This Pop Tart leprechaun house is the cutest decoration for St. Patrick's Day! Loaded with rainbow colors and a pot of gold! I’ll share tips and tricks for decorating your Pop Tart house with candy and royal icing.
You might also like our Pop Tart bunny house, our Pop Tart haunted house, or our Pop Tart gingerbread house!
Watch our step by step video!
Friends, once you switch to Pop Tarts you’ll never go back to graham crackers or gingerbread for making candy houses! It all started in 2020 when I couldn’t find chocolate graham crackers at the store to make haunted gingerbread houses in the fall. My husband suggested using chocolate Pop Tarts. I was skeptical but bought a box to humor him. They turned out awesome! Sturdy, easy to work with, and fun to decorate. We've now used Pop Tarts to make gingerbread houses for Christmas, a bunny house for Easter, and our latest addition---a leprechaun house for St. Patrick's Day!
Our leprechaun house is my favorite out of all of the ones we've made. It's just SO COLORFUL and fun. I especially love how the little pot of gold turned out.
Leprechaun House SUPPLIES
You’ll need 6 Pop Tarts. I used cupcake flavored because they had rainbow sprinkles on them, but you can use any flavor you'd like. There is really NO difference between the name brand and the store brand when it comes to making these houses. I've used both and often prefer the store brand.
You’ll also need a variety of colorful candies and royal icing. If you'd like to make a pot of gold go ahead and grab an Oreo.
EASY ROYAL ICING FOR FROSTING Pop Tart HOUSES
Royal icing works great for making candy houses.
My recipe is simply a mixture of powdered sugar and water. It dries hard and works well.
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons water
Mix sugar and water together until it reaches the consistency of craft glue. You don’t want it to be too runny.
CAN YOU USE STORE-BOUGHT FROSTING IN A TUB?
Yep! I've had many people tell me that they used storebought frosting with great results. I prefer to use powdered sugar + water because it dries hard quickly, but the store-bought frosting will eventually harden as well.
Pop Tart Leprechaun HOUSE CANDIES
Rainbow Candies
- Skittles
- Twizzler Fruit Flavored Candy
- SweeTARTS Soft & Chewy ropes (twisted rainbow punch)
Other rainbow candy ideas: Airheads Xtremes, Mike and Ike candies, M&Ms, sour straws, Nerds.
Gold Candies
- Gold Sixlets
- Chocolate gold coins
Other gold candy ideas: Rolos, Hershey chocolate nuggets.
I found all of the candy for these houses at Walmart which means they should be readily available.
TIPS FOR ASSEMBLING POP TART Leprechaun HOUSE
- Follow my instructions at the end of the post for cutting your Pop Tarts. ONLY USE A SERRATED KNIFE to cut the Pop Tarts. A paring knife will not work. Gently saw as you cut and you’ll end up with nice clean lines.
- Add a bead of icing to the pop tarts and use your hands to hold the 4 walls into place for a minute or two. After that, the icing is tacky and will hold it on its own.
- Repeat for the roof, holding it in place for a minute or so before letting go.
These houses are pretty sturdy once the royal icing has had a chance to set. This takes about 15-20 minutes, but waiting at least 30 minutes before decorating is recommended.
FOR EVEN STURDIER HOUSES, ASSEMBLE THEM THE DAY BEFORE YOU PLAN ON DECORATING THEM TO ALLOW THE POP TARTS TO DRY OUT A BIT.
If you do this you shouldn’t have any issues with your house falling apart and it will stand nice and sturdy for at least a month.
Pop Tart Leprechaun House Tutorial
Pop Tart Leprechaun House
Equipment
- serrated knife
- plastic sandwich bag
Ingredients
- 6 pop tarts
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons water
- candy variety of rainbow and gold candies
- 1 oreo cookie for pot of gold (optional)
Instructions
- Place 6 pop tarts on the cutting board.
Roof
- You will be making cuts on 4 out of 6 of the pop tarts. The 2 that aren't cut are the roof pieces. You can set those 2 pop tarts to the side if you'd like.WATCH OUR VIDEO for the best visual for cutting the pop tarts into house shapes.
Front and Back Walls
- Take 1 pop tart and place it on its side, right next to another pop tart.
- Cut on a diagonal from the corner of the pop tart that it on its side, to the center of the middle pop tart. Repeat on the other side.
- You should now have a pop tart that looks like a house. Repeat this step so that you have 2 house-shaped pop tarts.
Side Walls
- To make the side walls place one pop tart onto your cutting board. Place a second, on it's side next to it. Cut the first pop tart across the top, using the second pop tart as a guide (as shown in photo). Repeat with another pop tart.
- You should now have two roof pieces (un-cut), 2 house-shaped pieces, and 2 wall pieces.
- Combine powdered sugar and water to make a royal icing glue. Add water ½ teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved (2 ½ teaspoons works well for me). Spoon icing into a Ziploc bag and cut the tip off. Glue the 4 walls together with icing and hold in place for a minute or so.
- Add the roof pieces and hold in place for a minute or so.
- Run a line of icing down the center of the roof to add even more stability.
- Let houses stand AT LEAST 30 minutes before decorating. If making these with kids, assemble the houses the day before you want to decorate them to allow the pop tarts to harden a bit.
- Dip decorations into icing or pipe icing onto houses to decorate.
- Note: the pot of gold is made from an Oreo (cut with a serrated knift to make a flat top for the pot), and gold sixlets candies.
Notes
- Icing should be the consistency of craft glue.
- When cutting pop tarts, use a serrated knife and gently saw. Don't press down hard with the knife.
- To add heavier candies to the houses, like Skittles, add a line of icing to the house and let the icing stand for a couple of minutes before placing the candy on it. This will allow the icing to dry a little and become tacky.
- You may need to hold the candy in place or readjust the candy that starts to move as you wait for the icing to dry.
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