How To Make Cake Pops Easy With Cake Mix

How was your weekend? We spent most of it celebrating my friend’s birthday. I made a whole mess of treats including chocolate zucchini cake (as cupcakes), these salted caramel dark chocolate cookies, and these peanut butter M&M cookies too—it’s been way too long since I made a batch of those in particular! The birthday girl loves chocolate and peanut butter and caramel so these 3 were a no brainer.

There’s no batter time (get it? batter?) than a happy occasion to indulge in your favorite treats whether that’s a birthday, shower, wedding, you name it. My mom and sisters threw my baby shower last month and one of the treats they surprised me with was a HUGE display of cake pops. I love cake pops, but hardly ever take the time to make them. Though I did whip up a batch for both of my sisters’ bridal showers in the past few years.

The difference between these cake pops and others you may have tried is that these are 100% homemade. There’s no box cake mix or canned frosting, which results in a totally unique cake pop experience. You can actually TASTE the homemade. The love, the passion, and the care that goes into creating each adorable pop.

Simple Cake Pops Recipe

So anyway! I first began making homemade cake pops when I wroteSally’s Candy Addiction. In fact, this recipe is published in the book! I want to share it on the blog as well because I’ve gotten lots of questions about making from-scratch cake pops.

Today we’ll go over all my tips, tricks, and secrets to crafting the peeeeerfect pop as well as the homemade vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream used inside. There’s lots of ground to cover so let’s pop right to it. (Can’t stop with my nerdiness right now.)

Since we’re leaving the box cake mix and canned frosting on the store shelves, we’ll need to take a little extra time to prep both from scratch. I always make the cake the night before, then finish the cake pops the next day. Here’s the general process:

Chocolate Cake Pops

Super basic recipes for both the vanilla cake and frosting, but I do encourage you to use the correct size pan for the cake. This cake is too large for a typical 9-inch cake pan. You’ll need to use a 9-inch springform pan since it rises quite high. Or you can use an 11×7-inch pan instead. A 10-inch springform pan would work as well.

Cake ingredients are straightforward. The basic crew like flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, milk. Same goes with the vanilla frosting: butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, milk (or cream). The difference between this and what you get out of a box is the taste. You can totally tell these cake pops are special and it’s because you started with from-scratch components. WORTH IT!

(Crumbling the cake into the frosting sounds super weird when you think about it and that’s exactly what cake pops are—super weird when you think about it. It’s cake and frosting mixed together to form a truffle-like ball. Pop a stick in it and dunk into coating. Yep, it’s weirdly delicious and awesome and you need to embrace it.)

How To Make Best Cake Pops Recipe For Lazy People

It’s easier to roll the cake + frosting mixture into perfectly round balls if it’s cold. And what I do is roll the balls up right after the two are mixed together. They’re pretty misshapen because the cake + frosting mixture is super moist—and at room temperature. So then I chill the balls in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. After that, I give them another little roll to smooth out the sides. When they’re cold, they’re easier to smooth out and form perfectly round shapes.

Just like when we make Oreo balls, the cake balls need to be super chilled before dipping, so this trick gets both steps done!

Now let’s dunk. You can dip the cake balls into pure white chocolate, which is what I prefer for best taste, but that stuff is pretty expensive. And you need a good amount for all 40 cake pops! You can use candy melts/candy coating instead. I give both options in the recipe below along with notes for each choice.

How To Make Ice Cream Cake Pops

Another trick: to ensure the cake ball stays secure on the lollipop stick, dip it slightly into the coating first. Then stick in the center of the cake ball. See photo above!

And another trick: the best way to allow the coating to dry and set—without ruining the perfectly round cake pop—is to place them right side up in a large styrofoam block or even a box. I used a box, as pictured below, for this batch. I just poked super tiny holes into it. Easy and cheap.

Cake pops are a genius celebration-worthy treat to make ahead of time because they freeze beautifully. I simply freeze them in a large zipped-top freezer bag after they’ve fully dried. They’re great for up to 6 weeks, then just let them thaw overnight in the fridge.

Christmas Cake Pops (how To Without Cake Pop Baking Pan)

I have a few more tips for ya! I went over these in Sally’s Candy Addiction because they’re pretty important to review before you get started.

Sally McKenney is a professional food photographer, cookbook author, and baker. Her kitchen-tested recipes and thorough step-by-step tutorials give readers the knowledge and confidence to bake from scratch. Sally has been featured onI have to admit, I had never made cake pops before but I was determined to make them for our gender reveal party. I’ve made Oreo truffles multiple times, which are somewhat similar to cake pops. Somewhat. They’re essentially the cookie version of cake pops. Basically dessert cousins. I figured, how hard could it be?

Now, I know mine aren’t 100% true cake pops– they’re basically cake balls with sticks in them, but people can still carry them around like cake pops. I mean, who wants messy hands? Anyway, I’ll tell you at the end of the post how to make them into legit cake pops with the cake portion at the top and the stick coming out the bottom.

Your Guide To Cake Pops

Prepare a boxed cake mix as directed on the box. Let the cake cool completely. Wash your hands. Next, crumble the cake into fine crumbs with your hands in a large bowl. Mix in about 1/3 cup of icing (I used store bought milk chocolate) with your hands. The mixture should be dense but not gooey. Gooey cake balls gross me out. Grab a cookie scoop (I used my 1.5 T scoop, which I LOVE). (Remember, everyone needs a cookie scoop, or 3.) Then, scoop out the mixture, packing the cake mixture into the scoop as you scoop it (I smushed the open side of the cookie scoop against the inside of the bowl). Smush the mixture in your hand to pack it tightly into a ball. Roll it into a nicely shaped ball. Roll the remaining mixture into balls (my cake mix made 18 balls).

Grab your Candy Melts (I purchased mine from JoAnn Fabric) and a small microwaveable dish (I used a small oatmeal bowl). Put about 5 morsels into the bowl and melt them in the microwave. Next, grab your cake pop sticks (I purchased mine from JoAnn Fabric). Dip your stick into the melted Candy Melt and quickly stick it into a cake pop at least half way down. Repeat with remaining cake pops. Then, set pops on a cookie tray. Freeze for about 15 minutes (they wouldn’t fit in my freezer so I put them in the fridge for 30 minutes– worked fine). Put your Candy Melts into a microwaveable mug (I filled mine to the top). Next, melt the Candy Melts as directed on the package. Dip the cake pop into the mug, evenly coating it. Let the coating drip off. Place the pop on cookie sheet. Finally, if using sprinkles, add immediately before coating sets. Repeat for remaining pops.

These may seem like a lot a work, but trust me, once you have it all mapped out it’s a breeze. I spent maybe an hour on these (not including baking and cooling times).

Easy Cake Pops

If you want your cake pops to be true cake pops, rather than cake balls with sticks in them, instead of putting them on a cookie sheet to dry, insert the stick into Styrofoam for the coating to set. I wanted mine to sit on the platter but still be pops, so that’s why I went the route I did.

FYI, the Candy Melt coating is really good. I used chocolate cake and you barely tell there’s dark cake underneath the coating. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Note: Candy Melts come in a wide array of colors. But if you don’t spot a color you need, you can use gel food coloring. Do not use food coloring drops.

How To Make Cake Pops The Easy Way

Step by step instructions on how to make cake pops! Learn some tricks on how to accomplish delicious and eye-catching cake pops!How to make homemade cake pops? Which recipes to choose ? How to decorate them ? How to make them successful? Follow this guide to make cake pops, an easy sweet treats recipe made without