SAN ANTONIO – How do you make a cake pop? It’s not as hard as you think.
Junior chef Molly O’Connell recommends using plenty of candy melts. Watch the video above to learn how to make cake pops perfect to celebrate the graduates in your life, plus red, white and blue galaxy cake pops for Memorial Day!
What you’ll need:
- Baked cake (any flavor will do; Molly suggests confetti with red and white sprinkles baked in)
- Frosting (whichever flavor you prefer; Molly used vanilla)
- White candy melts
- Dark chocolate candy melts
- Square shaped, thin dark chocolates
- Mini M&Ms
- Sour candy belts, cut into thin strips
- Red and blue gel food coloring
- Cake pop sticks
- A strip of foam or an egg carton for cake pop holder
Directions for graduation cap cake pops:
- Using your hands, crumble the cake into small pieces (see video above). Mix the frosting into the cake crumbles until it feels a little less dense than cookie dough.
- Form cake mixture into balls (about two tablespoon’s worth each).
- Melt dark chocolate candy melts. Dip the tips of the cake pop sticks into the melted candy melts and stick them about halfway into the cake balls. Freeze the cake balls for 30 minutes.
- Take the cake balls out of the freezer and coat them with the melted candy melts. Set them to dry upside-down on top of the chocolate squares.
- Using a toothpick, place a line of melted candy melt onto the top of the chocolate squares and place the sour candy belt pieces on top like tassels. Using the toothpick, add a dot of melted candy melt in the center of the square on top of the sour candy belt and place a mini M&M on top.
- Give your cake pops to a grad - they’ve earned it!
Directions for galaxy Memorial Day cake pops:
- Using your hands, crumble the cake into small pieces (see video above). Mix the frosting into the cake crumbles until it feels a little less dense than cookie dough.
- Form cake mixture into balls (about two tablespoon’s worth each).
- Melt white candy melts. Dip the tips of the cake pop sticks into the melted candy melts and stick them about halfway into the cake balls. Freeze the cake balls for 30 minutes.
- Take the cake balls out of the freezer.
- Add two to three drops each of red and white gel food dye to the melted candy melts. Swirl with a toothpick.
- Dip the cake pops into the melted candy melts and food dye; swirl each cake pop to create the galaxy effect.
- Set the cake pop stick in foam or in an upside-down egg carton to dry (see video above for egg carton tutorial).
- Enjoy after your Memorial Day grilling!
Other recipes by Molly O’Connell:
- Kid recipe: Easy mini peach + blackberry pies
- Kid recipe: Apple pie stuffed French toast
- Kid recipe: Mini chicken on a stick + lime paletas
- Kid recipe: Easy French appetizer ‘brie en croute’