With Easter and Spring right around the corner I started to crave pastel and happy colors. I also started to plan our family's annual Easter hunt, I'm so excited to host this year. All that pastel happiness lead me to the idea of making cake pops. Ever since Starbucks popularized them (even more) I've thought that they'd be fun to make. I will warn you, they can be messy. Don't worry though, I'm willing to share all of my learnings.
Cake pops are completely customizable, from the flavor of cake to the frosting you use. I've even made farm animal cake pops. You can follow my recipe or make it as unique to your party or event as you want!
Supplies to Make Cake Pops
- Cake pop sticks. These are on amazon that are dishwasher safe, or they usually have some in stock at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Joann, etc.
- A styrofoam block, an extra pan with brown sugar or regular sugar..something to stand the cake pops in while the chocolate hardens. They do make cake pops holder.. but that's a pretty significant cake pop commitment in my opinion.
- Gel food coloring in colors of choice to color the chocolate.
Tips for Prepping to Make Cake Pops
- Plan out your colors of chocolate in advance.
- I baked the cake the day before, so the next day it was all about turning the cake into cake pops and I didn't have to wait on it to bake.
- I ended up using small drinking glasses for the chocolate, it helped to be able to submerge the cake pop in the chocolate with a smaller cup.
- Clear out a space in your freezer so you can quickly flash freeze the round cake balls. Not required, but it's easier when you're navigating the kitchen if everything is prepped.
- Bribe someone in your family with taste testing in exchange for help with dishes. Just an idea. 🙂
Be sure to follow along on Pinterest for more recipes, holiday inspiration and party ideas!
Making Your Cake Pops
There are all kinds of recipes out there, but how I made them is below in the recipe card. You start by baking a cake in your flavor of choice, I just used a box mix. I halved the cake and froze the other half because I didn't want more than 20 cake pops. If you're making them for a crowd or a party, go ahead and use the full cake.
After the cake has baked and cooled crumble it up into a bowl and add your frosting. Any frosting you don't use can be saved for another day. Or... paired with animal crackers for homemade dunakroos. Your choice! 🙂
Roll your cake balls into about a tablespoon or two size. The smaller it is the lighter it will be when it's attached to the cake pop stick, making it easier to dip and less likely to fall off into your chocolate. This was a mistake I made a few times!
It's really important to flash freeze the cake pops. I left mine in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes before pulling them out. This is where a mini muffin pan comes in handy too! You may have to refreeze them as you go.
While they're in the freezer prep your chocolate colors. Since I wanted pastel cake pops I used light pink, orange and green. I'd recommend picking 2-3 colors because you want to be able to work quickly with the chocolate. You want to keep it really thin, so you might have to reheat it. Getting the timing down with the cold cake pops and the hot chocolate is definitely the trickiest part!
I'd recommend dipping your cake pop stick into the chocolate and then attaching the cake pop itself, about ¾ of the way though. Then submerge the cake ball. Once you remove from chocolate, spin it around a few times and allow the excess chocolate to drip off. Put in an upright position and allow to cool. After your pretty pastel color has hardened, drizzle some extra chocolate or royal icing and add some sprinkles.
Looking for more seasonal baking ideas?
- Lucky Charms Hot Chocolate
- Cotton Candy S'mores
- Cake Mix Pancakes
- Make a Fun Breakfast with Pancake Shapes
After I finished making them and cleaning up the kitchen I wasn't sure if I would attempt them again. But, then I tasted one and although there's some trial and error it's completely worth it! Now I'm a lot faster at them and have gotten better at controlling the mess.
xoxo,
Claire
📖 Recipe
Pastel Cake Pops for Spring
Equipment
- 1 mixing bowl
- 3 glasses- safe to melt chocolate in or less if only using one color of chocolate
- 1 food processor optional
- 1 stand or hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 box cake mix in flavor of choice
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup oil of choice, I used vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup frosting I used funfetti vanilla
- 3 spoonfuls frosting additional to ¼ cup
- 2 packages white melting chocolate I use Ghiradelli white baking chips or melting chocolates
- drizzle melted chocolate optional- could also use royal icing
- sprinkle sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Bake cake according to box mix directions in a 9x13 pan.
- Crumble ½ of cake into a bowl. This makes approximately 15-20 cake pops depending on how you size them, if you're needing a larger quantity use the full cake.
- Add ¼ cup plus an additional 3 spoonfuls of frosting to the crumbled cake and combine. The frosting is what holds the cake together, so make sure you use enough.
- Roll cake dough into small balls, about a quarter size and place into a mini muffin tin. You can use a cookie sheet or tray, but the muffin tin makes them less able to roll around.
- Freeze cake balls for 15-20 minutes. While they're in the freezer prep your chocolate.
- Melt your white chocolate in 30 seconds increments until completely melted. Add your food coloring if using and have cake pop sticks ready along with the bowl of sugar or however you are planning to prop them up.
- Pull your cake balls out of the freezer. Dip the stick in the melted chocolate and then push the stick ¾ of the way through the cake pop. Dip the cake ball into the chocolate, submerging it. Remove cake pop from chocolate and spin a few times to allow excess chocolate to drip off.
- Place the cake pop in an upright position, whether in a styrofoam block or a glass full of sugar. Allow to cool. Once cooled, drizzle with royal icing and add sprinkles.
Paige Shaffer says
Ok so cute!! This looks like something even us non-bakers could pull off! 😍
Inisha says
Oh my word! Totally trying this for one or two of the girls’ birthday! Thanks for sharing!