How to Make Cake Pops / Fail as a Domestic Diva

We are 4 months away from the wedding and the closer it gets, the more I want to nest. Part of that nesting phase includes learning how to become a domestic diva like my mother. I thought with the 4th of July coming up that I would try to make patriotic cake pops. Everything was going well until it was time to decorate. Bakerella and Pinterest make cake pops look like a walk in the park. They leave out the fact that it takes a whole day to create these babies and by the end of the day you'll be ready to pull your hair out. In my attempts to decorate, I threw a cake pop covered in blue chocolate across the house. That was a sight to see and a lovely mess to clean! But, none the less I did end up with a couple of cute cake pops. Here are the steps to creating them while failing as a domestic diva!


First, you'll need to gather all of your supplies. You need a cake mix if you do not plan on making a homemade cake. You also need a tub of frosting. I chose Betty Crocker Vanilla cake mix and frosting. You will also need candy melts to coat your cake pops. I bought Wilton Candy Melts from Michaels. I purchased red, white & blue since they are for our 4th of July party. You can chose whatever colors you would like. I also bought Wilton lollipop sticks from Michaels. The other supplies you see below are optional. The styrofoam was used to hold the cake pops while they were drying. I totally recommend picking some up. I bought mine from Michaels for $6.99. SO expensive in my eyes! I also bought a tip and decorating bags from Michaels because I thought I would be fancy and make cool decorations on the cake pops. Yeah, that never happened! Also supplies that I recommend which are not show below are Crisco, which will be added to the candy melts to make them thiner and fun sprinkles to decorate.

Let's get started! The first thing you'll want to do is pre-heat your oven. The directions on the back of my cake mix said to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Next you'll start combining the ingredients called for on the back of your cake mix. I put everything in my mom's Kitchen-aid mixer. 

Once your cake mix is ready, pop it into a cake pan and place it in the oven. My cake took 28 minutes.

Once your cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool. I let mine cool for about 20 minutes. I cut mine so it would be easier to pull out of the pan. 

Once your cake is cool enough to handle, start crumbling it in your hands into a large bowl. 

Next, add your frosting. I used 3/4 of the can but I think that was way to much. Try using half of it and remember that you can always add more but you can not remove it once it has been added. 

After your frosting has been added, role the cake balls using your hands. This step was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Once you are done forming them, pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes. This step is important because it's hard to work with the cake pops if the are still soft. 

While your cake pops are in the freezer, start melting our candy melts in the microwave. I put mine in for a minute and a half in 30 second intervals. You'll want to add the Crisco once the candy melts are melted. I added a little bit at a time till I got the right consistency which I never really got apparently. Next time I'll use a deeper bowl. This one did not give me enough room to dunk my whole cake pop in. 

This is when the trouble started! In every YouTube video I've seen, whoever is creating these cake pops just sets them in the chocolate melts and the come out perfect. The perks of editing I suppose! I was not fortunate enough to place them in the chocolate and remove them so easily. As you can see in the picture below, this is what happened when I tried! Not fun. I think my cake pops were to heavy and my bowls were too small to dip them in. I tried pouring my candy melts into a glass cup. I dipped my cake pop in and again, it feel right off the stick. I reached my hand right into that dang cup, grabbed the cake pop and threw it! I was so freaking frustrated.  

Once I calmed down a little bit, I held the cake pops above the bowls and applied the candy melts with a spoon and a butter knife. This seemed to work okay.

As you can see, making cake pops is not as classy as it seems. this is nothing compared to the mess I had in my mom's kitchen at the end of decorating. 

I was so happy that my first time making cake pops was not a total failure. I did end up with a couple of cute pops. Just so you know, the cake pops are sitting in the styrofoam I purchased. I placed foil over it to avoid getting candy melts on the block. That way I could use it more than once.

 

I didn't want the left over candy melts to go to waste so I made chocolate covered pretzels with them. All I did was dip them in the melts and added sprinkles. They were much easier to create than the cake pops! 

 

Making cake pops was a stressful event but I'm still glad I made them anyway. You never know how something will come out unless you try it. I will make them again in the future but I'll add less frosting, use more crisco, use smaller bowls and possibly use smaller lollipop sticks. If you have ever made cake pops, leave a comment below with any tips you may have. I know we'll all appreciate it!