Cake Pops or Cake Balls

Ingredients for Cake Pops
(Printable Version)
To make these cake pops, you will need:
1 cake baked in a 13x9 pan
1 tub of frosting, or about 2 cups
12 ounces of candy coating
lollipop sticks

Crumble the CakeBegin by breaking up the cake into fine crumbs. This recipe is really flexible, and you can actually use any flavor of cake, or even substitute muffins or quick breads instead. Whatever you use, work the cake until it's entirely crumbled.

Mix in FrostingTake your frosting, and again you can use any flavor you like, and mix it in. you can use a spoon, but I think it's easier, although messier, just to use my hands. I reserve a little of the frosting because I don't always need it. The exact amount needed will depend on the moistness of the cake.

You want the final mixture to be fairly moist and to easily hold itself together when you shape it into a ball, but not so moist that it's soggy or gooey.

Roll the Cake into Balls
Roll the cake into small balls, using a teaspoon or a small cookie scoop. You should get between 3-4 dozen balls depending on how large you make them. Set them on a lined cookie sheet.

Freeze the Cake Balls
Once they're all formed, put them in the freezer to harden for about an hour to make them easier to dip.

Melt the Candy Coating
While you're waiting for the cake balls to harden, melt the candy coating in the microwave and stir until it's entirely melted and smooth.
Put Lollipop Sticks into Cake Balls (or move on to the next step if not using sticks)

After an hour, remove the cake balls from the freezer. Use a skewer or a toothpick to poke holes in the balls, then dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melted coating, and stick it into the hole you just created. The melted coating will help hold the stick in the cake pop.

Dip Cake Balls into Candy Coating
Once all of the cake balls are on sticks, it's time to dip them. Hold one end of the lollipop stick and submerge the cake pop completely in the melted coating. Take it out and gently tap it and swirl it upside down to remove excess coating--if you don't it will drip down the stick and look really terrible.

Set the Cake Pops
Now you can just stick them upside down on a baking sheet to set, but this does give them flat tops.

So if you want rounded shapes, you'll need to find some Styrofoam or florist foam to stick your cake pops in while they dry. Continue dipping them until all of your cake pops are covered with candy coating. If it starts to get too stiff from the cold pops, re-warm it briefly.

Decorate the Cake Pops
If you want to decorate them, you can drizzle them with melted white chocolate, or add sprinkles or chopped nuts while the coating is still wet.