Halloween Cake Pops!

     Recently there has been a lot of talk about cake pops. I was unsure what actually made up the cake pop, but after looking at a few recipes, it seems as though it’s nothing more then a combination of cake, icing, and chocolate. While it didn’t exactly sound fantastic, I thought it would be something that kids would probably enjoy.


     When I found out one of our friends was coming into town from North Carolina and was bringing his 8 year old son with him I knew this was the perfect time to try out the cake pops. Even better was the fact that he was having a Halloween birthday party. I had just bought chocolate melts in Halloween colors so this was a great time to use them.

     I used a Pillsbury cake mix and Pillsbury cream cheese frosting in my recipe. Of course you could make the cake and icing from scratch, but I think it’s really just the combination of the cake, icing, and chocolate that makes the cake pops so good.

     The pops were very messy to make but turned out so cute after I finished decorating them. My husband and his friend both tried them and gave them their approval. I sent home a bag of the pops with our friend to take to his son. I later got a message telling me that the cake pops were gone in under 2 minutes. These would be great to make ahead of time and then have kids decorate them with icing as a project that they can eat.

Cake Pops  (adapted from Bakerella)

1 box cake mix (I used Pillsbury butter yellow)
1 container of cream cheese frosting
Chocolate melts in the colors you want to use as decoration (I had brown, white, and orange for Halloween)
35-40 Lollipop sticks

1. Bake the cake in a 13 x 9 baking pan according to package directions. Cool on a wire rack.

2. In a large bowl place half of the cooled cake. Mash it with a fork until it is crumbly. Add in the other half of the cake and crumble with a fork.

3. Add half the container of frosting (about 1 cup) and stir. Slowly incorporate the rest of the can into the mixture.

4. Line two baking sheets with wax paper. Mold the cake mixture into 1 inch balls and set on the waxed paper.

5. Meanwhile, melt a small amount (1/3 cup) of brown chocolate melts in a double broiler or in the microwave. Dip 1-2 inches of a lollipop stick into the chocolate and then into the cake ball. Repeat for all of the cake balls. Put the cake balls in the refrigerator/freezer for 30 minutes to set. (You can skip this step, but it makes it much easier to cover in chocolate when the pops are frozen and not falling off the sticks.)

6. Take the cake pops out of the freezer. Melt colored chocolate melts for your cake pop coating. I choose white for skeleton and ghost pops, and orange for jack-o-lantern pops. Hold each cake pop by the stick and dip into the chocolate making sure to coat all sides. Place back on wax paper to harden.

7. After coating each cake pop, place chocolate melts you will be using to decorate with in a zip top baggie and microwave in 30 second intervals. Zip close the top of the baggie when melted, cut off the tip, and pipe the decorations onto the cake pops. If chocolate begins to harden put back in the microwave for 15 seconds. Let the cake pops harden for 15 minutes and then enjoy.