Yogurt Push Pops - and now for something healthy for the kids

 OK - I'm gonna go right out and say it. Push Pops are gimicky.

Yup that's me here calling the kettle black.

I've been playing around with the push pops for a little while now and what I can tell you is that kids like them. Sometimes they don't quite have the fine motor skills to stop pushing in time, but boy oh boy do they like them.

So I'm all for letting that little fact work for me and I've been making up these yogurt, fruit and muesli push pops for the kids to have for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

and there's no guilt, cause it's healthy, fun and these little plastic babies while not great for the environment are washable and reusable.......and dishwasher safe as well.

Now I know your thinking, but can't you just scoop some yogurt into a bowl, and it's true I could, but around here we have a bit of a struggle every school morning to get breakfast eaten. If I say there is yogurt they want cereal, if I offer cereal they want pancakes (which is strictly a weekend thing here)......constant struggle.

Some days when I know that I will be focusing on other stuff this is a perfect breakfast as the kids think they are getting a treat and I can prepare it before hand and have it sitting in the fridge ready to go.

Pretty yellow print Greengate tea towel from - Just Plain Gorgeous Bulimba QLD Australia(07) 3399 2002

Push pops and Push pop stand from Popular Treats (Australia)

Also available here in the US

Yogurt, Seasonal Fruit and Muesli Push Pops -You can make it up any way you like but this is what I did:

Yogurt (I used The Original Greek Yogurt Co Passionfruit and Lemon Curd yogurt)
Muesli (I used cranberry toasted)
Seasonal fruit (peach, blueberries and raspberries)

Spoon in some yogurt until 1/3 way full, sprinkle in a couple tsp muesli, add some finely chopped peach.

Add more yogurt until nearly at the top of pop, sprinkle another tsp of muesli and garnish with some more fruit.

 

Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow cake pops for Saint Patricks Day

I was in the service station waiting to pay for petrol last year and I saw little bags of bubble gum 'nuggets of gold'.

Which I thought were pretty cute, so straight away my sweet obsessed mind started thinking about what I could make with them..........and then I remembered gum + kids = disaster. Shoot that shot down that idea I popped the gum back on the counter.

So I had already thought up these cake pops and I couldn't get the idea out of my mind and I really wanted that gold nugget gum and then luckily the next day I realised that candy nerds would work just as well if not better.

Such a win win situation cause then when I went to pick up the nerds I saw green ones and I realised that they would make great witch cauldron pops (which I posted here last year).


The actual dipping technique for the pops is one I came up with while writing my kids treat decorating book.
I know lots of people, kids especially, have trouble dipping the pops and getting a smooth finish so these ones are great.

Its the upside down method which is really easy and the chocolate pooling makes its own little cauldron shape. How great is that!

If the whole rainbow fondant think is a bit daunting just leave it off and you can still have awesome little pots of gold on a stick.

Pot 'o 'gold Rainbow cake pops

I recommend using the actual candy melt/ coating type of 'chocolate' for this pop (like Wilton) as it really does set much faster than regular chocolate and makes adhering the rainbows much easier.

1 batch cake or cookie pop mixture
Candy Coating (like Wilton candy melts) and copha or paramount crystals
Fondant (in rainbow colors)
sharp knife
cornflour/ cornstarch
small rolling pin
water and brush
lollipop sticks
Yellow nerds
*remember fondant dries very fast. Work quickly and when you are not using it make sure you keep it in air tight containers.

At least one day prior to making pops make the fondant rainbows.Dust a bench lightly with cornflour/ cornstarch roll out some purple fondant and using a sharpe knife (or cutter if you have one) cut out the shape of a rainbow half arc.

Roll out the remaining rainbow colors and cut into thin strips. Attach one strip of each color to the purple arc using a very small amount of water brushed on and then using the rolling pin gently press the colored fondant strips onto the base. Use a sharp knife to trim off any excess colored pieces to make a neat rainbow arc.

Make up a batch of cake pop mixture (that is mush up any cake with some buttercream frosting until moist but still firm). Yellow cake is a great choice for this pop and you may even like to add extra colour.

Line a tray with parchment paper. Roll the mixture between the palms of your hands. I like to weigh my mixture to make sure it is the same size but you can use a small icecream of melon scooper of around 3 tsp. Place each ball onto the parchment paper lined tray and pop into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Melt up a bag of dark chocolate chocolate melts/ candy coating (or black melts if you want). Mix in quite a bit of copha or paramount crystals - now is not the time to be delicate you need a stack - look at the picture about a ratio of 1:7 for the wilton brand to give an example (1 being the copha and 7 being the chocolate/candy melts)

I melt my chocolate in the microwave on medium low, medium is too hot and high is way too hot. If you heat your chocolate at too high a temperature it will burn and not be salvageable for dipping .Remember medium/low for short bursts of 60 to 90 seconds.

Grab a bunch of lollipop sticks. Holding one end of the stick dip the other end into the melted chocolate/candy coating and insert it into the cake ball so the stick is upright like the picture. Pop into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes or so until the sticks are secure.


Make sure the chocolate/candy coating is still melted. Holding the end of the stick dip the whole cake ball into the melted chocolate/candy coating lift it to allow a little to fall off so the edges are smooth and round and then push just the top back into the chocolate/candy coating and quickly put the pop with the stick still upright onto parchment paper lined tray.

Continue with the remaining pops and when you are finished carefully peel off the paper to leave the cauldron shaped pops.

Then using the back of a spoon or a knife, spread on a little bit more melted chocolate/candy coating onto the top/flat section of the cake pop and sprinkle yellow nerds onto the still wet chocolate/candy coating and place a rainbow on top (see picture for placement). You will need to hold the rainbow for 10 - 20 seconds until it is secure and can stand up on it's own.

For more great pop ideas check out my book Sweets on a Stick it has more than 150 kid friendly ideas for decorating and serving sweets on a stick and available online here:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

How to get a book published - Bubble and Sweet I did it my way eventually

So I wasn't sure if you all would be interested in the story about how I ended up writing a cookbook.

This isn't going to be a how to get a cookbook published post, because to be honest I can't help you with that. But what I can tell you is a little bit about my story, my love for baking and where it led me.

I started off this blog because I was boring my family and friends senseless with my interest in cute and yummy food. Sure they were all more than happy to eat it all, but talk about it.....eh, not so much.

A little off topic I was a bit of a True Blood fan and about this time had been reading Fanfiction online and was amazed at the authors willingness to share their artistic souls for free on that forum for little more than feedback and reviews (SeaStarr and Missus T were a couple of my favorites). It was refreshing and inspiring, I wanted to do something similar.

I had a look around at a few baking blogs I was interested in, had a name brainstorming session with my 2 sisters-in-law over a coffee and jumped right in.

My first post was a recipe copied from Martha Stewart, I thought that perhaps it might encourage people to look if they found it while searching for recipes, it was not really inspiring and did not take the blogging world by storm, I had little understanding of search engines and the irony that this type of post would be more likely to be lost in the multitude of similar ones. But I was not deterred and  my second post was something original I had thought up all by myself, marshmallow fondant covered lollipop cookies, the execution was not the best but I did have some lovely photo's that my sister in law had taken of my girls eating the cookies. As I sat loading up the pictures I can remember my husband saying, 'Are you at the computer again typing out recipes that no one is ever going to read?'

Once again the post was not an instant hit but something amazing happened I got a comment on my blog and not just any comment. It was from Not Quite Nigella a very well know Australian Food Blogger. Ha - Don't think I didn't rub that in my husbands face straight away. Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella followed up her lovely comment with her own interpretation of my cookies and a link to my page and it was a huge boost to my confidence.


My love of sweets on sticks was born and although there were quite a few more lackluster posts of copied recipes I branched out and started including some of my own original recipes and many decorating ideas that I came up with myself.

I joined some online baking forums and made some lovely blogging friends. Around this time I created a recipe for Tim Tam Cookie pops which were a huge hit, there were recipes around already but I came up with my own which I am going to be completely biased about and say are perfect. Once again I was making my mark with treats on sticks.

Another turning point was my daughter's birthday party. I never knew how popular kids parties were and the online community surrounding it. Lilli's 6th birthday pink fairy high tea party was featured on a number of US party sites and was quite popular it still receives thousands of visits a week. Then I worked on a project with a couple of inspiring women I knew Elizabeth Murphy and Naomi Vassington to create a photo shoot tea party in the woods. Both of these women had inspired me all through early blogging when I received little feedback, just by doing what they loved with such passion and it was an amazingly fun shoot which once again was featured on other blogs.

I was doing what I loved with a bunch of fun people. I was not selling to the public so I didn't have restrictions on what I could make. I was lucky to be involved in some further photo shoots and my treats were featured in magazines.

and it seemed I loved putting my treats on sticks, cause you know it always makes stuff more fun and cute and the treats I was making were mostly inspired by and for my children.

 They inspire every sweet thing I do............

Ok so fast forward a little bit to earlier last year and I was contacted by a Publisher in the US.

For Real that's what happened, they contacted me and asked me to write Sweets on a Stick..

They thought there was a hole in the market for sweets on a stick that were kid friendly to make. We all know there are a stack of books out there where you have to perfectly double dip a gazillion pieces of candy and then pop them onto your treats with tweezers to make a magical and beautiful masterpiece, but they were looking for someone more down to earth and simple....yup you know that's me.

So there you have it - that's a kinda condensed version of my story which is a long way of saying I was just doing what I loved, inspired by my family and a great group of friends. I learnt to be myself and not copy everyone else.

Collage of recipes included in sweets on a stick taken during recipe testing
 pictures not included in actual book

Anyhoo the result of all of this Sweets on a Stick was released in December and is published by Adams Media. It is a US release so it contains US measurements and ingredients and has a conversion chart for metric in the back. It is a collection of fun and easy to make recipes and ideas that are kid friendly and includes decorated cake pops, decorated cookies, baked cookies, pies, candies, cupcakes, muffins, fruit plus more that you can make with your kids. And they're all on a stick, ever single one.

Hello - it's me Linda nice to meet y'all

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Sweets on a Stick photos by Terri Vandermeer or Linda Vandermeer
Family photo's by Naomi V Photography