St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins!

I don’t remember much about St. Patrick’s Days of my childhood but what I do remember are those chocolate coins.  Though I made no actual income as a bright-eyed 6-year-old, I could always count on earning at least one of those foiled coins each St. Patty’s Day.  Not only did I have the thrill of getting a “monetary” gift but, it was a gift made of the greatest vegetable of them all… chocolate!  This pale memory was my inspiration for this St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins!

Ingredients for St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins!

• A Cake – made from scratch or via Cake Mix
• Frosting – made from scratch or canned (any brand but prefer wilton)
• Candy Melts
• Silicone Lollipop Mold
• Treat Sticks
• Foil Candy Wrappers
• Wax Paper
• A Baking Sheet

St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins!

STEP ONE: Prepare Your Cake

If you know anything about me, you know that I like to make things as easy as possible for myself.  If you want to make a cake from scratch for these pops, go for it!  If not, there is absolutely no shame in using cake mix, because I have found both can end up with the same great St Patrick’s Day cake pops no matter which one you use.

If you are making your cake with the use of cake mix, prepare as instructed on the box. Let your cake cool completely.

STEP TWO: Cake Dough

Crumble your cake, adding small amounts of frosting (again, you can use canned frosting or make your own from scratch) and kneading it until it becomes a playdough-like consistency.

STEP THREE in making St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins: The Lollipop Mold

Once you have your cake dough, form the dough into the silicone lollipop molds and insert your treat stick.  Place the molds into the freezer to set and take shape. 

These molds can be easily found at a variety of locations including arts and crafts stores (i.e., Michaels), candy or bulk stores, or online (i.e., Amazon, Etsy, etc.).  

Unlike with regular cake pops, by forming the pops into these molds, you do not have to deal with the rolling process or with the stress of your cake dough falling off your treat stick. Also, the molds are the same size and thickness of a regular chocolate coin!

STEP FOUR: The Chocolate/Candy Coating

I usually leave my pops in the freezer for an hour or two until the pops have formed and hold their shape.  You will know they are ready as they will pop right out of the silicone mold (in one piece). Melt your candy melts in the microwave, at slow intervals, until smooth.  Depending on the quality of candy melts, you may need to thin out your chocolate, so it isn’t too thick (and pulls your cake dough off its stick).  The best way to thin out your chocolate/candy melts – if need be – is with the use of paramount crystals (available at most baking supply stores). 

Once your candy coating is melted, transfer the melted candy into a long narrow cup for dipping.  This will ensure that you get a good dip and cover the entire pop.

Dip your pop into the coating and set off to dry.  Note: If you pop is too cold or frozen when it comes out of the freezer, let it come to room temperature before dipping.  If you dip the cold cake pop into the warm melted candy, it will crack with the temperature differences upon drying.

STEP FIVE: A Coin Imprint (optional)

Now you can stop there at Step Four… wrap your pop in foil… maybe add a St. Patrick’s Day sticker and still have a perfectly cute treat…. Oooor you can step it up a notch by adding a coin imprint.  

I found a bag of these coins at my local dollar store with the image of a shamrock on it that will be perfect for St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins.  Using a baking sheet and wax paper, I dolloped a small amount of chocolate/candy melts onto the pan and pressed one of the plastic coins into it – make sure you do not push all the down/through but ensure that the full surface of the coins is covered in chocolate. 

I placed the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to harden. 

The plastic coin removes easily to reveal an imprint of the shamrock.  Now when I first tried this, I totally forgot about the laws of reflection and tried using a plastic dollar sign coin.  All my images came out inverted with a backward symbol.   I guess you can say that I really “lucked” out when I found these shamrock coins.

You can prep these chocolate imprints before you dip your cake pops.  

After your cake pops dry, just add a bit more chocolate/candy melts and attach the chocolate/candy imprints.

STEP SIX: The Gold Wrapping

What would a chocolate coin be without its wrapping?  

After you’ve finished decorating your St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins (again, you can leave it plain, add an imprint, etc.), you will be ready to wrap your creation.  These foil wrappers are extremely thin, so they pick up the imprints quite nicely.  They can also be a little tricky to work with, but practice makes perfect.  Smooth the foil wrapper onto the pop, covering the full surface – front to back.

And there you have it… St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins.  Although, I created them for St. Patrick’s Day, they are also great for Chinese New Year and Hanukkah. Plus if you like this St Patricks Day treat check out the Pot of Gold Cake Balls.

The goal of my baking tutorials is to try to come up with baked-good ideas that create the least amount of work for busy everyday moms, while making all of us look like fabulous “baker-nistas!” I hope that you can take whatever ideas you can from this blog, omitting and adding whatever you need to put your own personal spin on this “golden” treat.

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Visit our St. Patrick’s Day page for even more creative recipes, free printables, party ideas and more! Make sure to check out our other cake pop recipes.

Thank you to our contributor Karen for this fun St Patrick’s Day Cake Pops – Chocolate Gold Coins tutorial! You’ll find even more creative tutorials and treat ideas there when you Click Here to see all the Cake Pop tutorials she’s created for the Moms & Munchkins audience! Also, you can check out more of her cake pop creations on her Cake Bites by Karen Instagram page.