Chocolate Cake Pops (Recipe + Video)

Discover ways to make home made chocolate cake pops fully from scratch, with no field cake combine or canned frosting. Mix wealthy chocolate cake with the very best chocolate buttercream, and coat in melted chocolate for a deal with that may make your tastebuds pop! Watch the video tutorial for all my greatest ideas.

See my vanilla cake pops recipe, too.

I initially printed this recipe in 2018 and have since added new images and a video.

chocolate cake pops dipped in chocolate and white chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.

Chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + colourful sprinkles = essentially the most lovely deal with! As we speak we’re making chocolate cake pops as a result of, after I shared my vanilla cake pops, I acquired so many requests for a chocolate model! Your want is my command.

This recipe was a Sally’s Baking Problem again in 2018, and readers have liked them over time:

One reader, Sophia, commented: “Such an superior recipe—these are principally Starbucks dupes and tremendous yummy! I made the cake pops for a pal’s birthday however my household virtually ate all of them earlier than I might give any to her, LOL. ★★★★★”

One reader, Jen, commented: “This recipe was nice! Made them for my son’s birthday celebration and had a number of individuals ask for the recipe! My son even mentioned they have been higher than Starbucks! ★★★★★”

By the way in which, in case you’ve ever eaten store-bought cake pops—these style completely completely different. They’re from scratch. There’s no cake combine, there’s no canned frosting. You’ll be able to truly TASTE the home made.

chocolate cake pop with rainbow sprinkles.

I’ve loads of step-by-step images, a video tutorial, and plenty of success ideas as we speak as a result of I would like you to know each instruction earlier than it’s your flip to make them. In spite of everything, the method isn’t tough—you’re actually simply baking a chocolate cake and making frosting after which mixing them collectively. However issues simply get somewhat explicit in relation to rolling, lollipop-sticking, and dunking/dipping. If you may make bread bowls, you may deal with cake pops. (They’re extra enjoyable to eat too… sprinkles!)

Easy methods to Make Chocolate Cake Pops

Since we’re ditching field cake combine and canned frosting, we’ll have to take somewhat additional time to prep each from scratch. Right here’s an outline of the method:

Make a 1-layer chocolate cake and let cool.
Make chocolate frosting.
Crumble cake into frosting and blend.
Roll the combination into balls.
Dip in melted chocolate.
Prime with sprinkles and let dry.
EAT!

Fast tip: Each time I make cake pops from scratch, I at all times start the night time earlier than. I make the cake, cowl it, and let it sit out at room temperature in a single day. I additionally put together the frosting, cowl, and refrigerate. This manner every little thing’s able to go the following day.

chocolate cake in a baking pan after baking

Make a 1-Layer Chocolate Cake

It’d look like the change from vanilla cake pops to chocolate cake pops is straightforward. Change some flour with cocoa powder, proper? And vanilla frosting with chocolate frosting? I want! Chocolate is an advanced soul and requires somewhat finesse; that’s why my vanilla cake and chocolate cake recipes are so completely different! I baked a number of single-layer chocolate muffins earlier than stopping with this one.

Behind the Scenes: Recipe Testing

The primary few started with creamed butter + sugar. My favourite chocolate muffins and cupcakes usually depend on oil for the fats as a result of (1) moisture and (2) the flavour of butter actually isn’t needed as a result of chocolate overpowers it anyway. My preliminary thought with cake pops, nevertheless, was that I wanted a barely drier cake to get the very best texture for cake pops (as a result of it will likely be blended with frosting). Effectively this was simply an enormous mess from the beginning, as a result of dry cake is gross.

That being mentioned, you’ll want oil for the cake. And some different fundamentals like cocoa powder, sugar, flour, and eggs. Scorching water can be a should. The recent liquid encourages the cocoa powder to bloom and dissolve. After I make chocolate cake, I normally attain for warm espresso (as a substitute of scorching water) as a result of espresso accentuates the chocolate favor—however that’s not as essential right here, as a result of we’re simply crumbling the cake and mixing with chocolate frosting.

By the way in which, you may completely get pleasure from this chocolate cake by itself. When you ever want a single-layer chocolate cake—use this recipe. It’s so good. Deep and darkish chocolate taste. Tremendous moist. Tremendous wealthy. Prime with chocolate buttercream, whipped cream, peanut butter frosting, or crimson wine chocolate ganache.

What was somewhat harder than testing the proper single-layer chocolate cake was determining how a lot frosting I wanted. An excessive amount of frosting and the cake pops are moist and greasy, whereas too little frosting means there isn’t sufficient to bind the cake crumbles. After plenty of trial and error, I lastly discovered the proper quantity… and it’s not a lot, as a result of the chocolate cake is already so moist.

Crumble the cake into the bowl of frosting, and sure, you’ll really feel very bizarre doing this. You simply made this lovely chocolate cake and can now break it up right into a bowl of frosting. As a result of that’s what cake pops are—cake crumbs and frosting.

hands crumbling up chocolate cake and cake crumbles shown in bowl.

As soon as the 2 are blended collectively, it’s time to roll the combination into balls. This half is EASY. I discovered the chocolate cake pops a lot simpler to roll into balls than my vanilla model. This combination is simply sooo clean! Your palms will get somewhat sticky, however simply roll with it. 😉

chocolate cake mixture in bowl and shown again rolled into balls.

Ideas for Do-it-yourself Chocolate Cake Pops

Success Tip #1: Make Smaller Cake Pops: When you roll the cake pops too massive, they’ll wobble off the lollipop stick as a result of they’re too heavy. You want 1 Tablespoon of the cake pop combination per ball (about 20g). No extra, no much less. You’ll find yourself with 40 of them. Rather a lot—however these freeze superbly! And you may present them to anybody and everybody. Who doesn’t love a home made cake pop?

These cake balls want to sit back within the fridge earlier than we pop ’em on a lollipop stick. Why? They’re a lot too delicate proper now; they’ll fully crumble. Which jogs my memory… you do NOT must make these as pops. You may make them truffle-style by merely rolling them and coating in chocolate (identical to how we make Oreo balls). Both approach you get pleasure from them, chill the cake balls earlier than coating. I simply place them on a lined baking sheet and refrigerate them for a pair hours.

Talking of chocolate, you may dunk the cake balls into melted chocolate (white or semi-sweet), which is what I choose for greatest style, however that’s fairly costly. And also you want a superb quantity for all 40 cake pops. As an alternative, you need to use sweet melts/sweet coating, and I give each choices within the recipe under, together with notes for every selection.

Success Tip #2: To make sure the cake ball stays safe on the lollipop stick, dip one finish of the stick into the melted chocolate coating first (nearly 1/2 inch down), after which insert the coated finish into the middle of the cake ball. This helps the cake ball adhere to the lollipop stick.

ball on lollipop stick being dipped in chocolate.

Success Tip #3: A 2-cup glass liquid measuring cup is the proper depth for dipping the cake pops. If I’m utilizing melted chocolate, like I did in these images, I soften it in a double boiler then spoon somewhat at a time into the measuring cup. I don’t like dipping proper into the entire pot of melted chocolate. Let the melted chocolate quiet down for about 5 minutes earlier than you dip the chilly cake balls into it. (In any other case the coating would possibly crack because it dries.)

Success Tip #4: One of the best ways to permit the coating to dry and set—with out ruining the peerlessly spherical cake pops—is to put them right-side-up in a big styrofoam block or perhaps a field. I used a field, as pictured under, for this batch. I simply poked little holes into it. Straightforward and low-cost.

vanilla and chocolate cake pops with rainbow sprinkles.

When you’re topping with sprinkles (at all times really helpful!), add them now earlier than the chocolate units. Cake pops dry/set inside an hour or so. Take pleasure in!