How To Make A Cake Pop Stand Out Of Cardboard

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.

Perfect

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.

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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:

Kojo Tutorial Diy Cake Pop Stand

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.)

Cake Pop Stand

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.

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Valentine Cake Pop Stand

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.

How To Make Cake Pops (easy And Fool Proof)

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 onBack when I photographed those goodies, I also took the above picture of the cake pop stand with a carpenter's square so that I would have the dimensions for future reference. I was secretly hoping my hubby would make one for me to keep... but that hasn't happened yet.

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Why you ask was it not more precise?  Welll, around 10pm the night before it was due,  I remembered that my customer had ordered this board.  So I begged my husband, who was already ready for bed, to go outside, get out his saw and drill and make it for me.

Cake Pop Stand, Lollipop Stand

He did that for two reasons.  First, he loves me... alot.    Second, I'm sure he was also accommodating because  he wanted me to keep all of my fingers.  I certainly would've cut off some major body part had I been forced to operate the circular saw unsupervised!

He made my homemade cake pop stand!  Again, it was late and he was working quickly, so I know our measurements and spaces are not terribly precise!

We started with a 1x12 board.  Then he cut it down to the approximate 10 x 11 rectangle you see above.   We then drew out a grid for 24 cake pops (the quantity that was ordered)  based on what I assumed would be enough room for the cake pops.

Crissa's Cake Corner!: How To Make A Cake Pop Stand

I put the dimensions up in the top picture for you to see.   The rows were spaced a little less than 3 inches apart and then the vertical holes were about 1.5 apart.  I use 5/32 diameter lollipop sticks, so my hubby drilled the holes with the appropriate size drill bit so they would stand but be tight.

Wood

Then he sanded it down to remove all the splinters.  When he had that all done for me, I painted it with cheap white craft paint.   It took about 3 coats for it to be white enough for me, but considering I was using my kids school craft paint - what did I expect?  I'm sure if you had a better quality paint, it would've been fine!

If you choose to make one of these, I'd recommend making the horizontal holes a little farther apart.  Ours were around 1.5 inches but I'd recommend maybe 1.75 inches.  Our little ladybugs had enough room - but barely!!

Acrylic Cake Pop Stand With Cake Pops

Do you have any questions about making a cake pop stand like this?  If so, leave them in the comments and I'll let my hubby answer (ha!!)

Rose Atwater is the founder and cake decorator behind Rose Bakes. She is baker, cake decorator, author, wife to Richy and homeschooling mommy to 6 wonderful kiddos! Her work has been featured in American Cake Decorating Magazine, Cakes Decor, Pretty Witty Cakes Magazine, Huffington Post and Cake Geek Magazine. Learn more here...When kids were too small I tried cake pops for the first time. Also after that I make cake pops for most of their birthday parties without fail. Its a perfect party bite even I never mind to have two or three 🙂 Recently I made Cake Pops for a party and clicked some step by step pictures while working on it in a midnight. So today’s post is going to discuss the tips and tricks to make Perfect Cake Pops with DIY Cake Pop Holder . You wonder how this post is different from my previous cake pops posts?

I learnt cake pops has to be kept in freezer before coating with candy melts. Also used whipping cream to the crumbled cake to make cake balls now things have changed.

Crissa's

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The cake is mixed with flavored buttercream to give smooth and perfect texture to the cake balls also it hardens fast , easy to work with and its always not necessary to chill it before inserting the sticks. For several years I stick with