Make Your Own Candy Cross Pops!

Sometimes when I am looking for fun religious snacks for my kids, I can’t always find what I’m looking for. While in search for some fun Christ-centered Easter basket stuffers this year, I really wanted to include some fun and colorful crosses. We decided to try our hand at some diy cross pops, and they came out looking like beautiful stained glass! Turns out you can totally make your own candy cross pops. I will show you how! 

DIY Cross Pops

There was a learning curve to figuring out how to make these into crosses, but luckily, I’m willing to share my research with you. 😉

Guess what? This recipe is now a part of my The Symbolic Holy Week & Easter Cookbook! This cookbook includes 23 recipes that point to the true meaning of Easter. It also includes 29 pages of bonus printables! You do not want to miss this amazing resource. 

The Symbolic Holy Week and Easter Cookbook

Supplies Need:

  • Regular ‘ol Jolly Ranchers. *Have your preschooler arrange them by color as a bonus Montessori activity, then have your 6-year-old graph the colors for a bonus math activity! Ok, the homeschooler in me will shut up now. 😉Rows of colorful Jolly Ranchers
  • Life Savers (to make the flowers, not the crosses)
  • Wooden Kitchen Skewers (or go to your local craft store and over-pay for “real” lollipop sticks)
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Cheap sandwich baggies (without zippers)
  • Ribbon

How to Make Your Own Jolly Rancher Cross Pops:

Jolly Ranchers Getting Unwrapped

  1. Preheat your oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Unwrap your jolly ranchers, and cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
  3. The jolly rancher in the middle of your cross needs a little extra oven time, so place just your middle jolly rancher on the cookie sheet and place it in the oven on the center rack for 1 minute. (Allow room on the foil to build the rest of your cross and also for your stick.)
  4. Remove the tray from the oven (don’t burn yourself) and arrange the rest of the jolly ranchers around the middle one in a cross shape. Place them as closely together as possible. Jolly Rancher Cross
  5. Place the tray back in the oven, and heat for about 5 minutes, or until the jolly ranchers melt together.
  6. Take the tray out of the oven, immediately place the stick on the cross, (I used wooden skewers because they’re way cheaper than Loli pop sticks), and roll until the candy surrounds the stick. Melted Jolly Rancher Cross
  7. Allow the candy to cool and harden, then lift off the foil.

Each pop comes out unique and beautiful!

Finished Jolly Rancher Cross Pops

I love the colors on these and they’re so beautiful when the light shines through them! The cross pops look like they’re made out of stained glass!

Finished Jolly Rancher Cross Pop

After you’ve finished making your cross pops, wrap them in  cello and tie a cute little bow at the bottom! (By the way, when I say “cello”, I actually mean cheap sandwich baggies that come without a zipper. Also, I used ribbon from the dollar spot at Michael’s).

Wrapped Up Jolly Rancher Cross Pop

I also made some cross pops out of jolly rancher “smoothies”. They had to melt about 2 minutes longer than the regular jolly ranchers.

Finished Jolly Rancher Cross Pop

We also made some flower-shaped loli-pops which were a little different to put together. You can find my directions for the diy flower pops here.

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How To Make Flower Pops

 

We had a fun time making these! Lydia was a great helper. 🙂

Showing Off Jolly Rancher Cross Pop

We’re going to be sticking these cross pops in our Easter baskets this year. I’m sure they’ll be a hit!

 

These could also be cute a religious snack or a favor for pretty much anything- First Communion, Vacation Bible School… pretty much anything bible related. 🙂

Finished Jolly Rancher Cross Pops

Here they are all wrapped up and waiting for Easter!

Jolly Rancher Pop Boquet

I made them into an Easter candy bouquet by sticking them into a block of Styrofoam. Also, I made labels to put on the sticks from this adorable Jesus from Happy Saints. (I heart Happy Saints!)

The Symbolic Holy Week and Easter Cookbook

Find My Lenten Resources For Kids here

Silly rabbit! Easter is for Jesus!!!

You can find all of my Christ-centered resources for Easter here.

Make it about the lamb, not the bunny!

 

Comments

  1. What an adorable idea!

  2. Okay…those are just too stinkin’ cute…and so easy!

  3. Fabulous idea! We’ll have to try this during Holy Week. Thanks for sharing your research!

  4. I love this idea. I never thought of using skewers instead of lolipop sticks. I just never made things that call for them (and really wanted to but was too cheap to buy the sticks). I am getting some skewers today!

  5. We had a great time making the lollipops! Thank you for some easy ( and yummy) fun. My 4 year old got creative and invented her own lollipops after we tried the crosses and flowers. She, her grandma and I had a wonderful time and have a cute result to share. We plan to make them again for my son’s first Holy Communion this May. Thank you!

    • Love hearing that you made these! I’ll bet creating your own shapes was really fun. That’s where our flowers came from. 😉

      • So, now it is May and we are in the process of making the crosses for my son’s first Holy Communion! Thank you again for the idea!

  6. I want to try this! Love it!

  7. I tried them last night and it was a lot of fun! My son helped me and enjoyed “creating” the different color schemes. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us Lacy!

  8. We made the Crosses this morning for my nieces, nephews and our Pastor too! Easy & fun! We are going to make the flowers for my daughter’s upcoming birthday party…flower themed so these will be excellent take home treats for all! God bless your Easter!!!

  9. This is such a wonderful idea!! I’m looking forward to making these for my Sunday School Children! And I plan on making them for my niece and nephew as well!

    Very excited to make these!

  10. God bless you for sharing all of your ideas! I’ve used several with my Afterschool Group. The crafts are great!

  11. Teresa Cannon says

    Another thing that works well in place of lollipop sticks is the thin coffee stirrers. But not if it calls to put the stick in the oven because they are plastic and will melt

  12. Love your site! These pops are perfect! Just made a batch for my niece’s 1st Communion. Next year these will be part of the decor/food at my son’s Communion party. They are fast and beautiful! God bless you for sharing so many wonderful ideas!

  13. victoria says

    Great idea! Here’s an adaption of your great idea: Use the dumb-dumb lollipops. It is already on the stick, so you don’t have to buy skewers or lollipop sticks. The round candy works well for the flower—and you could make it work for the cross. I used your idea for the DIY lollies and had dumb dumbs on hand, so that is how I came up with the idea (and saved on $ for sticks).

    • Great idea! I wonder if it would work for the crosses. Time for more experimenting!

  14. So, I have made these lollipops for years. The last time I made them was 2yrs ago I think for my daughter’s FHC. For reasons I am not sure of the pops got SUPER sticky and gooey no matter what I did. Leave them out, leave them in the fridge. Not sure what I did the other times because I don’t remember it ever happening before that. I have a FHC and to Confirmations this year and I am hemming and hawing because they were such a disaster last time. Any tips? Am I missing the obvious??

    • I have no idea why! This wasn’t my experience when making these at all. I have a few thoughts that might be the cause. Are you using fresh candy? Because sometimes hard candy gets gooey when it’s old. Also, are you using the on brand jolly ranchers? I did use on brand, so I don’t know what off brand would do. Also, maybe your oven is hotter than mine and doesn’t need quite as much time in the heat? I’m not sure. My mom used to make cookies with melted butterscotch as a stained glass window effect as well without any issues. I’m sorry yours turned out gooey!