Search this site

Maison Cupcake

Home Cooking and Baking by Sarah Trivuncic

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
    • Baking and Desserts
    • Family Food Ideas
    • Party Food Ideas
  • Misc
    • Journal
    • Classes and Events
You are here: Home / Closed / Shamrock Cake Pops

Shamrock Cake Pops

March 17, 2011 by Sarah Trivuncic 21 Comments

This site content is free. When you purchase via referral links on our posts, including those to Amazon, we earn affiliate commission, at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for reading and please share posts you find useful!

Today I’m not up to cooking so it’s just waffle. And before you get excited about waffles, actually it’s just dodgy looking cake pops.

Service has been stalled this week as I sit drinking shot glasses of throat spray and popping ibuprofen by the clock. It’s not all been bad, I’ve caught up with all the foodie telly on the Virgin box and sat on the sofa reviewing a pile of cookery books.

Lack of energy for neither my husband or I to go food shopping impacted on what I served up (or more accurately, wearily dragged out) for dinner.

The fridge is virtually empty. The husband is complaining but I rather like it. “The great thing about not having much food in,” I tell him, “is that you get to eat a variety of things you might not otherwise.” This is my justification for feeding him meals based on pulses and dried goods.

To say we’re out of food is misleading. We still have an unbelievable amount of condiments, jams, chutneys and pickles. We have a selection of sugars and flours; various dried fruits and nuts, a wide range of tins and a few sachets. We have enough bread for the next thirty six hours and a fair amount of fish in the freezer.

But we are devoid of butter or margarine (reduced to spreading mayo on toast) and have just finished the eggs, mushrooms and onions.

I can’t face driving to the supermarket. Time for a trip to Walthamstow Village’s fabulous branch of Spar. Carrying the two bags home wipes me out for three hours.

The yogurts, cream and parsnips (in drawer) you see here came from my journey out. So apart from emergency lemon, yogurt, cream (supposedly for potato gratin with last of the potatoes and the month old bag of sage), reduced bulb of fennel and bag of parsnips, you can see how little was left. Fresh food wise, we’re down to three pots of bits of left overs, a Weight Watchers sausage and mash meal, three soya yogurts, some wafer thin ham and a jar of preserved lemons. And some left over chocolate buttercream which you see used in the cake pops. Interestingly, I scan what is left and realise there is still enough to form several evenings’ worth of dinners without yet having emptied the freezer.

Doing a stock take when you think supplies are low is quite a sobering exercise, especially in the light of this week’s news from Japan when you compare what having nothing left really means.

I’m a bulk buyer, if I see something on BOGOF or significantly reduced that I normally buy, I tend to stock up on it. (Admittedly a cellar or garage is a bonus if you want to do this). I wouldn’t say we waste food especially, indeed I horrify my mother by happily serving food that is on it’s judgement date rather than BBE, but certainly I feel we could be more efficient using the frozen foods and dried pulses and grains I keep “just in case” for weekly meal plans.

Possibly we can fool the purse strings a bit longer in April – when various government cuts (and hikes) kick into the family budget.

This is a very round about way of explaining what’s been going on this week, the whole family were ill and despite my husband’s concerns about the dwindling contents of the fridge, we didn’t go hungry.

It also accounts for my cake pops – I had planned to become one of those nutters who bakes a cake and then grinds it up to make cake pops, I really had, with Nigella Lawson Guinness Cake no less. I was going to get clever with Guinness buttercream and invent some new amazing Guinness caramel syrup.

Instead I was ill and didn’t go shopping. I started to feel guilty about the two McVities’ golden syrup cakes sitting in my cupboard and chocolate buttercream was one of the few things I did have in the house.

So if you’re insane enough to make shamrock cake pops yourself, get your whooshed up shop bought cake and mix with butter cream. The compressed cake and buttercream mix is split into golf ball sized blobs which you then roll into 3 smaller balls and press together in the centre to make a shamrock shape. If you’re new here you may not realise I do an occasional speciality in comedy turds.

Next you get out your evil kermit coloured candy melts. I made a special trip to get these from Hobby Craft in Harlow (not this week I stress). We got stuck in traffic meaning it was a mad dash before driving home for a Sainsbury’s delivery. Thing was, I made the mistake of saying aloud in the car, “Oh look Ted! They’ve got a Toys R Us here” which meant the second we got out the car I was met with “We go to Toys R Us mummy, we go to Toys R Us?”.

Yes, ok… we go to to Toys R Us Teddy and buy a giant bottle of bubble mixture. Then we run to Hobby Craft for evil green candy melts and run back to car really fast. I managed to get back in time for the shopping but my intention to have a leisurely half hour in Hobby Craft baking section was totally scuppered.

Well, my inner Bakerella must be sick too as I dipped these buddies in the melted candy melts and found they looked a bit well, gruesome. Frankenstein cake pops any one? Aliens? Incredible Hulk? Simply whip out the evil green candy melts and there you go. Then I had really silly idea about trying to redeem them with a bit of sugar ball bling but they looked even worse.

Then I got all cocky with royal icing thinking that two days with Peggy Porschen last week had turned me into some kind of piping supremo. Sadly I appear to have left my Peggy magic at the door in Belgravia – it is quite alarming to think I managed to beautifully decorate a two tier wedding cake with life like sugar roses and then seven days later all I can come up with are these.

Just to prove there is cake inside. I quite like how this one looks like an alien with its mouth open.

Does this happen to Bakerella? Is Angie Dudley’s bin full of cake pop horrors that never made it into the book?

 

I’m sending these – for better or worse to Aoife at The Daily Spud for her Paddy’s Day Food Parade which was a rip roaring success last year and this time round I was determined to take part.

I will leave you with proof that not everything green I touch is terrible. Granted I’m a useless gardener but green is my favourite colour in the kitchen and I have quite a collection of lime green goodies that brighten the place up.

I took these pictures last summer (on Ted’s third birthday no less) and never got around to publishing them. I never got around to publishing my two posts worth of pictures of Dublin either (another plan for this week that got shunted into the long grass).

So instead of Dublin, I leave you with spring like green objects from my kitchen. Another way I’m just making use of my left overs….

More St Patrick’s Day Ideas

If these Shamrock Cake Pops are too much of a disaster for you, there’s always my much more successful St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cupcakes…

St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cupcakes

I hope you’re having a happy, healthy week.

This site content is free. When you purchase via referral links on our posts, including those to Amazon, we earn affiliate commission, at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for reading and please share posts you find useful!
Filed Under: Closed, Recipes Tagged With: cake pop recipes, celebration cakes

About Sarah Trivuncic

Sarah Trivuncic has published recipes, restaurant and travel reviews on Maison Cupcake since 2009. She lives in Walthamstow, East London with her husband and teenager.
Read More/Contact

« Sainsbury’s Shop-Bought Cookie Dough
BBC Radio Northampton Baking On Air With Vanessa Kimbell »

Comments

  1. Daily Spud says

    March 17, 2011 at 2:19 am

    Well I’m glad you sent me your cakepops for the parade, so there! Really hope you’re feeling better soon, Sarah.

    Reply
  2. Brittany says

    March 17, 2011 at 6:47 am

    I hope you feel better soon! These still look great to me.

    Reply
  3. Kelly says

    March 17, 2011 at 8:58 am

    It’s not you really it’s the candy melts. They’re tricky things. I’m not sure how Bakerella does it. They’re really thick when melted. In my opinion you need to thin them down to make them dippable (but not too much or they won’t set). My next project is lemon cake pops so we’ll see how I go with the yellow melts.

    Reply
  4. Dominic says

    March 17, 2011 at 9:16 am

    Quite frankly Sarah they’re not green enough for me! And I so agree about the cake pop smashing up a cake to make a confectionary thing… Just seems wrong to me? Hope you feel better soon… Oh and you should go on line and order your food in. That’s what they invented the Internet for… Feel better honey xx

    Reply
  5. Rosemary says

    March 17, 2011 at 9:29 am

    I know the feeling – a trip to a shop when you’re sick is worse than root canal! Hope you feel better soon – keep eating your greens, that will help!

    Reply
  6. catty says

    March 17, 2011 at 11:16 am

    OH i hope you feel better soon! These cake pops are still cute!!

    Reply
  7. Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite says

    March 17, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Aw Sarah, even sick you are hilarious!! Can I say I love your cake pops more than the perfect ones I see out there because they actually have a STORY! I really hope you feel better soon. Hugs xox

    Reply
  8. Sanjeeta kk says

    March 17, 2011 at 11:49 am

    Love that cute alien with its mouth open 🙂 Going green reading this post…get well soon!

    Reply
  9. Lairy the Cupcake Fairy xx says

    March 17, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Really I think you should send your story to Bakerella (she’s not at all well & could probably do with a laugh, no offense!!) I particularly like your alien one – looks like it’s eaten another alien & still got green goo around it’s mouth! Never chew with your mouth full Mr. Alien, didn’t your mother teach you anything!!

    get well soon…

    http://www.facebook.com/lairythecupcakefairyx

    Reply
  10. Heavenly Housewife says

    March 17, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    Looks like a fun little project. I’ve tried using candy melts before and it turned out gross for some reason, not sure what i did wrong.
    *kisses* HH

    Reply
  11. Claire says

    March 17, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    Hilarious! Really good to see things go wrong for other people too. And I LOVE the fact that you used up all your leftovers, very clever! Get well soon.

    Reply
  12. Marie says

    March 17, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    It’s so cute !!!
    Bravo 🙂

    Reply
  13. Krista says

    March 17, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    I hope you feel heaps better soon, Sarah. I’ve been sick for nearly two months as well and it’s a bugger!! 🙂

    Reply
  14. Holly B says

    March 17, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    They look fab. Get well soon Sarah and well done for braving Spar. x

    Reply
  15. Anne says

    March 17, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    There is a trick to thinning candy melts which makes them easier to use – a teeny bit of oil and then it thins them.

    Sorry to hear you’re still not well -your cake pops did make me giggle though! Bet they’d be tasty with a glass of Baileys!

    Get well soon

    Reply
  16. Bron says

    March 18, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    Great post – your green cake pops are definitely *interesting*!

    Amazing how much stuff goes into the cupboard as standbys that migrates to the back, never to be be seen again. I’m trying to use what’s there, actually seeking out recipes for fermented bean curd and tinned truffle juice, teaches you the limitations of google in no time.

    Hope you’re better very soon.

    Reply
  17. C says

    March 18, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    Sorry to hear you’re still feeling poorly. I love the ludicrously green cupcake pops though, especially the one you say looks like an alien!

    Also love the pictures of random green things around your kitchen. Hope you’re better very soon and feel up to shopping, baking and most importantly eating and enjoying food!

    Reply
  18. Gourmet Chicks says

    March 18, 2011 at 9:54 pm

    I am sick at the moment so sympathise – it totally puts you off cooking and you just can’t taste things properly either

    Reply
  19. Barbara Bakes says

    March 19, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    I think you’re too hard on yourself. It’s a fun treat and cute pictures! Love the Playdoh pop holders.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Paddy's Day Food Parade 2011 says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:19 am

    […] is what you want on St. Patrick’s Day, well then green is what you’ve got with these Shamrock Cakepops from Sarah at Maison Cupcake (who, I was sorry to hear, was feeling a bit green herself when […]

    Reply
  2. Paddy's Day Food Parade 2011 says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:19 am

    […] is what you want on St. Patrick’s Day, well then green is what you’ve got with these Shamrock Cakepops from Sarah at Maison Cupcake (who, I was sorry to hear, was feeling a bit green herself when […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




© 2009-2025 Sarah Trivuncic

All content copyright of site owner
Sarah Trivuncic
except where otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Neither images or text may be reproduced without permission. Privacy / Disclosure

My Book

Cover of "Bake Me I'm Yours... Sweet Bitesize Bakes" by Sarah Trivuncic; image shows a selection of small cakes and patisserie. The book has a green polka dot spine edged with pink ribbon and a bow.

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT