How To Cook Chocolate Cake Balls

Chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + cute heart sprinkles = the most adorable treat! Today we’re making chocolate cake pops because many of you request them, especially after I shared my vanilla cake pops. Your wish is my command. What I love most, however, is that you have creative control. You can decorate these cake pops in your own unique way, which makes this recipe 100x more fun.

I have plenty of step-by-step photos and lots of tips/tricks. I want you to understand every instruction so you can follow along and know what the heck you’re doing. The process isn’t difficult– you’re literally just baking a chocolate cake and making frosting then mixing them together. Things just get a little particular when it comes to rolling, lollipop-sticking, and dunking/dipping. If you can make bread bowls, you can totally handle cake pops! (They’re more fun to eat too… sprinkles!)

By the way, if you’ve ever eaten store-bought cake pops– these taste totally different. They’re from scratch. No cake mix. No canned frosting. No preservatives. You can actually TASTE the homemade.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Quick tip: Whenever I make cake pops from scratch, I always begin the night before. I make the cake, cover it, and let it sit out at room temperature overnight. I also prepare the frosting, cover, and refrigerate. This way everything’s ready to go.

It might seem like the switch from vanilla cake pops to chocolate cake pops is easy. Replace some flour with cocoa powder, right? And vanilla frosting with chocolate frosting? I wish! Chocolate is a complicated soul and requires a little finesse, that’s why my vanilla cake and chocolate cake recipes are so different! I baked a couple single layer chocolate cakes before stopping at this one. The first few began with creamed butter + sugar. My favorite chocolate cakes and cupcakes typically rely on oil for the fat because (1) HELLO MOISTURE and (2) the flavor of butter really isn’t necessary because chocolate overpowers it anyway. My initial thought with cake pops, however, was that I needed a slightly drier cake to get the best texture for cake pops (because it will be mixed with frosting). Well this was just a huge mess from the start because dry cake is gross.

That being said, you’ll need oil for the cake. And a few other basics like cocoa powder, sugar, flour, and eggs. Hot water is also a must. Remember why from when we made this tuxedo cake?The hot liquid encourages the cocoa powder to bloom and dissolve. When I make chocolate cake, I usually reach for hot coffee (instead of hot water) because coffee accentuates the chocolate favor—but that’s not as crucial here. Because we’re just crumbling the cake and mixing with chocolate frosting!

Leftover Cake Cake Balls

By the way, you can totally enjoy this chocolate cake on its own. If you ever need a single layer chocolate cake—use this guy. It’s

Like, italicize and bold good. Deep and dark chocolate flavor. Super moist. Super rich. Top with chocolate buttercream, whipped cream, peanut butter frosting, or red wine chocolate ganache.

What was a little more difficult than testing the perfect single layer chocolate cake was figuring out how much frosting I needed. Too much frosting and the cake pops are wet and greasy. Too little frosting and you won’t have enough to bind the cake crumbles.I have the perfect amount of frosting you’ll need. It’s not much because the chocolate cake is already so moist.

Homemade Chocolate Cake Balls (vegan And Gluten Free)

Crumble the cake into the bowl of frosting and yes, you’ll feel very weird doing this. You just made this beautiful chocolate cake and will now break it up into a bowl of frosting. Because that’s what cake pops are—cake crumbs and frosting.

Once the two are mixed together, it’s time to roll the mixture into balls. This part is EASY. I found the chocolate cake pops much easier to roll into balls than my vanilla version. This mixture is just sooo smooth! Your hands will get a little sticky, but just roll with it. Hahahaha get it? get it?

Smaller wins. If you roll the cake pops too large, they’ll wobble off the lollipop stick. They’re too heavy. You need 1 Tablespoon of the cake pop mixture per ball. No more, no less. You’ll end up with 40 of them. Quite a lot—but these babies freeze beautifully! And you can gift them to anyone and everyone. Who doesn’t love a homemade cake pop? Seriously WHO.

Lover Of Chocolate Pops

These cake balls need to chill in the refrigerator before we pop ’em with a lollipop stick. Why? They’re much too delicate right now; they’ll completely fall apart. Which reminds me… you do NOT have to make these as pops. You can make them truffle style by simply rolling them up and coating in chocolate. Either way you enjoy them, chill the cake balls before coating. I just place them on a lined baking sheet and refrigerate them for a couple hours.

Speaking of chocolate, you can dunk the cake ballsinto pure chocolate, which is what I prefer for best taste, but that’s pretty expensive. 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.

Contrary to my wordy post (sorry!!!) and 1 million photos, I promise chocolate cake pops are simple (about as simple these Oreo balls!). As long as you follow my tips in this post and get started the night before per my suggestion, it’s simple!

Homemade Chocolate Cake Balls

Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂

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 onDense, moist, sweet, and utterly addictive, this is the ultimate tutorial on all things Cake Balls! Perfect for Holidays, events, or just because!

Baked cake crumbled and mixed with just the right amount of frosting is then rolled into balls and coated in chocolate. Ooo-la-la! That process right there makes the most delicious dessert, Cake Balls! You’re basically getting a small portion of a cake in ball form. And the best part about it is that they can be decorated in a variety of ways and made with any flavor of cake! Plus with my expertise, you’ll be making perfect homemade cake balls in no time! Let’s get started:

Chocolate Dipped Cake Pops

Make cake mix according to package directions. Depending on which brand of cake mix you use, you may need to change the measurements for eggs, oil, and water. Allow baked cake to cool completely.

Mix in cream cheese, frosting, and cocoa powder. The mixture should be moist and stick together easily. If the dough is too dry, add in more frosting a tablespoon at a time.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and using a cookie scoop, scoop cake balls onto the baking sheet. Roll each ball with your hands. If the dough sticks to your hands, you’ll need to wash them occasionally.

Vegan Chocolate Cake Pops Recipe

Microwave milk chocolate wafers in a microwave-safe bowl. Start out with 30 seconds, stir, and then melt at 20-second increments until melted. Be careful not to overcook the chocolate or it’ll seize up!

Tip: Work in small batches! Pour ⅓ of the bag of chocolate in the bowl and then once it’s used up, make another ⅓ of the bag.

If the chocolate is too thick, you can add a tiny amount of coconut oil to thin it out, just be careful not to add too much because the chocolate won’t set! You can also use Crisco shortening.

Cake Balls Recipe

Once the chocolate is melted and the cake balls are frozen, you’re ready to dip. Place a cake ball onto a fork and dip. You can use a spoon to scoop up chocolate and pour it over the cake ball if needed. When the cake ball is covered, gently tap the fork to let any extra chocolate drop off.

Melt the white chocolate wafers the same way you melted the other chocolate. Place in a plastic Ziploc bag (careful, it can be hot!) and move the chocolate to one corner of the bag. Snip a tiny section of the opposite corner off and drizzle the top of the cake balls! Cool completely then enjoy!

The beauty of this recipe is that you can customize it to create many different flavor combinations! If you are making a variation of this recipe (using a different flavor of cake mix) leave out the cream cheese and cocoa powder. You may need to add more frosting to get the right consistency. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Chocolate Cake Pops Recipe Nz

Now that we have the flavors out of the way we can decide how to decorate your cake balls! There are a lot of options out there, so when in doubt, keep it simple.

If you wanted to make cake balls ahead of time you could! The dough should last in the fridge for a couple of days. Or you can roll them out and