Giant Bumble Bee Marshmallow Pops

Do you ever plan something, thinking it will be just okay, then it turns out better than okay? Like, really really good. That was these marshmallows. I love the look of cake pops at parties, but I certainly don’t have the time/patience to make those. The alternative? Marshmallows! They look cute on sticks and have you seen those GIANT marshmallows you can get now? I picked up a bag, imagining these cute, perfectly round marshmallow pops only to open the bag up and realize they are definitely a little squished. Disappointed, I considered trashing the whole idea but after staring at them (frustrated… for longer than I’d care to admit) I realized they kind of look like a bee’s body. So I ran with it. And I’m happy I did.

Did you know you could paint food? I didn’t, but there is this magical dust Wilton makes for decorating fondant and if you add an extract to this magic powder… it becomes a paint! So I got busy painting all of my marshmallows (doing one side and letting it dry, then flipping) bright yellow like bumble bees. There’s nothing tricky about this, after you mix in some extract (I used almond) with your powder, just paint it like you’d paint with real paint. Just remember to use a brand new paintbrush… no one wants to eat old paint flakes.

When they’re dry (not dried out, but not wet anymore) poke your lollipop sticks in and add your black stripes and eyes. I used ready made black icing (seriously, Wilton has everything) because it was an easy shortcut and have you ever tried to mix black icing? It takes so much dye it’s ridiculous. I had no problem paying the couple bucks to have that done for me. And it made clean up a lot easier too, you just add your decorating tip (I used a super fine one) right onto the tube. I took some cake decorating classes a few years ago and the clean-up is the one thing that keeps me from doing it more so this made me really happy.

So that’s it guys. It’s an easy DIY party sweet (without turning on your oven) and they’re so cute they double as a centerpiece. Aaand now that I know I can paint my sweets the options are endless. So that’s exciting. What do you think, would you try painting your sweets? I’d love to hear what you’d try painting (and if I’m the only one who didn’t know about this magic)!