My baby sister is graduating with her undergrad and so I wanted to make her something fun for her party! I went to none other than the Cake Pop Queen herself for my inspiration for these Graduation Cap Candy Pops!
I adapted mine slightly just to make use of what I had on hand! Here is how I made mine!
Ingredients Needed for Graduation Cap Pops:
- Pop sticks
- Peanut butter cups
- Hershey’s bars (full sized)
- Mini M&M’s
- Fruit strips
Supplies Needed for Bouquet:
- Ceramic Cereal Bowl from Dollar Tree (use something HEAVY if not using a bowl)
- Styrofoam
- Large Bag of Regular Sized M&M’s
- Hot Glue Sticks/Hot Glue Gun
I followed Bakerella’s advice and I put the peanut butter cups in the freezer for a few minutes before I unwrapped them to make them play nice and unwrap evenly! (It didn’t matter if I froze them or not…I still had peanut butter seeping through the sides. I blame quality control at Reese’s!) I also inserted the pop sticks the same way she did! A dab of chocolate on the pop stick, stuck in the center of the peanut butter cup!
Next for my top hats…I used Hershey Bars. I broke the bars into squares of 2 rectangles. I used Hershey’s because they are much cheaper than the Godiva ones and I love Hershey’s chocolate :)
I used a dab of melted chocolate and stuck that chocolately square right on top! I placed these in the freezer for about 10 minutes to let the chocolate harden so nothing would slide around.
Again, using chocolate as my glue, I added a strip of sour candy and a mini M&M to complete the hat!
Adorable, edible, delicious graduation cap pop!
Here is how I displayed the individual graduation cap pops. I bought a ceramic cereal bowl from the dollar store along with 2 circle foam discs (that I already had but bought at the dollar store also). I didn’t want the foam insert coming out when people pulled a pop out, so I hot glued it to the bottom of the bowl!
I cut the remaining disc in half and stacked, and repeated. A cone would have worked awesome here but I was using what I had on hand!
Next I arranged the pops in the styrofoam (I might have squeezed a few more in that necessary!) and covered the styrofoam with regular M&M’s
Now she has a fun centerpiece for her graduation party…and quite tasty if I might say so myself!
Comments & Reviews
Jenni says
Those ARE adorable! I love how you made a little bouquet of them, too~ so cute! I bet your sister loved it. :)
I hope you are having a great weekend!
Blessings,
Jenni
Cheryl says
Thanks Jenni! She did like them! They went pretty fast :)
Saiema says
Love the pops! :) just wondering, what size were the Hershey bars you used? Were they the oral sized ones
Cheryl says
Saiema, They were the regular full sized bars and I just broke the bars into square pieces.
Stephanie says
I love this idea….just wondering if you had any suggestions on how to keep them from melting once they are out for display
Cheryl says
Stephanie, after I made mine, they spent a day in the refrigerator. They got a little melty on the ride over to my parent’s house for the party but we just put them back in the fridge and then they were just fine afterwards sitting out in the air conditioning!
Heidi @ Happiness is Homemade says
Cuuute!
Cheryl Spangenberg says
Thanks Lady! :)
Traci Evett says
Any tips on how to get the sticks in the cups with out them breaking? I am making a bouquet for my niece who is graduating from Pre-K.
Cheryl Spangenberg says
Traci, I just went really, really slow with them and I twisted the stick into the candy versus just pushing it in!
Traci Evett says
Thanks! I have tried that. I have also tried “pre drilling” the hole with a smaller stick and that helps but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t!
Lynn says
How far ahead of time can these be made. My dons party is July 5th
Cheryl Spangenberg says
Lynn, as long as the chocolate would stay fresh and you can keep them cool. The longer the “tassels” sit out in the open though…they’d get tough to eat.
kate says
Can you put purple icing on them to change the color?
Cheryl Spangenberg says
You could try? I haven’t done it so I am not 100% certain!
Crystal says
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this! I followed your instructions to make these for my son’s Pre-K “end of the year” party/graduation tomorrow! It was actually easier than I thought it would be!
Cheryl Spangenberg says
You are welcome! What a cool Mama making these for them! Yay for Kindergarten next year! Ryan will be there too! They grow up too fast!
irasema says
omg we havent tried dong tht stuff but its for our school graduation and thank you so much tht we found this page to see what kind of candy we are doing for our graduation
Linda Baxley says
Where do you find the fruit strips? I need blue and yellow. Thanks
Cheryl Spangenberg says
Any candy aisle has a version of them. I think I found these originally at Dollar Tree.
M. BODE says
These were a success at my great nephews 8th grade graduation party. I used chocolate covered graham crackers for the top, a variety pack of peanut butter cups (white, dark and milk chocolate) everything else the same as recipe……looked super cute and was yummy too!
katarina says
The grad caps are adorable. Any other ideas on what to use instead of the peanut butter cup? (allergies)
THANKS
Sandra says
OMG. So cu-u-ute. Thanks for sharing.
Cheryl Spangenberg says
You’re welcome! Glad you like them!