Few things in life are as simple or satisfying and driving up to your favorite coffee shop window and getting a treat of a cake pop. At four dollars or so each, the costs of cake pops add up. Try to get customized ones for a party and you could spend far more than you’ve budgeted. Pricing can vary by location, too. The solution is creating your own homemade cake pops.
You can create around 20-30 cake pops from a single box of cake mix or the equivalent in made from scratch batter. A box of cake mix at my local Walmart is around $2.29, plus the eggs, water and oil makes each pop come out to around $0.12 before dipping and adding candy, which adds another 30 cents or so, depending on how fancy you get.
I’m Cheap, So I Started Making My Own
Call it frugal. Say I’m a savvy shopper. At the end of the day, I’m a tightwad. I loathe spending money on things I can do myself and probably do as well or better. While I have a background as a wedding cake baker, I truly believe anyone can make their own cake pops and they will be good enough to impress your family and friends.
You can make them in stages to reduce the stress and have them ready well before your party. I’ll explain how. There is a little rule of thumb with baked goods called 1-2-3. You can keep shelf-stable treats for one week at room temp (sealed tightly), for 2 weeks in the fridge, and for 3 weeks in the freezer.
Now, I think they taste best at about half that time, so I tend to combine the freezer method and the counter method.
To Make 24 Plus Cake Pops You’ll Need
I’ve made pops from a box mix and from scratch. I prefer from scratch, because it’s even cheaper and tastes better, but most of your guests won’t be able to tell the difference in taste. So, we are going to base this on that premise.
- 1 box cake mix flavor of your choice
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup butter or oil (some people sub sour cream)
- 1 bar of almond bark or a bag of melting wafers (real chocolate is hard to work with, so please avoid if you’re a beginner)
- Sprinkles or candy for the top
- Cake pop sticks
I just used white nonpariels in the photo above. I think they look cute and are so easy to work with.
What to Do and When to Make Your Own Cake Pops for the Party
I chose to wrap my cake pops in this image because I was going to sell some of them. You don’t have to wrap them if they’re for your own party. Line an air tight container (Rubbermaid works well) with some paper towels and a piece of parchment. Once you’ve dipped your cake pops and decorated them, let them dry and then line them across the parchment, snap on the lid and put them in your freezer.
The trick is how you unthaw. You’ll want to move the container to your refrigerated for 24 hours and then to your countertop about 8 hours or more before your party. If you freeze your pops immediately, you should get a full week out of them if you have leftovers.
How to Make the Pops
I really enjoy this guy’s tutorials. He goes step by step and gives those little facts that are so easy to miss when you’re just beginning. If you have a shaped cake pop cutter, you can use it, but it’s fine to just roll them into balls. When I make balls and handroll them, I use my kitchen scale to ensure each one is about 1.3 ounces. This is the perfect size, doesn’t fall off the stick and stretches my dough.
You’ll take your baked cake and toss it into your mixer (or you can mix by hand). Use a dough hook in a mixer and let it form into a crumbly dough. I personally like to cool mine in the fridge for 30 min or so but you don’t have to. Form your balls.
Melt Your Almond Bark
Cut your almond bark up and put into a microwave safe container. I use about half the bar and start with 40 seconds and then nuke in 20 second intervals. You want your melted candy at about 97 degrees before dipping or it will slide right off your cake.
A note of caution here. If you plan to color your bark, use only oil-based food dyes. I’ve tried even ones from Michael’s and they’ve seized my chocolate and my almond bark, making it unuseable. So frustrating!
Dip the end of your cake pop stick into the melted chocolate and insert into the center of your cake pop ball. Do them all and as you finish the last, the first ones should be dry and ready to fully dip.
Dip your cake pop straight down, ensuring you cover every inch of cake to create a seal. Lift straight up and let the access drip off the cake pop. Now, if you want to lay them with sticks up, put on parchment. If you want the sticks down, you’ll need some kind of holder.
You may need to reheat your candy coating a few times at 10 second intervals as you finish all the pops. Let the coating dry and then remelt almond bark and add to a gallon size plastic bag or decorating bag if you have one. Whatever you use will be destroyed as the chocolate hardens.
Snip a tiny snip off the corner and drizzle on chocolate to a couple at a time, adding your candy coating before it dries. Once finished, pop your creation in the freezer.
Some Final Thoughts
Never consider a kitchen experiment a fail. I’ve been trying to create something unique for a couple of weeks now. I learn more each time. I don’t toss my experiements. People eat them. They still taste fine, they just look bad. If you have a desire to bake for your family or friends, don’t let anything stop you. Baking ingredients are inexpensive. Even if you have a trial run that doesn’t go so well, you can afford to try again, and you’ll still save a bundle over what you’d pay your local bakery or coffee shop.
Have fun popping!
