How to Make Cake Pops

Making cake pops is easier than you think. Cake pops are still a trendy and delicious treat. You can find them in coffee shops and bakeries. Wouldn’t it be great if you could make them yourself? 

I will show you step by step how to make them. So, let’s get into it!

Supplies

You will need some baked cake, a mixer, cake pop sticks, candy melts, a microwave, a spatula, and a plastic bowl. And something to place the cake pops in like a cake pop stand or Styrofoam. Notice that I did NOT include icing in this list. 

There are cake pop makers on the market. But you don’t need one of those to be a star cake pop maker. And I actually encourage you NOT to purchase one of those.  

Icing or frosting is not needed for cake pops. And I prefer them without icing mixed in the cake so they are not so sweet.

The Cake

Depending on how many you need, if you baked a cake and cut the tops off, you can use the cake tops for your cake pops. But, if you are not making a whole cake or if you need a lot of cake pops, you can bake a cake just for the cake pops. Just choose the flavor of cake, make the cake batter and bake it. Cake tops are also easy to freeze, so you can save them for the day when you want to make cake pops. Just be sure to remove the frozen cake from the freezer well in advance of when you want to make the cake pops so it can thaw.

Making the Cake Pop “Dough”

Next, you will need to use a mixer. I like to use my stand mixer with the paddle attachment. If you have a paddle that has the silicone scraper on the paddle, that works great too.  

Put the baked cake into the bowl of your mixer and turn it on low. Increase the speed a bit if you desire. What you are looking for is the cake to become gummy and want to stick together. It may not look like this in the bowl, so you must stop the mixer and test it. When you squeeze it in your hand, the cake will come together and hold its shape. 

Making the Cake Pop Balls

Once it reaches this stage, you are ready to form the cake balls. Cake balls should be about 1 oz each. But you can make them smaller or a bit larger. You don’t want to make them too large, or the weight may be too much for them to remain on the stick. (Learn how to tare a scale).

Roll the cake into balls with your hands and set the balls aside.  

Attaching the Cake Pop Balls to the Sticks

Next, you need to melt some of your candy melts because you are going to use this as the glue for the cake pop ball to adhere to the stick. Melting candy melts is quick and easy. Use a plastic bowl to melt them in. The plastic will not get hot as a ceramic or glass bowl will. 

The amount of time it takes to melt candy melts depends on the quantity of candy melts you have in the bowl and the strength of your microwave. I usually begin heating with 30 seconds. Then stir. 

Heat another 30 seconds. 

Then stir. Keep doing this until the candy melts are completely melted and smooth. As the candy melts become more and more melted and there are fewer solid discs to melt, reduce your time to 5-15 seconds at a time.  

Once your candy melts are melted, take a stick and dip the end into the melted candy melts, about ¼ inch to ½ inch. Then insert the dipped end into a cake ball. After that, set aside in a cake pop stand or Styrofoam, and do the next one.

Finish adhering all of the cake balls onto the sticks. You can clean the candy melts from the stick if they became a little messy. Then set them aside to allow the candy melts to harden inside the ball to keep them on the stick. Waiting about 30 minutes to 1 hour is good. If you move on to the next step and they are not set, they will just come off the stick when you dip them. So allowing them to set up is important.

Your cake pops are looking more like cake pops now. We are headed toward the culinary finish line. 

Dipping the Cake Pops

Our last steps are to dip the balls and then add any decorations you desire.  

First, you need to get your candy melts melted. You will want a good amount of candy melts. You want it to be deep enough so that the cake pop can be fully submerged into your melted candy melts to coat the ball. To dip the cake pop, submerge the ball straight into the melted candy melts. Slowly remove.  

TIP: If your cake pop ball comes off the stick or begins to move around the stick, you will need to investigate why this has occurred. You may need to redo securing your cake pop balls to the sticks. Or give them more time to set. You can also place them in the freezer for 15 minutes to help them set more quickly.  

After you remove the cake pop, you will gently tap the stick. I like to do this with my fingers on the stick to not subject it to too much force and risk it falling off the stick. Tapping the stick encourages the excess to drip off the ball so you won’t have an overly thick coating or messy cake pop with the excess dripping down the stick.

Adding Decorations

If you are adding sprinkles for decoration, this is the time to do it while the candy melt is still melted. The candy melts solidify quickly once they begin to cool and you will not be able to add sprinkles after this point once it is set up. 

TIP:  If you want to add decorations after the initial dipping is solidified, you can drizzle melted candy melts as a decoration and add sprinkles to the freshly applied candy melts.

Place the cake pop back in a Styrofoam or cake pop holder. 

If you don’t have a cake pop holder of some sort, you can opt to have the cake pops sitting ball side down. Just set them on wax paper or a silicone mat so they will not stick.

TIP: You can also make Cake or CookieTruffles using these same techniques. But instead of putting the balls on sticks, you will just dip the balls and set them on a non-stick surface to set up. Decorate right away, just as you would with a dipped cake pop on a stick.   

Once the cake pops are set, you can package them or just leave them in the holder and serve them.   

TIP:  If you are making cake pops for the first time and you want to serve them for a special occasion, I recommend you practice making them first. This way you will work out any issues you may have and you will be set up for success.  

So you should now have the confidence to make cake pops. I know I have every confidence in you! 

Let me know in the comments how your cake pop-making adventure went.