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
Instructions
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.
Recipe by JOYFUL scribblings at https://www.joyfulscribblings.com/2014/03/st-patricks-day-cake-pops/