Cake Pops Cake Frosting Ratio

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.

Easy

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.

Rainbow Layer Cake

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:

White Chocolate Drip Cake Recipe

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.)

Easy Cake Pops ~sweet & Savory

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 Cake Pops (easy And Fool Proof)

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.

Homemade

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.

Not Too Sweet And The Frosting Was The Perfect Ratio To The Cupcake.

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 onHere’s the thing… Back in my Lucky Duck Cakes days, I was the queen of cake pops. Not to toot my own horn, but… Toot toot!

They were my favorite way to use up cake scraps, and they were perfect for so many different occasions. Different flavors, color combinations, vehicles for sprinkles, crushed cookies, nuts… They are just so fun.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In this cake pop recipe, I’m sharing with you my favorite method for putting together cake pops and, what I believe to be, the best recipe for cake pops.

I am also including a section for “Cake Pop Troubleshooting, ” because I’ll be honest… Cake pops take some practice. BUT, the good news is, once you get the hang of it, tasty homemade cake pops are a breeze (and yes, I do still screw up sometimes and I can promise you the messed up ones still taste just as good)!

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. Some people like to use a cake pop maker and bake fresh cake balls, giving you, essentially, a ball of cake on a stick.

Hostess With The Mostess Snack Cake

While that’s all fine and dandy, I find my fan favorite (and personal favorite) method of how to make a cake pop is one that is almost a truffle texture on the inside.

A cake pop is similar to a lollipop, but it is made entirely from cake. The inside of the cake pop is made from crumbled cake crumbs, typically held together with frosting or icing, and coated in melted chocolate or candy melts. Cake pops sit as a ball of cake on top of a lollipop stick and are often decorated with sprinkles or occasionally piped designs.

Stale cake is drier than freshly baked cake, and while this may be the last thing you want your slice of cake to be, this is the very thing you want your cake pop cake to be– lots of room for soaking up frosting and increased ability to stick together!

Chocolate Cake Pops

I have totally used freshly baked cake as well, and I’ll make note in the step-by-step instructions on how to gauge your moistness level.

You can find these in any craft store or store with a baking section (WalMart, Target). I prefer the longer sticks (6″or sometimes 8″), but you may use shorter ones.

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You can use any flavor of cake to make cake pops. Whether it’s basic vanilla cake or chocolate cake or something more complex like carrot cake or strawberry cake, any cake flavor can be turned into a cake pop.

Easy Homemade Cake Pops Recipe

If desired, you can add extracts or flavorings to the cake pops to make them even more complex or to turn something like vanilla cake into lemon cake without adding a lot of extra liquid.

I achieve my favorite truffle-like texture by mixing fully baked cake that has been crumbled into pieces with frosting. The texture is gooey, dense, and like the texture of a fudgy brownie.

I actually had a customer complain to me once that my cake pops were “underdone” in the middle, if that gives you any indication of how I like my pops! As I said, this is my preference, but you’re welcome to start with cake pop maker made cake balls (what?).

Leftover Carrot Cake Pops With Cream Cheese Frosting

One last thing… I prefer using Wilton candy melts for my coating because they are made for purposes like this. You may also use quality baking chocolate, but you’ll need to add some shortening to the chocolate to keep everything super smooth.

Crumble your cake (any flavor) into tiny pieces. I usually use my hands, but I’ve also used my stand mixer. Either way, you want this crumb to be very fine.

Cake

Next, you’re going to add your frosting. This can be homemade frosting or store-bought, and any flavor you like. I love adding flavored frosting to my cake pops (and sometimes fresh zest if I’m going fruity)! This

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