Cake Pops

These cake pops are delicious. They’re sweet, creamy, bite-size, and enrobed in chocolate. They’d be the perfect party dessert, even if you’re a party of one. I divided the cream cheese mixture in half and used a red velvet layer cake in one part and a vanilla layer cake in the other. (I knew there was a reason I froze those cake layers!) I dipped the vanilla cake balls in dark chocolate and the red velvet in white chocolate. Nirvana. The cream cheese mixture doesn’t add a whole lot of flavor. Next time I’ll add a teaspoon vanilla to the mix. (This might not be necessary with a dark chocolate cake, but with the vanilla and red velvet, the mixture needed a flavor boost.) If you’re using moist cake layers, you might want to hold off on adding the milk or half-and-half until you see if the mixture needs it. Some of my cake balls were soft and squishy, even after chilling, which made them a bit hard to work with.

These cake pops are fabulous! I’ve made several different recipes for cake pops, and they frequently call for using canned icing, which is not something I relish eating nor is it something I like my kids to eat. Using a homemade mixture to hold the “cake pebbles” together was wonderful and delicious. I mixed the cake mixture and let it chill in the refrigerator overnight before attempting to make the pebbles. An ice cream scoop worked well to scoop out the mixture, and then I used my hands to finish forming the pebbles. My kids prefer a sweeter chocolate, so I melted a Trader Joe’s Pound Plus bar in the microwave and it was just the right amount of chocolate. The dipping process was easy, and the pebbles held together well. The finished product didn’t last long—these were delicious!

Everyone seems to love these cute little cake pops! And the great thing is you can make so many different versions to fit your taste. I made one batch using a dark chocolate cake and another using a spicy pumpkin cake. They were very different, but wonderful. The possibilities are endless to fit your taste and mood—I can imagine carrot cake, red velvet cake, pound cake, even a chocolate chip cake or coffee cake would be great. You could also change the icing to any of your favorite recipes. After making the pebbles twice, I have several suggestions regarding the assembly. The first version I made, the filling was a little too gooey—it seemed like it had a little too much cream cheese mixture. (This extra moisture may have been because I made the cake myself and it was naturally a very moist cake.) So for the second batch, I added the cake to only half the icing mixture and slowly added the remaining icing mixture until it reached the consistency I wanted. Second, no need to crumble the cakes—I realized when I put 1/3 cake in at once it quickly mixed in evenly and turned out exactly the same as when I took the time to crumble the cake. The 1-inch cake balls quickly become too large for a single bite once dipped, especially if you end up dipping more than once, drizzling a contrasting color, or rolling in a topping. So, just for fun, I tried making tiny balls—only 1/3 to 1/2 inch in diameter. They were the first to go each time I put them out and preferred by most people because they were easy to pop in your mouth in a single bite. The cake balls were easier and looked prettier when left in the freezer overnight and then dipped – firm enough to stay together without making little crumbs in the dipping chocolate too (I had to add a little shortening to my chocolate at one point to keep it smooth). For the ones that don’t look perfect from the beginning, redip where needed or the filling will ooze out a little as they warm (it’s not pretty). Adding a drizzle of another chocolate (for my chocolate cake, I dipped in white chocolate and drizzled with a dark chocolate) made them look great. Some I sprinkled with nuts or colored chunky sugars. This added a nice texture. I was thinking of using crushed candy canes on some for Christmas.

This is one of the easier recipes for cake pops that I’ve tried. I made 2 eight-inch lemon cake rounds and let them cool. After creaming the cream cheese and butter and adding the cake crumbles, I allowed the mixture to cool overnight in the fridge. This definitely made it easier to roll into little pebbles. I coated half the pops with white chocolate and the other half with milk chocolate. They were a popular dessert at the two events I sent them to. What I noticed is that the ones in the white chocolate coating were by far the more popular. Comments were that the taste of the chocolate coating overpowered the taste of the lemon cake, while the white coating complemented it. If a chocolate coating is desired, I’d recommend using a strong-tasting cake like chocolate to better blend together with the coating. One other comment was that the cake pops were almost too moist after being at room temperature for a while. I think perhaps adding another cake round might have solved that problem.