How To Make Starbucks Reindeer Cake Pops

Christmas cake pops are such a fun and delicious holiday dessert! Perfect for making with kids or serving at a party. Everyone will love these festive reindeer cake pops!

You know that moment when you walk into a coffee shop (I’m looking at you, Starbucks), see a beautiful and perfect cake pop and just have to have it? Is that just me?

The problem is that they just never live up to my expectations. These cake pops will though. That homemade vanilla cake with homemade frosting is SO dang good. Truly. You’ll love it.

Starbucks Birthday Cake Pops

I gave one of these to my nephew. He ate the antlers, then the eyes, then the nose. Then he popped the whole cake pop and his mouth and exclaimed “MMMMM” (high praise from this kid), but then he kept talking about the noses.

He really liked the noses. I used a chewy cherry flavored candy, and apparently it’s his new favorite thing because he keeps reminding me to “bring him a bag of noses” (seriously the funniest sentence ever when he says it!).

I’ve partnered up with Klarbrunn to bring you this fun and festive Christmas recipe. I love pairing it with their festively colored Cherry Lime Sparkling Water! It’s one of my favorite flavors, and pairs especially well if you choose a cherry flavored candy for the nose. You can find out where to buy Klarbrunn here.

Be Not Afraid (biblically Accurate Reindeer Cakepop)

The cake pops must be very cold when you dip them in chocolate, or the recipe won’t work. Because of that, it’s important to only take out 1 to 2 cake pops at a time (depending on how fast you work).

Make the antlers by cutting the pretzels in half. I found that the best way to do this was to use the tip of my knife to cut the middle of the bottom of the pretzel, which then broke the top in roughly the spot I needed. I then trimmed the top pieces to get the best antler shape.

I recommend having extra pretzels on hand. Sometimes they just don’t break in the right place, so it’s helpful to have more laying around in case some of your pretzel antlers end up too small.

S'mores Reindeer Cake Jars

I like to use red chewy candies, but any red candy will work. If you don’t like chewy candies, I’d recommend red M&M’s.

I just used a leftover cardboard box from Amazon! Poke small holes into it, and it will make the perfect stand for your cake pops.

If you don’t have anything to hold the cake pops up while they dry, you can do the upside down version, where the cake is on the bottom and the stick is at the top. If you choose to do this version, it’s best to skip rolling them after they come out of the freezer, because the flat bottom will help in this scenario.

Really Cute Reindeer Cake Pops

I opted to use milk chocolate candy melts because they’re more affordable, but pure milk chocolate will taste better and has an easier consistency to work with. It’s totally up to you which you choose to use!

There is one caveat though: if you love white chocolate and plan to make this with white chocolate, I definitely recommend using pure white chocolate.

White chocolate candy melts are notoriously hard to work with. The chocolate tends to slip off of whatever you’re trying to coat and is prone to lumpy textures. That’s when the extra money on the real chocolate is 100% worth it.

Cozy On In With Starbucks Holiday Beverages And Festive Food

Definitely! If you want to make more cake pops, this recipe doubles beautifully. The only difference is that there’s no need to add in an additional egg to the cake batter.

If you need to make them in advance, you can store the cake pops in a hard sided airtight container in the freezer for up to a week. The antlers won’t hold up well in a bag though (they’ll break off).

Note: it’s not the cake pops that have a hard time freezing, it’s just really hard not to break the antlers when they’re stored together in a container.

Vanilla Cake Pops Starbucks Copycat (video)

These can definitely be made gluten free! Just substitute the flour for a 1:1 gluten free flour replacement (I recommend Bob’s Red Mill), and use gluten free pretzels for the antlers. The gluten free pretzels are a bit more brittle though, so just be gentle when you’re cutting the antler shape.

There are two variations on this recipe that I think would be AMAZING! The first would be to use brownies instead of vanilla cake (oh my gosh – all that chocolate). The second would be to use red velvet cake instead of vanilla cake. Not only would that taste amazing, but the red color would be so festive!

If you love festive Christmas recipes like this one, be sure to check out the rest of our holiday recipe section! We’ve got lots of themed Christmas desserts, and savory appetizers.

We Aren't The Only Ones Weirded Out By Starbucks Still Having Reindeer Cake Pops

The cake pops must be very cold when you dip them in chocolate, or the recipe won’t work. It’s important to only take out 1 to 2 cake pops at a time (depending on how fast you work).

If you want to make more cake pops, this recipe doubles beautifully. The only difference is that there’s no need to add in an additional egg to the cake batter.

These are really best made an hour or two before you want to serve them. If you need to make them in advance, you can store the cake pops in a hard sided airtight container in the freezer for up to a week. The antlers won’t hold up well in a bag though (they’ll break off). If you freeze them, allow them to thaw for 15 minutes before serving.

Best Cake Pop Recipes

I’m Alexa. I’m the cook and photographer here. Food is my love language. Favorite things: hiking, beach days, avocados, and anything pumpkin spice. Learn more.What a difference a decade makes. It’s fun to see where I started and how much better my cake pops look now after making so many of them over the years. These little reindeers are an example of hard work and a lot of learning on the job.

The ones in this post are definitely a lot more detailed, but they are just an example of what’s possible, you can certainly decorate them down so to speak, but I like to make them a little extra for you guys to see and hopefully inspire even more ideas for you.

For these, I’m going to start by talking all about antlers. You can make them ahead of time and have them ready for when you want to make the pops.

Starbucks Holiday Drinks 2022 Are Here

I wanted the antlers for these sweet little deers to look very specific and the only way to really do that was to build them. So,  I broke apart pretzel sticks into two smaller sizes … about 1 inch and a 1/4 inch give or take.

(NOTE: You can definitely make these with regular broken pretzel twists for a more casual look and a lot less effort, too.)

Once the pretzel pieces are broken into two smaller sizes, I used melted candy coating to attach the tiny pieces to the larger ones. This is where it got a little tricky and where you just have to regroup, learn and figure things out as you go.

How Much Are Cake Pops At Starbucks? (updated For 2023) (9/2023)

My plan was to dip them in melted chocolate coating right after this stage, but the melted coating basically melted the chocolate holding the pretzel appendages together and they fell apart immediately. Big, big bummer after building all the little antler parts.

So to try and fix it, I added more melted coating across the three pieces of pretzel (See above left photo). Use your finger or the end of a lollipop stick dipped in the coating to apply. My hope was that the coating would act like a connecter piece and add more support when dipping. And it did! I also … and this is important… froze them for several minutes before dipping.

Voila! Having them frozen and with more chocolate support before dipping was the answer. Submerge them in the melted candy coating with just the bottom bit of the pretzel exposed. You’ll probably get chocolate on your fingers… just wipe it off in between each dip.

Fun & Festive Cake Pops Recipe: How To Make It

Hold them to dry or the coating will pool if you lay them flat. You can speed this up by sticking them in the freezer for a few seconds while holding. I know, I know… annoying, but I was determined to make these little antlers. Once dry, you can store them until ready to use.

Okay, now for the pops. Here are my basic cake pop instructions. Follow them with your favorite cake flavor and then use the rest of the decorating instructions below.

You’ll need rolled cake ball shapes, almonds and melted candy coating tinted a light brown. (Just use vanilla candy coating and add a little chocolate candy coating to mix and lighten the color when melting.)

My Mom Works At Starbucks And Sent Me A Picture Of Her Sad Reindeer Cake Pop That She Purchased On Her Break. I Love It.

Place two almonds with the rounded side down in position for ears and use the melted candy coating as glue to attach them. Let dry in position.

Use a lollipop stick to