Pumpkin Cake Pops

I’m making this short and sweet because Halloween’s here and I don’t want to miss it! So without further ado… Pumpkin Cake Pops!

I channeled my inner Bakerella and made these adorable cake pops featured in her new book. Have you seen it yet? ADORABLE! You’ve gotta get it. Seriously. It’s so cute. We’ve sold out of it at my bookstore, not once, but twice already! A holiday must have! But enough peddling. Let’s talk about these cake pops.

Spice cake and cream cheese frosting. On a stick. Covered in chocolate. With a cute pumpkin face. What could be better? Maybe posting this BEFORE Halloween so you could make some for your parties. But we’ll overlook that fact for now.

And I finally achieved that perfectly smooth look with my dips! My trick? Add a little vegetable oil to your chocolate while you’re melting to keep it fairly fluid even as it cools. (I used about 2 teaspoons per 3oz of chocolate or so.) I’ve also seen other people add a bit of shortening as they’re melting too. The only problem with it? It made it kinda hard to write on the chocolate with my food coloring pen. But they still came out super cute. 

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Pumpkin Cake Pops

Adapted from Bakerella

Makes about 50 cake pops

1 box spice cake mix

1 16oz can of store bought cream cheese frosting

1 to 2 14oz bags of orange candy coating (I used Wilton brand from the craft store)*

Vegetable oil

Lollipop sticks

Green chocolate drop sprinkles (or green tic tacs work too!)

Black food writer pen

Styrofoam block

*Note: I ended up needing just a bit more out of a second bag of chocolate to finish all my pops. Depending on how thick or thin your chocolate is when you dip, you might use anywhere from only 1 bag to a bag and a half. I’d buy 2 bags just in case. You can always return the other bag if you don’t need it, but at least you won’t have to drop everything for an emergency chocolate run!

1. Bake cake according to package directions. Let cool completely.

2. Crumble into a large bowl (and I do mean large. It’s going to get a little messy.) Add about ¾ of the can of frosting, mixing thoroughly with the back of a spoon until the crumbs are moistened and hold together when squeezed. If mixture is still a little dry, add more frosting until it holds together.

3. Roll mixture into 1-inch balls and place on a wax or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Insert lollipop sticks into balls. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.

4. Once firm, melt chocolate in a fairly deep microwave safe cup (or coffee mug) with a bit of vegetable oil, in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth and fluid. (I used about 2 teaspoons of oil per 3-4oz of chocolate.) Dip the cake ball into the coating, rotating until covered. Remove from chocolate and tap lightly while turning, allowing excess chocolate to drip back into the cup. While chocolate is still wet, add sprinkles or tic tacs to the top of the cake pop to make stem. Place upright in a Styrofoam block to dry.

5. Once cake pops are dry and chocolate is set, draw faces on cake pops and allow to dry.