Milk and Cookies cake pops made from white tim tam truffles

Who doesn't love milk and cookies. Also cake pops, I know we all love them. So really these milk and cookie cake pops were just destined to happen.

I came up with this idea ages ago while I was making some scrap inspired bird cookies.....see this pic here. I loved my little 'Scrappy Bird' but no one else was quite as taken with him.

Poor Scrappy Bird - is this a cookie only the creator (me) could love........

Anyhoo, while I was making Scrappy Birdy I trimmed off some fondant 'twine' and it looked like insy little striped paper straws. So I started wondered what I could do with a stack of teensy little fondant straws and then I thought of course..... milk and cookie cake pops.

These pops are made from my white chocolate tim tam pop recipe, because that's what I had around, but afterwards I realised it was a great idea as now there are cookies inside AND outside of my milk and cookie cake pops.

Dont'ya just love it when stuff like that works out without even really thinking about it.

Milk and Cookie Pop tutorial

So these are pretty simple,  be sure to make the straws a couple of days prior to assembling the pops so they have had a chance to set.

Ingredients
small amount of fondant half colored red, half white
batch of cake or cookie truffle pops (I used Tim Tam cookie pops click here for recipe)
white candy coating/melts (or white chocolate melts) I am going to call it candy coating for the rest of the tutorial.
copha/or paramount crystals/or crisco for melting.
mini store bought cookies (I used mini chips ahoy)
lollipop sticks
styrofoam block for resting the pops in

Take some red and some white fondant and roll them (seperately) into a thin log using your fingertips and the workbench until they are quite thin. Twist the 2 them around each other like a rope and once again using your fingertips roll the combined, twined fondant back and forth gently on the workbench. Make sure to use really really gentle pressure or you might end up with the fondant twine being uneven. ( Although I guess it will not be such a big problem if your cutting it into small mini straw pieces). Once you have made the twine cut it into pieces about 1.5cm (1 1/2 inch) in length and leave on some parchment paper to set for a day or so.

Make the cake or cookie truffle pops and shape into a milk glass shape by making a cyclinder that tapers up slightly. Chilli n the fridge until set.

Melt the white candy coating in the microwave at bursts of 60 to 90 seconds at medium low. Do not overheat the chocolate. If you want your finished pop to have a really smooth finish you need to add some type of shortening to make the candy coating more fluid. I recommend copha if you are in Australia at a ratio of around 55g to every 400g candy coating, or paramount crystals in the US at a ratio of around 2oz to every 14oz candy bag. If you can not get paramount crystals in the US try crisco but it's not quite as good and you may need to work on the ratios.

Once the candy coating is melted dip the end of a lollipop stick into it and insert into the bottom (thinner tapered end) of the milk shaped pop. Place onto parchment lined trays and chill for 10 minutes.

Ensure candy coating is still fluid and if not remelt at medium low heat. Remove pops from fridge and holding the end of the lollipop stick completely submerge into the melted candy coating. Lift out and hold over the bowl gently tapping to remove excess candy coating. Take a bit of time with this step otherwise your finish may not be as smooth as you might like.

Place the pop upright into the styrofoam block and using a toothpick make a hole in the top of the milk glass pop and push the premade fondant straw in. Take one of the mini cookies and hold it onto the front of the pop until it sets a little and is secure.

 So there you have it, my quick how I made milk and cookie pops. Obviously you can make the straws any color you like and change up the cookies (I think mini oreos with blue and white straws would look great).

Also I have been wondering if those jumbo candy cane sprinkles you can get at Christmas time might work as straws if you cut off the rounded end....but seeings as I don't have any and making the fondant straws is kinda easy I'm just gonna keep on wondering.

Sweets on a Stick Bubble and Sweet Cookbook being released soon

I know I have been a bit slow with posting on the blog lately, but I have a really, really great excuse........

I wrote a cookbook.

Yes a real live cookbook to be published in the US by a real publishing house and due for release this coming holiday season.

I'm a little bit excited.

It's focused on making sweet treats on a stick with your kids and there are a stack of new ideas and recipes that I think everyone will love, as well as some of my favorites from the blog modified for kids.

Some of the pictures inside are soooo cute if I do say so myself and I can't wait to share more information with you.


and while I'm on the self promotion here is a picture of me taken by Naomi V Photography who is totally amazing. As well as headshots like this, Naomi is available for weddings, commercial work, family portraits and newborn shots.

You might remember her she took the photo's at the Magical Forrest Tea Party and Ava's Tea Party last year.

OK.......I'm always a bit embarrassed about promoting myself so now that I'm blushing a bit I'm off to bake a batch of Christmas in July cookies for a friend.

Fancy Smancy Pink Mask sugar cookies

Pretty pink mask sugar cookies I cooked up for a bunch of pretty little girls.

Think I might call them Harlequin Heart (white and pink),  Diva (pink and gold) and Swirling Heart mask (pink and red).

I'll be doing up a tutorial for one of these and would love to know which one you would prefer the tutorial for?

Let me know in the comments.

In Love with.........Miette the cookbook

Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop

I am totally in love with the cover of this book.

It looks like the kind of simple but sooo amazing baking that I like, the basics if you will behind all the decorating. Reminds me of some of my other favourite cookbooks that I talked about previously (click here for link)

and of course it doesn't hurt that it's from a renowned patisserie in San Francisco.
I have already pre-ordered my copy and can't wait for it to turn up so I can try out all the recipes.

These are a few of my favourite things

I love cookbooks and have shelves groaning from the weight of the many I have collected over the years. Most of my cookbooks are specifically baking and decorating and like everyone I have some favorites, and if I use a recipe exactly as it has been written in a cookbook I don't copy it into the blog so I thought I would share a couple of my fav Baking books (that is books I use specifically for baking not decorating tips).

Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look

My number 1 fav is The Whimsical Bakehouse - "fun to make cakes that taste as good as they look" by mother and daughter team Kaye and Liv Hansen

This is one book that actually lives up to it's promise. I admit I haven't tried every recipe in this book but the ones I have work every time and are completely delicious.



My favourite chocolate buttercake which I also use for cupcakes,



creamiest Italian Meringue Buttercream,



the chocolate chip pound cake for my son's recent birthday cake



and the golden buttercake I used for the Wizard of Oz rainbow cake.

I love every recipe I have tried. There are lots of colour pictures and detailed explanations on their decorating technique. Be warned however that this book does not use fondant decorations so if your looking for a book dedicated to that type of decorating grab something else.

The book is from the US so if you are Australian like me you'll need to do some converting, but I promise it's completely worth it. Just remember a stick of butter is 4oz or 114g, a US tablespoon is equal to 3 Australian teaspoons and buy a pyrex measuring cup and you should be pretty good to go.

Book I can't live without #2 is More from Magnolia "recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen"

More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen

Yup these are the cupcakes famously featured in Sex and the City and they are simply delicious. Best vanilla cupcake and simple frosting * recipe ever....need I say more. (this is my own opinion and I know everyone has different tastes, please don't send me any hate mail, although if think you have a better recipe I would be happy for you to send me that).

OK I will say more, simple is the key to these recipes they are plain old fashioned baking, no fancy decorating tricks to deceive you, so the focus is on the taste. Other favourites from this book include black bottom cupcakes  and the Cream Cheese Crumb Buns which are a little fiddly but soooo soooo worth it.

Black bottom cupcake - chocolate cupcake with choc chip cheesecake baked on the top, I know......YUM, The pic above is modified with an Oreo on the bottom.

It also has a handy conversion table in the back for temperature and weights which is super handy for us Aussies. I only wish it had more pictures, I love pictures in cookbooks and this book only has a few colour pictures included.

Example of magnolia frosting.....

and here is a coffee version.......Mmmmmmm 

These books do sometimes use baking items that may not be easily found in your local grocery store, sometimes they use graham crakers or butterscotch chips etc, however you can just substitute a more easily accessible item. But all the recipes I have specified above and lots lots more that I use all the time are totally grocery store friendly.

*note when I make the frosting for the magnolia vanilla buttercream I reduce the milk to around 100m which seems to suit the Australian climate a little better.