Cake Pops

Have you seen these at Starbucks and wondered, "how do they make those?"

Well, wonder no longer. I am here to tell you.

My friend and I made these for her going away party (I know...she wanted to do it!) and it was super easy!

We made two different kinds - chocolate cake pops with milk chocolate coating and strawberry cake pops with (blue) white chocolate coating.

Ingredients: 

1 box regular cake mix, any kind you want

(and whatever ingredients necessary to make the cake)

1 tub of frosting (any kind - we used cream cheese)

1 package of Wilton's candy melts (we got them at Michaels*they have all kinds of colors!)

(here are some tips on how to use these, clean up etc)

Various Sprinkles

Lollipop Sticks (also from Michaels)

Cello Bags (I think they are 3" x 4" but am not positive)

Ribbon

Styrofoam board (to keep pops upright while drying)

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{1}

Bake the cake. Once it's cool crumble it up into a bowl. 

Add half of the frosting. Mix well.

{2)

Roll the mixture into balls. Put on a cookie sheet. Leave in fridge for at least an hour or, even better, overnight. We were on the fast track cake pop making, so we put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. It worked but I would recommend just making them the night before. 

{3}

Melt the candy melts. To do this, bring a pot of water to a simmer and put a mixing bowl with the candies on top of the pot, kind of a double boiler method. 

{4}

Put the lollipop sticks into the bottom (flatter part) of the cold cake balls and then dip them into the melted chocolate. (HINT: if the chocolate is a little thick, you can add a little bit of vegetable oil to it to thin it out) I don't know if it's becuase we did the fast freezer method, but the balls kept wanting to fall off the stick, so do it as quickly as you can. Don't shake the stick either. We found that if there is too much chocolate, just give it a light twirl to even it out.

{5}

After dipped, add sprinkles and put them one by one into the Styrofoam board to cool/dry. 

{6}

Once dry, we transfered them to a plate to fit new ones in the "cooling rack". We also used a fan, you can kind of see it in the photo above. But don't set it too high or the melted chocolate will go everywhere! 

{7}

Put them in the cello bag. 

{8}

Tie a ribbon on the bag and VOILA. Cake pops!

Here they are, hanging out at the party!

Okay, so if you think the ones we made are cool, check out some of these: 

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**Also if you don't want to mess with pops, you can make cake BALLS: 

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Enjoy your Pop and Ball making!

Have you ever made cake pops? Do you have an "go to" thing you usually make for parties?