Vanilla cake and frosting covered in chocolate and topped with sprinkles.
Cake pops are a great invention. No fork required, chocolate, and you can eat multiples because 10 cake pops = 1 slice of cake, right?
Cake Pops are just crumbled up cake (picture 1) mixed with frosting (picture 2). Then you roll the cake and frosting into balls and chill them in the refrigerator. To help the cake stick to the stick, dip the stick in the melting chocolate (picture 3) before attaching it (picture 4). Then dip the whole thing in chocolate and gently tap it on the bowl to let the excess chocolate drip off (picture 5). Top with sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet (picture 6). Nonpareils look really pretty but I always end up with them bouncing all over my kitchen. To keep the sprinkles from going everywhere, put the cake balls in a brownie pan.
A few tips on getting your cake pops looking gorgeous….
Why did the cake ball fall off the stick when I dipped it in chocolate?
- Your cake ball wasn’t cold enough.
- You didn’t dip the stick in chocolate before attaching it to the cake ball.
- Your chocolate is too thick. I found that candy melts were a little too thick and it would pull the cake ball off the stick. My grocery store sells a Ghirardelli melting chocolate that is much thinner. It is slightly more expensive than the candy melts but you’ll avoid the frustration, and the chocolate tastes better than the candy melts.
Why did the chocolate coating crack?
The chocolate cracks because the temperature difference between the cold cake and the heat from the chocolate. They may look totally fine once the chocolate has set but then ten minutes later …WHAM! …there’s a giant gorge in your beautiful chocolate coating!
There are three ways to deal with the cracks…
- Accept the cracks.
- Smear some more melted chocolate over the crack and then douse the smear of chocolate in sprinkles…. and call it art.
- Just barely heat the chocolate enough to melt it. And refrigerate the cake balls for 2 hours instead of freezing them for 30 minutes. Between the chocolate being just warm and the cake balls being just chilled, there will be less of a temperature difference and fewer cracks.
- 1⅔ cup all purpose flour, spoon and level method
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 7 Tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 1¾ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk
- ~15 oz melting chocolate
- Lollipop sticks
- Sprinkles
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray.
- Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
- Beat butter with a hand or stand mixer until smooth.
- Add in sugar and beat until fluffy and there are no lumps. Scrape down the bowl.
- Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and ending with the flour.
- Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool on wire pan for at least two hours.
- Beat the butter until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Add the milk 1 Tablespoon at a time until the frosting is smooth.
- Crumble up the cake with your hands. Discard the edges of the cake if they are crispy.
- Mix frosting with the crumbled cake.
- Roll the cake mixture into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper.
- Refrigerate the cake balls for 2 hours or you can freeze them for 30 minutes but be prepared for cracks in the chocolate coating from the temperature difference.
- Melt chocolate.
- Remove cake balls from refrigerator a few at a time.
- Dip a lollipop stick about an inch into the chocolate and then insert three-quarters of the way through a cake ball.
- Dip the whole cake ball in the melted chocolate making sure there are no holes and gently tap the lollipop stick on the edge of the bowl to let excess chocolate drip off.
- Place in a brownie pan lined with wax paper or parchment paper and then top with sprinkles.
- Repeat steps 6-9 with the rest of the cake balls.
Adapted from Sally’s Candy Addiction
How many cake pops does this recipe yield?
Hi Christian! Sorry if this response is way too late… it makes about 35 cake pops!