Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Patriotic Memorial Day Cake Pops


Let me start off by saying, I am not much of a baker but I love trying! I'll make something sweet every now and then. I had been wanting to try cake pops for a while and with Memorial Day coming up, I thought I would give it a try. They didn't look too good as I would have liked but not too bad for my first attempt. And they tasted delicious! My husband took them to work and they disappeared super quick and now they want more cake pops, might try candy coated cake balls since that would be easier. Either way, I'll get more practice soon! I was going for an American Flag with the cake pops. Probably would have looked better without the frosting ha ha All well, I had fun making them. With this being a Memorial Day post, I want to take a moment and remember those service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and thank all their families, our current service members and veterans. Now, let's get to baking!

  •  1 box of cake mix plus ingredients for the cake (if you have a homemade cake recipe, you can use that if you wish).
  • 1/2 cup frosting (either canned or homemade)
  • 1 package of blue candy melts
  • 1 package of red candy melts
  • 1 package of lollipop sticks
  • Styrofoam block to set cake pops in (I had two, one for drying, one for my 'flag').
  • White frosting (I think white sprinkles would work for stars instead of frosting, I might try that next time)
I'm first going to say, these take a while to make but a lot of the time is wait time. So start by making your cake! I used a Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix. *Side note, the box said to use 1/2 cup vegetable oil and I used a tad less than that.


It smelled so good, I really wanted to eat it! So now, let it cool until you can handle it with your hands, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Now that it's cool, scoop out the middle of the cake and place in a bowl, leaving the bottom and the edges of the cake in the pan.

With your clean hands, crumble the cake until there are no more clumps.

Add 1/4 cup of frosting and mix with hands. It may stick a little bit to your fingers, just scrap it off and add it back to the cake mix.

Add the other 1/4 cup of frosting and mix until it's no longer dry. Then chill in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Next, roll your cake mixture into balls about 1" diameter and place on a wax paper lined baking sheet. These were way to big, I'll show you pictures of what happens when they are too big coming up. Next time, I'm going to use a melon baller, I think that would make them the perfect size. Once they are rolled, put them back in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Now it's time to melt your Candy Melts. I looked all over for these and my husband found them at Michael's, who knew. 

They had lollipop sticks at Michael's too but I found these at Target for $1 cheaper.

Pour your candy melts into a coffee mug and melt them in the microwave

Ok, it's about to get messy in my kitchen! Dip a small piece of your lollipop stick into the candy melts. This helps adhere the cake balls to the stick, sometimes ha ha 

 Insert the lollipop stick about 1/2 way into the cake pop. Sorry for the blurry picture, I thought it came out better than that.

Then insert the cake ball into the candy melt. Don't swirl it around, just dip it in and take it out. Be sure to cover the whole cake ball and don't let it touch the bottom of the cup. If you swirl it, or try to coat it too much, it will become too heavy.

After dipping it, hold it at a 30 degree angle, turn it slowly until all the excess candy coating comes off. If you hold it upright, it will run down your stick. You can gently tap it to help the excess fall off. 


Once it's done dripping, you have yourself a cake pop! Stick it in a Styrofoam block to let it harden. If using sprinkles, put those on before it hardens, if using frosting, wait until it hardens. Arrange into the shape of a flag and enjoy!

My first few didn't turn out so well because they were too big/heavy. I cut the cake balls in half, re-rolled them, and then they started to stay on.


More mistakes. But notice the first red ball is missing. Mistakes still taste delicious! I started to make flag of candy coated cake ball mistakes but my husband ate those pretty quick ha ha

There is my flag! Not the best with frosting but I don't think it's too bad for my first try. I had way more candy coated cake ball mistakes than I had cake pops so my flag wasn't a big as I hoped but I liked it. And like I said, they still taste delicious and I'll keep trying to get better! I hope you have a wonderful Memorial day!
To print, right click below, save and print



5 comments:

  1. Here's what uI learned from my experiences.

    1. Use ice cream scooper to base cake ball on size. It should be about one inch for biggest.

    2. Use oil for candy melts if consistency is too hard.

    3. Wait for 50% off at Michaels for candy melts or sticks or whatever. If you get into it, you should purchase a cake pop three tier stand. Very pretty.

    4. Wait a couple minutes after fridge before dipping. It may crack since temp differences.

    That's all! :)

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    1. Thanks Linda! Those are some good tips! I almost didn't post them because they didn't look as pretty as I would have liked but the taste was outstanding so I thought why not. I was starting to get the hang of it as I ran out of cake balls so hopefully by the 4th I'll be able to make a full flag!

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  2. PS. Your first try looks awesome. My first was clumpy and I didn't want to try again until two years later. Lol good job!

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    1. And thanks :) You're so creative and your sweet treats always look so good so that's a really big compliment!

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  3. Really cute idea with the flag for the holidays.. cake pops are very good- save me one !!

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