How To Make Chocolate Smooth For Cake Pops

No doubt about it, cake pops are fun. But while these bite-sized cakes on a stick can be a blast to eat, making them can turn into a not-so-fun affair, especially when those super-sweet morsels fall off the stick, crack, leak or are just plain lumpy.

We’re here to tell you there’s a fix to all sorts of cake pop fails, and it starts with a nice, smooth finish. We’ll show you how.

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To guarantee the cake pops are all the same size, use an ice cream scoop to shape the cakes. After you’ve scooped them all out, roll each one between your hands to bind crumbs together until the surface is smooth. Place the balls in the refrigerator for at least an hour so they don’t fall apart during the dipping process. Or you can store them in the fridge overnight.

Chocolate Cake Pops

Once your cake pops are sufficiently chilled, take them out of the fridge and roll them between your hands again to form each one into a tighter ball. If you’re opting for hearts or other shapes, form them now — before you insert the sticks!

After you’ve shaped your pops, gently slide in the sticks and put the cake pops back in the fridge for a few more minutes while you make the coating. Take the pops out about 10 minutes before you dip them so they don’t crack or fall apart after the chocolate coating has dried.

The most important part of getting a smooth finish to cake pops is the consistency of the coating, and one of the easiest ways to guarantee this is by melting candy melts correctly.

White Chocolate Mud Cake Pops

It’s suuuuuper easy to overheat candy melts. When they get too hot, they clump (so not good) and don’t fall off the spatula easily. Keep the following in mind as you melt the melts.

Dip each cake pop into the melted chocolate, lift up, turn and dip again until the entire surface is coated. Gently shake the excess coating from the top of the cake pop while it’s upside down.

Once you’ve shaken out the last drop of excess chocolate, turn the cake pop right side up and gently shake it while twirling between your fingers. This helps even out the coating.

Red Velvet Cake Pops

Once you’re done, stick the pop on a piece of Styrofoam to dry. For a more planet-friendly option, use an egg carton turned upside down.

Once they’re finished drying, you’re ready to decorate your cake pops, which will go much easier now because your cake pops are so smooth. Have fun!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!)

Chocolate Brownie Pops Recipe

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.

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.

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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.

Campfire S'mores Cake Pops Recipe

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!

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.

Easy And Delicious Chocolate Cake Pop Recipe

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.

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.

Chocolate

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?

How To Make Cake Pops With Cake Mix

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.

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.

Carrot Cake Pops Recipe

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!

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. 🙂

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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 onThese chocolate cake pops are made with moist chocolate cake, delicious chocolate frosting, then coated in more chocolate and dipped in sprinkles! These can be made with a box mix or a cake made from scratch, and there are instructions for making it vegan or gluten free!

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Chocolate cake pops have got to be one of the cutest desserts ever - there's just something about eating a little piece of cake on a stick, you know?

Cake pops are so great for kids or adults, and you can customize them with fun sprinkles for birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, weddings, or pretty much any event or holiday you can think of! While they are a labour of love, they are so worth it in the end.

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