Larger sticks than the usual small lollipop stick are not excessive once you have the weight of the coating on it.
It’s ok to just bake them in the molds.
When they come out of the molds looking like planets, trim the excess with a kitchen scissors. ?
If it doesn’t say it’s almond bark on the package, forget about it. I’m looking at you, Candiquik. ? Related, Safeway does not carry almond bark.
Start with a small amount of almond bark without any shortening. Dip the sticks and insert into the cake ball. Chill in refrigerator.
Add shortening to the almond bark or the coating will be way too thick. The package we had (Walmart brand) said 1 tablespoon per package.
Don’t dip the pops. Spoon the coating over them. Twist and tap lightly to remove excess.
Gel food coloring will seize almond bark before you get it to anything deeper colored than pastel.
Sprinkles make great simple decorations but make sure they’re age appropriate. Some of them can be too hard for little ones, like the round discs.
If you want to drizzle for decoration, use a piping bag with a smaller tip than you would think. I ended up using the smallest one I had for the yellow, which was slightly thinned candy melts.