Easy Cake Pop Recipe - I Heart Naptime (2024)

This easy homemade cake pop recipe is covered in a sweet chocolate coating with a delicious crumb. The perfect bite-sized party treat or favor for any occasion!

This post may contain affiliate links. Read disclosure policy.

Perfect Bite Sized Dessert

This recipe reminds meof my sugar cookie truffles, but with a delicious cake base similar to my cake balls instead. Moist and crumbly cake is mixed with rich buttercream frosting, then dipped in a sweet chocolate coating. Not only do these cake pops taste incredible, but they look amazing too!

There’s just something about eating a decorative, bite-sized dessert on a stick that is so fun. My kids love these! These homemade cake pops are the perfect treat for birthdays, baby showers, wedding showers, holidays or when hosting a dinner party. You can even wrap them up individually and give them to guests as party favors!

This recipe is perfect for beginners, with an easy step by step tutorial included. It’s a great way to use up any leftover cake and frosting. I love the classic white cake + buttercream combo, but there are so many other yummy variations you can make too. They are so fun to decorate and can be served at literally any occasion!

Recipe Ingredients

Find the fullprintable recipewith specific measurements below.

• Cake mix– Use your preferred flavor of cake mix here. Alternatively, you can bake your favorite from-scratch recipe. Bake according to the instructions.
• Melting wafers– I prefer the Ghiradelli melting wafer in vanilla or chocolate.
• Salted butter– If you only have unsalted butter, just add in a pinch of salt to the frosting.
• Powdered sugar – This will help bring the sweetness and stability to the frosting.
• Heavy cream or milk– This helps makes the frosting creamy.
• Sprinkles–Use your favorite sprinkles, jimmies, or other desired decorations.
• Cake pop sticks -Don’t forget the cake pop sticks. Although you could make cake balls instead if preferred.

How To Make Cake Pops

• Crumble. Allow the cake to cool and then crumble in a large bowl.
• Mix. Add a few spoonful’s of frosting and use your hands to combine. The dough should hold together if squeezed. If it’s still crumbly, stir in a little more frosting.
• Scoop. Then scoop out the mixture with a medium cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 Tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Repeat until you’ve used all of the mixture.
• Add cake pop stick. Melt a few of the dark and white chocolate wafers in two separate bowls. Then dip the end of the cake pop stick into the melted chocolate and push that same end into the cake ball. The melted chocolate helps “glue” the stick to the cake ball. Once each ball has a stick, place them in the freezer to harden for about 20 minutes.
• Coat in chocolate. Melt the remaining dark and white chocolate in separate bowls. Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate, making sure it’s fully coated. Gently tap the stick on the side of the dish to remove any excess chocolate.

Decorations

There are so many ways to decorate cake pops! Add sprinkles or jimmies while the chocolate is still wet. If decorating with a chocolate drizzle, let the chocolate coating harden first, then drizzle more chocolate on top.

Below are a few easy and adorable ideas:

• Add sprinkles or jimmies
• Drizzle with more melted chocolate
• Sprinkle crushed oreos like I did in these oreo cake pops
• Use colored candy melts
• Make them for a holiday (Valentine Cake Pops or Easter Cake Pops are fun)
• Dye the cake batter with food coloring for a fun surprise when biting into them
• Make them into a cake pop bouquet for a fun gift or centerpiece

Expert Tips

• Half batch of frosting – I made a half batch of my buttercream frosting and used only half of that amount. How much frosting you need will depend largely on how moist the cake is. Mine was VERY moist, so I didn’t need that much. If you have leftover frosting, you can easily store it in an air sealed zip top bag in the freezer.
• Add enough frosting – Make sure to add enough frosting or else they will crack and fall apart after freezing. Add the frosting in gradually though, because including too much could cause them to be soggy.
• Chill in freezer – It is very important that they are cold. They will not hold form or hang onto the stick if they aren’t cold enough, especially when you start dipping and covering with the melted chocolate. Sometimes I freeze mine for closer to 45 minutes to ensure they’re cool enough. I also take half of the batch out at a time, so the other half doesn’t soften up while I’m coating in chocolate.
• Melting the chocolate – If the chocolate hardens up while in the bowls, you may need to reheat and melt again. Make sure to only heat the chocolate for 30 second increments. Any longer can burn the chocolate.
• Dipping method – You can either dip the cake ball into a deep, 2 cup measuring cup filled with melted chocolate or spoon the chocolate over in a shallow dish. A few of the cake balls fell off of the stick when dipping into a measuring cup, so the spoon method worked better for me. It is important to note that they will look a little misshapen at first, but as the chocolate cools, it smoothes out. Any decorations will hide imperfections.
• Decorating tips –While decorating, have an empty plate or bowl below to help catch the excess decorations that don’t stick.
• Holding upright – Use a glass filled with rice or sprinkles (above), or a styrofoam block to hold the cake pop upright.

More Bite-Sized Party Treats

HUNGRY FOR MORE? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all the newest recipes!