Cake Pop Recipe 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.

Starbucks Cake Pops (easy 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:

How To Make Cake Pops With A Cake Pop Maker

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 To Cake Pops

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.

Easy Pumpkin Balls With Spice Cake Mix

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.

Starbucks Cake Pop Recipe (easy Homemade Copycat)

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 onToday I am showing you how to make Cake Pops using cake mix. These little nuggets of cake dipped in chocolate have become a huge trend.

Charles says that he likes them because you can have just a taste of dessert without committing to eat an entire piece of cake or a cupcake. (My opinion? Life is short, eat a whole piece of cake!)

Starbucks Cake Pops Copycat Recipe

Cake pops are prepared by baking a cake, mashing it up, mixing in frosting, rolling it into a balls, putting it on a stick, and dipping it in chocolate. The flavor combinations are endless, and you can decorate them with colored sprinkles or dunk them in colored white chocolate to match any party theme or color scheme.

You can use any boxed cake mix to perpare this recipe. If you really want to keep things simple, you could buy a couple cupcakes at the grocery store and then mash them up frosting and all to make cake pops.

First, you need to bake a cake. Then you take that cake and break it up and add some frosting. I used a store-bought chocolate cake mix. If you want to bake a cake from scratch, you might want to try my friend Jocelyn’s chocolate cake recipe.

Easy Cake Pops Using Box Mix

Mix the frosting into the cake, mashing the cake up at the same time. You will end up with soft cake that can be easily formed into balls.

Roll the cake into balls, you want them to be about the size of a ping pong ball. Then dip the sticks in melted chocolate and place them in the cake balls.

Then the cake balls go into the freezer until they become solid. This is very important. You need to put the cake pops in the freezer before you dip them in the melted chocolate, otherwise, they will fall apart and make a mess. Trust me on this one.

Chocolate Cake Pops — Salt & Baker

I loved how these cake pops turned out. You can really taste the caramel frosting, and I liked the way the nonpareils gave added crunch.

I used the cake mix to bake two 8-inch round cakes. Then I used about 1/4 of that cake to make Cake Pops (I didn’t want to make too many because I knew I would end up eating all of them).

Pro Tip: Save the cake mix box and use it to stick the cake pops into while the chocolate dies. Or if you want to be fancy, cake pop stands exist.

How To Make Cake Pops

I mean I don't think the debate here is if you like cake pops or not. Yes as an adult I think it's a waste because I would rather have a slice or 2 of cake. My son on the other hand wants these for his birthday party and I think it's a great idea I'll make enough for everyone to have 2 or 3 and they look fun and it's something different.

Oh Contrer...Cake pops can cut your day in half and the expense as well. If you make 40 Pops vs baking cakes or even cup cakes for 40 people....much less expensive and time consuming. They can be put in a pretty jar or vase on either end of a Buffet table or distributed onto the actual tables themselves at Anniversary parties etc. This way as well, the couple, may keep their small cake to take home.

I've ordered the silicone cake pop maker for $2.97. That way you just bake the cake pops already shaped in balls. Skipping the making the cake and manually forming balls. Though a very small treat, it helps control my grandbabies snack intake. Can't wait to make with them...

Starbucks Cake Pops Copycat (easy Birthday Vanilla Cake Pop Recipe)

They look yummy and fun to eat! Thanks for sharing it over at Food Friday. Excited to see what you’ll be sharing next! :D

I love cake pops! These look