My friend Cindy is passionate about making cake pops. She has spent many hours researching tips and tricks on how to make cake pops look like the ones featured in magazines, cookbooks, and blogs. Let’s just say she has much more patience than I do, so I asked her to share a few St. Patrick’s Day themed cake pop ideas. Cake pops are the perfect portion size for when you want something sweet, but don’t want to indulge in a whole piece of cake. I’ve read that you get the most pleasure from food in the first few bites anyway. Cake pops are fun to serve at parties or give as a special treat to others. Cindy is one of the most giving people I know and she loves to share her cake pops. Thanks for sharing all your tips and tricks with us Cindy! I’m lucky to have you as a friend.
Making Cake Pops really is easy, IF you know a few tricks. I made several batches of Cake “Flops” before I got the process down pat. There are a lot of resources and demonstrations available on-line at Bakerella and Heavenly Cake Pops which I found very helpful.
| St. Patrick's Day Cake Pops | Print |
- Cake Mix – Any flavor, any brand (this is a lot of fun to experiment with flavors – chocolate has been the most requested flavor)
- Frosting – Any flavor, any brand. Buttercreams work the best. If you’re really ambitious, you can make homemade buttercream, but I’ve found no one recognized the difference when I went the extra mile to make homemade buttercream, so I reverted to store bought to save some time.
- Candy Melts/Wafers – Ghiradelli Melting Wafers taste the best and melt beautifully, but they’re hard to find. I’ve only found them at Target during the holidays, or online at Amazon.com. Wilton and Merckens brands work well, too but the non-colored ones work the best for dipping.
- Lollipop Sticks – I’ve used the fancy printed ones, but really the 6 inch thin sticks work the best.
- Styrofoam Blocks – You can find these at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Use this to stand your cake pops upright, while they dry.
- Decorating Tools – Sprinkles, Sugars, Decorating Bag w/ various tips, and Treat Bags w/ ties
- Bake ANY flavor of cake in a 13X9 cake pan. Let the cake cool completely.
- In a large bowl crumble the cake into tiny crumbs. Some websites/recipes say to use a food processor, but I’ve found it works fine to use your hands and break the cake into crumbs, which also saves a step on clean-up.
- Once the cake has been crumbled, add 1 heaping tablespoon of frosting. Knead the frosting into the cake mix and continue to add small amounts of frosting until the cake becomes a dough-like consistency.
- Refrigerate the dough for approximately 30 minutes. I use this time to get all of my other supplies out and ready for dipping.
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and begin shaping into balls or shamrocks. For the shamrocks, I used a small cookie cutter and shaped each ball into the cookie cutter, then gently removed the dough from the cookie cutter. Once you’ve formed all of the dough, return it to the refrigerator for further chilling.
- Then in a small microwaveable bowl, begin melting your dipping chocolate. Microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each 30 seconds until the chocolate is completely melted. DO NOT OVERHEAT.
- Remove the cake balls from the refrigerator and begin adhering the sticks to the cake balls. Dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate, then insert the melted end of the stick about ¾ of the way into the cake ball or shamrock. Allow each cake ball to completely dry before melting the rest of the cake ball.
- Once the balls have been dipped into the melted chocolate, stand them upright in the Styrofoam block until they’re completely hardened. If you’re decorating with sugars or sprinkles, you will want to do that BEFORE they dry, however, if you’re decorating with colored melting chips, you can begin to melt the colored chips in a decorating bag or squirt bottle while the cake pops harden. Decorate and ENJOY.
Cake pops store nicely and have a fairly long shelf life. If you cover with a treat bag, store in a plastic sealed container and refrigerate, cake pops can last a couple of weeks and still taste fresh. They are the perfect bite-sized indulgence and I’ve found that kids and grownups love cake pops.
Linking to: Snap Creativity Show & Tell
Oh my goodness, how cute are those?! I think my kids would be shocked if were to make something like this. Maybe I should surprise them?
Good luck Michelle! I’m sure you can do it!
DARLING! I love cake pops! I’ve never attempted to make them, but now I think I can! Good tips Cindy, especially knowing that pre-made vs. homemade buttercream frosting made no difference to those enjoying them! I found Key Lime cake mix at Target the other day….AND Key Lime Frosting! I think I should GO FOR IT! (but don’t tell Nic, Dawn!)
I won’t tell as long as you share with me 🙂 I love key lime! It sounds like I need to make a Target run!
Those are so cute!! And festive. I made cake pops once and I swore that it would be the last time I would ever do it. Cindy has inspired me to try it again. Through her tips, hmmm, I see where I went wrong!! HAHA
You can do it! I see graduation hat cake pops in your future 🙂
I’m so excited to see my cake pops on your blog today, Dawn! Thank you for sharing them. I honestly don’t have patience, but I did persevere. My sister Becky actually showed me how to do them and its been a piece of cake (pun intended) ever since. I’m happy to help anyone who’s willing to give it a try. It brings me a lit of JOY!
Lot, not lit – lol
I know what you meant 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to share what you’ve learned.
Thanks for the tips! Especially the store-bought frosting one! 🙂 FYI – Sam’s Club has big bags of Ghirardelli melting wafers.
Thanks for the Sam’s Club tip Kim, good to know.
these are so cute!