Cake Pops are a fun and festive treat these days and you can make them at home and give them a Halloween twist!
At SeaWorld San Diego, we’re serving orange, black and purple Whale Tail cake pops to guests during SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular, but you can make them at home in any color or shape you like.
Chocolate Cake Pop Ingredients:
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2¼ cups white sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Grease three 9-inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture ½ at a time. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
Take your frosting, and again you can use any flavor you like, and mix it in. You can use a spoon, but it's easier, although messier, to use your hands. Reserve a little of the frosting because you don't always need all of it. The exact amount needed will depend on the moistness of the cake. You want the final mixture to be fairly moist and easily hold itself together when you shape it into a ball, but not so moist that it's soggy or gooey.
Roll the cake into small balls, using a teaspoon or a small cookie scoop. You should get between 3 and 4 dozen balls depending on how large you make them. Set them on a lined cookie sheet.
Once they're all formed, put them in the freezer to harden for about an hour to make them easier to dip. While you're waiting for the cake balls to harden, melt the (candy coating) in the microwave and stir until it's entirely melted and smooth.
After an hour, remove the cake balls from the freezer. Use a toothpick to poke hole in each ball, then dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melted coating, and insert into the toothpick hole you just created. The melted coating will help hold the stick in the cake pop. Once all of the cake balls are on sticks, it's time to dip them. Hold one end of the lollipop stick and submerge the cake pop completely in the melted coating. Take it out and gently tap it and swirl it upside down to remove excess coating--if you don't it will drip down the stick and look really terrible.
Now you can just stick them upside down on a baking sheet to set, but this does give them flat tops. So if you want rounded shapes, you'll need to find some Styrofoam or florist foam to stick your cake pops in while they dry. Continue dipping them until all of your cake pops are covered with candy coating. If it starts to get too stiff from the cold pops, re-warm it briefly.
If you want to decorate them, you can drizzle them with melted white chocolate, or add sprinkles or chopped nuts while the coating is still wet.
These cake pops are really unique, really fun, and really tasty.\
