How To Make Ganache For Cake Pops

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.

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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!

No Bake Gluten Free Cake Pops

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.

Easy Cake Pops

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.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

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!

This Was My Plant Pot For Mothers Day I Made A Chocolate Plant Pot With Chocolate Ganache For Compost And Then Made Some Rose Cake Pops

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 onThese Starbucks Copycat Chocolate Cake Pops are soft and moist chocolate cake combined with chocolate frosting and then coated with a chocolate ganache.

This Starbucks Copycat recipe is so simple to make and so good. This recipe will have homemade cake pops ready in minutes to enjoy. It will feel as though you have Starbucks right at home.

Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake

Chocolate Cake Mix: I love using Pillsbury chocolate cake. You can also make a homemade recipe if you have a specific one you like to use.

Wilton Chocolate Candy Melts: This is specifically for dipping and decorating. I love to coat and then drizzle more on top of each of them.

White Nonpareils: I love using nonpareils to decorate and add a pop of color to my cake pops. You can use other colors too if you desire.

Cakeball Pops And The Secret To Dipping Anything In Chocolate

Step 1. Follow the cake instructions on the box. Use the baking spray to grease a 9 x 13-inch dish and add the cake batter to the prepared dish. Set the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean of batter. Take out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Step 2. Use a fork to break up the cake into crumbs and use it to scrape the bottom of the baking dish. In a large bowl, combine the fine cake crumbles and chocolate frosting until you have a gooey mound.

Step 3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and begin rolling the cake/frosting mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls and arrange onto the prepared sheet pan. Repeat until all the mixture is used.

How To Make Cake Pops (easy And Fool Proof)

Step 1. Add half of the candy melts into a heat-safe bowl and melt in the microwave in 10-second increments until smooth. Dip the white sticks into the melted chocolate and place them into the cake balls right away. Continue until all the cake balls have sticks.

Step 2. Put the sheet pan into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes until the sticks adhere to the balls. Once the 30 minutes is up, take them out and melt the rest of the candy melts in the microwave. Combine the melted chocolate with Crisco until combined. Hold the stick and dip each of the cake pops into the heated chocolate. Use a large piece of styrofoam and place each dipped pop in. Top with some nonpareils and continue until all the cake pops are dipped.

Step 3. Let the pops sit at room temperature until hardened and enjoy! Place in an airtight container and place in the fridge for the best results.

Cake Pops: Der Süße Genuss Aus Kuchenresten!

Yes, you can add things to your cake pops. You can add things like crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, cookie dough, or fresh fruit!

One of my go-to ways to decorate cake pops is food coloring. You can change the color of the dipping chocolate and also drizzle different colors on the finished cake pops. Topping with sprinkles is another popular choice!

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