then insert the stick into the round cookie truffle (or cake pop) mixture. The sticks should be laying parallel to the tray as per the picture. Repeat for all the pops and then return to the fridge to chill again.

While the pops are chilling, arrange the ca-popper on  a parchment lined tray with the decorated side facing down. You are going to lay the dipped pops on top of the so make sure there is enough room for the sticks

Once the pops are chilled, make sure the candy coating is still melted and fluid, if necessary pop back into the microwave for a short time (at medium low heat).

Holding the end of the lollipop stick submerge the whole pop into the melted candy coating. The lift it out of the candy mixture. You need to keep holding the pop upside down for a while until the excess candy coating mixture drops off otherwise it will run down your hand and the lollipop stick. I gently tap mine against the edge of the bowl to help the excess drip off.

Allow the candy coating to almost set and then carefully lay the pops on top of the ca-popper.

For a stack of other cake pop recipes and ideas check out my newly released book Sweets on a Stick available here at Amazon.



Or the book depository (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

The end