Pearly Cake Pop and Macaron Tower for the Mermaid Party tutorial

When I started to plan Lilli's mermaid party I had a vision of a macaron tower starting in white and graduating to a deep green like I ended up making the actual birthday cake. I had seen some pictures of macaron towers with the macarons placed sideways instead of flat and I loved the look. I was going to pop in some extra little embellishments to bring in the mermaid theme and had them worked out, I ordered my custom cut styrofoam from kool foam for the support structure, I was ready to go.

But then I got stuck with the cake pops, I had a couple of ideas which I was not completely loving. I could have decided to not have cake pops (eeek the horror) but then a couple of days before the party I decided to replace the white macarons with cake ball pearls.

I'm feeling pretty good about this tower, I have never actually seen one like it so it was kinda exciting for me to do.

It's a little bit trickier than the stuff I normally post mostly because it has so many steps involved, and it involves making macarons. You can always buy ready made macarons or if you like you can leave them out and have a totally popalicious cake ball tower.

Also I am not describing here how to actually cover styrofoam and cakeboards with the fondant. There are stacks of great tutorials out there and I feel my tower tutorial will be a bit huge and unwieldy if I add it.

Here is a pic of the full table, see there is the macaron tower next to the ocean wave cake. If you would like to see more of Lilli's Mermaid Party Click Here.

Pearly Cake Pop and Macaron Tower Tutorial

Ingredients
30 cake balls or cookie truffle balls covered in white chocolate dipped using toothpicks instead of lollipop sticks (see below for how to dip)
pearl luster (I used the PME spray)
20 light blue macarons (click here for macaron recipe, divide macaron batter into half and colour one section light blue and one section light green)
20 light green macarons
Ivory/Cream fondant
Light blue fondant
Light green fondant
round styrofoam 9cm (3.5') diameter by 9 cm (3.5") high
round styrofoam 12cm (4.7") diameter by 9 cm (3.5")high
rectangle styrofoam 20cm (7.9") X 25 cm (9.8") X 9cm (3.5") high
lots of toothpicks
Cake board and ribbon

#all the styrofoam was custom cut by KoolFoam, the rectangle is also the size I used to display the cookies pops on the dessert buffet.

Cover the small styrofoam with the ivory fondant and the larger round with the light blue fondant. If your not sure how to do this pop over to you tube.

Cover your cakeboard with the light green fondant and adhere the light blue fondant styrofoam round onto the cake board with some royal icing or a bit of fondant thinned with water. Click here for a tutorial from Cake journal  on how to cover a cake board.

I attached ribbon to the edge of the cake board to finish the edge. The cake stand is really just a candle stick from Ikea that I adhered securely to the bottom of the cake board.

Make the cake balls. I used white tim tam cookie truffles, and made them a little smaller than usual (14 grams or 1/2oz), when it is time to dip them in chocolate follow the normal instructions using a toothpick in place of a lollipop stick. So melt the candy coating/ white chocolate, insert the end of a toothpick into the cookie truffle/ cake  ball, repeat for all the cookie truffle/ cake balls and pop in fridge to chill. Remove from fridge, ensure the candy coating/ white chocolate is still melted and holding the end of the toothpick dip the ball into the melted candy coating/ chocolate. Place in styrofoam upright to set.

When you are ready to assemble the tower, push toothpicks into the fondant covered styrofoam rounds. To give you an idea of where to insert the toothpicks place some of the macarons against the round to resemble what they will look like when finished. It should give you an idea of where to place the toothpicks. It's ok you can move them around if needed.

Place the Green macarons on the bottom layer and then the blue macarons above them to make a second higher layer.

Carefully pull the toothpicks out of each cookie truffle/ cake ball. Using the same technique as you did for the macarons push the cookie truffle/ cake balls onto the smaller ivory covered styrofoam round. Insert the toothpick into the holes that have already been made (where you earlier removed the dipping toothpicks from).

Once all the cookie truffle/ cake balls have been placed on the styrofoam round spray all over with the PME pearl luster spray.


Allow to set for a while and then using a spatula/ egg flip carefully pick up the tower and place on top of the light blue macaron covered tower, using some royal icing or fondant thinned out with water to adhere.

Ummm...I've been trying to work out how to pop a link to my book on the side tab but I just can't work it out so sorry you are going to have to put up with my blatant self promotion in each post just a tad longer.

Blue and Red Bird Macarons for MacAttack #22

 I've been missing from the Mac Tweets monthly challenge for a while and I've been missing it. This months challenge #22 was to Kick it Up and create a macaron with alcohol.  So before you get all excited, I didn't do that, but I did stick with the theme and I made some Blue Bird Cocktail inspired macarons. I must admit it was more of finding a cocktail to fit my macarons, as I have had this idea for a while, but once I saw the picture on google images of this pretty cocktail I knew I had found the inspiration.

 

My macarons are my normal recipe coloured red and light blue with Wilton Gels and then decorated with a fondant bird made using a PME robin cutter. The filling is whoopie pie (marshmallow fluff, icing sugar and crisco). This filling looked pretty but not really the best I think for a macaron as the filling is a touch to sweet. I really used it as I had it left over. I normally make up a mix of ganache and Italian Meringue Buttercream which looks just as light and pretty and tastes dreamy and if you wanted to add a dash of liquor it would be a perfect match.



Thanks to everyone over at MacTweets I love looking at all the creations and look forward to seeing all the fun macarons you will come up with this month.

Oh and have you heard......I have a cookbook coming out in December, it's only $12AUD including postage from book depository (also available from Amazon See the tab at the top of the blog for the link to my book). It's a US release by Adams Media and is called Sweets on A Stick and is pretty much what the title states but it's all kid friendly recipes you can make with your little ones. How fun is that!

Here is a link to The Book Depository:

Sweets on a Stick

Lilli's 7th Birthday Party Mermaid Party inspired by Driftwood, the ocean and dreamy little girls

 

I have finally put together a quick post to show you the pictures of Lilli's Mermaid Party and I must mention the party was featured over on the wonderful Kara's Party Ideas which we adore.

Lilli's party was inspired by driftwood, the ocean and dreamy little girls.

As usual I made all the sweet treats. I had seen a tiered macaron tower in a wedding book which I really liked. But I decided to add my own twist and popped on some Tim Tam pearl Truffles for the top layer. Don't worry I'll be popping a tutorial up for this soon.

The cake was inspired by the ocean and was three tiers with the cake wrapped in graduation fondant. Inside the cake was flavored with Blue Haven Jelly Crystals and Italian Meringue Buttercream once again flavored with the Blue Haven Jelly Crystals. I know it's weird.....but blue is one of the birthday girl's favorite flavours. The pretty cake stand is from Sharnel Dollar Designs.

The Mermaid Cookie pops were a huge hit of course and are a vanilla cookie decorated with fondant. Once again I will post a tutorial shortly.

We also had hand dipped oreo's topped with a fondant 'pearl' and the candy and bowls are from Sharnel Dollar designs.

I've found in the past that with a complete candy or sweet buffet there is so much left. As it was sea themed and sushi is one of the birthday girl's favorite things we had Sushi 'de la mar' and 'sea' cucumber sandwiches to balance out all the sweets.

All the amazing paper pom poms were from Ah Tissue.

The mermaid dresses and tablecloth were hand made by Karen McCubbin and had the most amazing swirly detail. The mermaid fabric on the tablecloth was so pretty and is from Spoonflower. If you love fabric you must check them out, they custom print.

Invitations, party bags, party bag tags, candles and napkins were from Paper Eskimo.

We had pass the parcel and made mermaid necklaces with 'pearls' and shells with premade holes from the local discount store which the kids took home as a memento.

Every one had blue lips from the candy, sorry to all the other parent's Xx

Lovely Suppliers

Cake, Macaron and cake pop Tower, Mermaid Cookie pops and dipped oreo's by Bubble and Sweet
Pom Poms Ah Tissue
Cake Stand, Glass Jars and Green Beanies Sharnel Dollar Designs
Invitations, Party Bag and Tags, Napkins and Candles Paper Eskimo which I bought from Details Details (they were super helpful)
Wooden Scoops for Lolly Jars Polka Dot Prints
Table cloth and Mermaid Costume by Karen McCubbin
Photographs by Terri Vandermeer
Mermaid fabric from Spoonflower

Special thanks to mum for making the cucumber sandwiches, Dad for the orchid's and the lovely people at the sushi shop at Arnedale Springwood for coming in on a Sunday to make up Lilli's favorite Sushi.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Xx

Owlisious O is for Owl cookies

So I haven't let go of my square cookie lovin' at the moment and I created these super easy to make Parliament of owl cookies.

I called them O is for Owl cookies because they are basically made from a O shape cutter, deep huh. It took me a while to come up with a name for them....I wanted to call them something Hootish, but everything kept sounding a little bit seedy so I gave up on that angle.

Before we get into the tutorial I'll give you some helpful hints, kinda a do as I say not as I do. I was rushing these and using left over stuff, popping out to the shop and looking after 3 kids so they were not quite as well finished as they could be.

Ok do wait for the brown branch piping to dry before you start sticking on other stuff...don't just keep on going which may result in smudgy knuckle marks in your branch.

Do make sure you cut out the correct number of owls and corresponding wings and beaks. Don't get distracted and go to the shop part way through resulting in a weird pink owl with no nose ending up in the mix.

Do mix up some nice fresh royal icing, don't use that stuff that has been sitting in the piping bag for 2 days since you made some cameo cookies and has separated. People will notice. Well ok most people won't notice actually. They will just see some cute owl cookies for 3 seconds before they munch the evidence away.

Instructions for O is for Owl cookies

Batch of square cookies 5cm (2") CLICK HERE for the chocolate cookie recipe I used
White fondant
Small amount of colored fondant (I used Red, Blue, pink, orange, yellow and purple)

Small plastic rolling pin
cornstarch
brush and water
Square cookie cutter Approx 5cm (2")
Set of small oval cutters (I used my 3 set from the Ateco shapes tin I have around 2, 3 and 4cm)
Small flower plunger
Small triangle or tear drop cutter.
Royal Icing, white, brown and green. Small amount of black for eyes (optional you could use an edible pen or just use up some of the brown)
Piping bags and #1 and #65 tips

To start roughly work out what types of owl cookies you are making, I made cookies which had 2 small owls, 1 medium owl, or the top of one large owl with a small in the background. You will need to cut out your shapes accordingly. For this tutorial I will give rough numbers for 18 cookies with 6 of each mentioned/pictured design.

Knead the white fondant and roll out to a couple of mm thick using the small rolling pin. Cut out squares using the square cookie cutter and adhere to the cookies using a small amount of water brushed onto the cookie and then using the rolling pin to gently press the fondant into place.

Roll out pink fondant and press out a bunch of flowers (around 18) using the mini flower ejector. Repeat with the purple (24), orange (6) and yellow (18)fondant.

Place the brown royal icing into a piping bag with a #1 tip and pipe on some wiggly branches. I drew some squares on paper first and decided where I wanted the branches and owls to go, then I practiced piping the brown over the paper before I started on the cookies. You will need 6 cookies with a branch near the bottom for the medium owls, 6 cookies with a branch at the bottom and a smaller branch in the top right corner for the small owls, and 6 cookies with a small wiggly branch just over half way up on the left side for the cookies with the large owl (eyes only) and small owl in background.

Roll out the red fondant. Cut out oval shapes and then place the bottom of the oval cutter onto the top of the oval fondant shape and press out a small semi circle shape. See the picture example. The remaining shape should resemble a simple owl. Cut out 3 medium red owls, 9 small red owls and 3 large red owls. Use a sharp knife to cut off the bottoms of the large red owls, use your original drawings to determine where to cut.  Repeat for the blue fondant cutting out the same number of owls in blue.

You will also need to cut out the thin wing shapes, use the oval cutters to do this as well. I used the offcuts from the tops of the owl.

Take the excess fondant and cut out a thin wing from each side, so you will end up with 2 wings for each semi circle. The large owls will not need wings so you will end up with 6 medium red wings, 6 medium blue wings, 18 small red wings and 18 small blue wings.

Roll out the remaining orange fondant and using a small tear drop cutter or triangle and a sharp knife cut out a beak for each owl.

Pop your white royal icing into a piping bag with a #1 tip. Using your original drawing or my cookie pictures as a guide, stick the owl cut outs onto the cookies with a little royal icing. Add on the owl wings and beak and then pipe some eyes onto each owl. Adhere the small fondant flowers decoratively around the branches and then pipe a small dot of white royal icing into the center of each flower.

If you find that bits of the royal icing squish out use a small stiff clean brush (you have only used for food purposes in the past or new) to brush away the excess

Fill a piping bag with green royal icing and a #65 small leaf tip. Pipe some leaves around the branches by holding the piping tip on the branch applying pressure and then pulling away.carefully. (practice on some paper first if you like).

Once the eyes have dried pipe on a tiny amount of black royal icing into the center of each eye, or you can use brown royal icing, or an edible pen which ever works best for you.

Also Don't forget the Handmade Wedding Giveaway

If you haven't already entered the Handmade Wedding Book Giveaway pop on over here to check out my review and enter.

and finally here is the link to preorder my book Sweets on a Stick from Amazon, its due out in December. Did I mention I took some pops I made using the chocolate cake pop recipe to kindi the other day for Sweet's birthday and the next day the teacher told me in amazement it is the first time every kid has eaten up the whole treat. I'm taking that as a winning endorsement.

Handmade Wedding - Book Giveaway and Review

I received an early copy of Handmade Wedding over Forty Gorgeous Projects to help you style your wedding your way published by Penguin Books Australia in my mailbox the other day.




Handmade Wedding is a charming book full of gorgeous colour photography that beautifully portrays the finished projects, along with a host of other inspirational pictures.

The book is a collaboration of a host of well known and well respected bloggers, stylists and talented artists and is divided into sections such as Before the Wedding, Getting Dressed, Ceremony, Table, Party and Details.

There are detailed step by step instructions on how to make all the pretty projects, including templates where required and the Party section includes a few recipes including macarons (by Macaron cookbook author Alison Thompson), truffle pops and cookies. I did notice that the macaron recipe recommended a few trial runs before the wedding, so I would say the book offers pretty sound advice as well.

I fell in love with some of the diy craft projects and the day the book arrived found myself ordering items to make the super cute cupcake toppers from the Party Section. Sooo totally in love with them! Many of the 48 projects in the book would be easily transferable to any fabulous soiree you might be hosting, and are not just wedding specific.

I had hoped to floor you all with my super crafty skills and show you all some pictures of the amazing things I had made from the book (hello cupcake toppers) but sadly my stuff is still in transit somewhere.

Anyhoo to round up I guess it says a lot that I was willing to attempt some projects, cause although I'm ok at dipping cakeballs and baking macarons I'm not the craftiest gal around and after reading the book I was pretty confident that I could attempt quite a few of the projects.

Giveaway - Win A Copy of Handmade Wedding

I have the precopy of Handmade Wedding to offer as a giveaway. Just leave a comment here by 12pm Monday the 15th of August and I will randomly choose a winner. Any comment will do, just say Hi if you like. If you would like me to contact you and let you know that you are the winner make sure you leave your email address in the comment as well, otherwise I will announce on Tuesday here and on the facebook page the name of the winner and you can have until Friday to contact me before I redraw.

Good Luck!

Oh and here is my everyblog announcement about my book, which is by the way totally not related to the book I reviewed above......In case you haven't heard I have a book coming out in December available for preorder. It's a US release and is aimed at cooking with kids specifically sweet treats on a stick and has lots of recipes for cake pops, cookie tutorials, pie pops, candy and more.

Here is the link to buy my book Sweets on A Stick by Linda and Vandermeer at Barnes and Noble :)

WINNER  update

Random Org came up with #6 so the winner is Karla

Thanks everyone who entered

Baroque Black Velvet and Cameo Cookies inpired by Kitten D'Amour

I have recently started back working one day a week at my old job from before I had the kids.

I'm really enjoying the work, and they are a lovely bunch of people, but one of the biggest perks is that it's in the city and I get to go shopping at lunch time........without 3 kids running around screaming.

As well behaved as my kids normally are and as much as I adore them, clothes shopping is just not fun with them along. I have lost count of the number of times they have crawled under the change rooms into someone else's stall so in respect of those other shoppers I have mostly given up.

Black bow with cameo, part of cardigan from Kitten D'Amour

But with my new found one day a week freedom I was able to venture into, actually try on and buy a few pieces from the latest clothing collection at Kitten D'Amour. I totally loved them so much I was inspired to make some delicious cookies.

Disclaimer - these cookies are in no way affiliated with Kitten D'Amour - I just really like their packaging and stuck one of my cookies onto the spot where their cute stuff normally rests. Pop over and see the lovely stuff they actually do sell.

Plus I have those gorgeous Cameo molds sitting around that I have not used for about a year, and this seemed like a really good excuse to use them.

I took these along to a BBQ for everyone to try and they were a hit, although as a word of warning everyone's teeth were temporarily turned blue for a minute or too. I used premade black fondant that someone kindly had given me. Normally I try to use less food colour and make my own with chocolate fondant which uses a bit less black colour. Or you could make them in blue and white which would be a bit Tiffanyish and super pretty as well.

Hair fascinator by Kitten D'Amour

Anyhoo before I start on the how to's just a couple of house keeping things.

In case I haven't mentioned it a squillion times I have a book coming out in December which is available through preorder. So every post I'll be having a link to it....... sorry to bore anyone if you've already seen it (and yes I do feel like a tv commercial).




Also I am having stacks of trouble with my blogger account and I might be moving to a new one soon. But I'll give y'all plenty of notice if that's the case.

Baroque and Black Velvet Cameo Cookies

Chocolate cookie dough (click here for recipe)
Black fondant, pink fondant and tiny amount of white fondant
Royal Icing in black and white
Small amount of gold disco dust (like edible glitter) optional
Square cookie cutter with ruffle edge# (mine were 5cm (2") square)
Cameo mold - (mine are aldaval 9003 and 9007 the finished cameos are about 4cm (1 5/8") X 2.7cm(1 1/8"))
icing bags with #1 tip (small round tip)
Small flower ejector
Small rolling pin
small sharp knife
brush and a little water
Cornflour (cornstarch) for dusting

#My square cookie cutters are a set of d.line ones I picked up from Kitchenware Plus, I have noticed them at Robin's as well.
#I picked up my Cameo molds quite a while ago from the UK. I'm not sure where you can purchase them at the moment but on the back of the pack they have an email address aldavalveiners@o2.co.uk

Make up the cookies using the square cookie cutter with ruffled edges and allow to cool.

Work out how many of each type of cookie you will need and make the corresponding amount of decorations. So for example if you are making 18 cookies, half pink and half black, you will need 3 pink cameos, 3 pink bows, 3 black/white cameos, 3 black bows and 6 small flowers.

Use the cameo mold to make up some cameo's. Make sure before you start to pop a little oil/shortening into the mold. I rub a little crisco on, but use what ever you would normally use. Press some fondant that you have kneaded a little to make pliable into the impression in the mold, pressing in well and then use a knife to cut off any excess from the top of the mold so that the back of the cameo will be flat. Pop the mold into the freezer for 30 seconds and then pop the cameo shape out onto some parchment paper until you need to use it. Repeat and make as many as required. I made some in all pink and some with white and black.

Make up some bows using the pink and black fondant, I was really lazy with this bit as I was going to make fondant pearl centers to cover the middles but then I just dolloped some royal icing which didn't work out so good. Use a knife to cut strips of fondant and then fold the edges into the middle to make the top bow section, pop little bits of plastic wrap (Glad wrap) into the loops to help them hold their shape. Cut out more strips to make the ends of the bows look like ribbon hanging down. Use a little bit of water to stick the bits together. Make up a white fondant pearl for the middle and stick it into the center of the bow.

Press out a couple of small flowers using the flower ejector. If you like dust them with a small amount of water and some edible glitter or disco dust and pop a little round dot of fondant into the middle.

Roll out the black fondant onto a cornflour dusted workbench until a couple of mm thick (1/8") and using the cookie cutter cut out fondant shapes. I used the square side but you can just use the ruffled one. Take a knife and cut a few mm (1/8") off each side so the fondant will be a little bit smaller that the finished cookie. Brush a little bit of water onto the cookie and adhere the fondant to the cookie using the rolling pin to press in down. If necessary use the knife to even up the edges. I do this by pressing the fondant back into shape by putting the dull edge of the knife against the cookie and pressing it gently in towards the middle. Just a little to make the edge even. If you are having trouble with the cornflour making the black look all white and dusty you can try using a little white shortening to grease the workbench instead.

Repeat with the pink fondant so that you have some cookies with a black background and some with a pink background.

Mix up some royal icing, it's a good idea to do the black the night before if you have a chance. Get the icing to a consistency that you can pipe with. This is kinda the tricky part, too stiff and it will be peaking with pointy dots, too runny and it will not hold it's shape. So when you are mixing it the consistency should be still quite thick, but if you run your spoon through it drops down after about 10 seconds....yeah ok if like me your not quite that perfect I'll share a little trick and all the perfect cookie pipers please close your eyes and look the other way ;)

Pop the black and the white royal icing into the piping bags with #1 tips. Royal icing dries up really quickly so I use a bit of damp paper towel wrapped around the tips to stop it from drying out in between uses and stick it into an airtight container.

Start by sticking the cameos and the bows into the middles of the cookies with a bit of royal icing. I stuck pink cameos and bows onto the black cookie backgrounds and correspondingly black and white cameos and bows onto the pink background cookies. Pipe little dots all the way around the base of the cameo.

Pipe on the 'necklaces' I practiced on a piece of paper first by drawing a shape the size of the cookie and drawing in three lines to represent the 'strands' and drawing a flower on one of them. Then I piped dots along the strands to work out how many dots might be needed on each strand. Once I was happy with that I just piped them onto the cookie freehand. I piped the top six dots, three on each side and then worked my way down, adhering the flower with a little royal icing.

You can allow the cookies to rest a little and set, or like me just keep on going and risk smudging them. Pipe dots around the edge of the cookies. I used white royal icing on the black fondant background cookies and black royal icing on the pink fondant background cookies. Once again practice on a piece of paper first if you like, I used a #1 tip but if you like you could swap up to a #2, you just need to squeeze a little bit longer with the #1. Pipe dots around the whole edge of the cookie, I made mine correspond with the ruffled edges.

OK now if you didn't quite get the icing perfect and its too stiff and it's a bit 'peaky' pop a small amount of water onto your finger and push the edge of the peak down a little to make the edge look rounded. Make sure your fingers are clean (y'all would be doing that anyway I know) or use clean new gloves and remember just a tiny amount of water or you'll make the icing smudge and with the black it might run onto the pink fondant and you will need to wipe bits off with paper towels and it'll get super messy. If in doubt practice on that bit of paper first.

Once the pink fondant cookies with the black royal icing are set, you can go around and pipe a tiny white dot onto the top of each black royal icing or you can just skip that step, they look good either way.

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.