How to make a cake pop bouquet. Full recipe and step-by-step instructions with pics

Spring is in the air here in the UK, so we decided to celebrate the blooming flowers by making a bouquet of our own…a cake pop one!

This is a fun way to get the kids involved in baking, and cake pops are always a popular choice. This cake pop bouquet would work well at a party or picnic.

Here’s what to do to make this fun cake pop bouquet – it’s really very easy…

Ingredients

• 150g (5.3 oz) butter or margarine, softened
• 200g (7 oz) caster sugar
• 3 medium free range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 200g (7 oz) self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Cake tin
• Grease proof paper
• Approx 8 tbsp chocolate frosting
• Approx 12 cake pop sticks
• 25g (0.9 oz) milk chocolate, for securing the sticks (we used chocolate buttons)
• Approx 200g (7 oz) chocolate or candy melts
• Approx 50g (1.8 oz) sprinkles
• Something to stand your pops up in, such as a polystyrene block, or a box lid with holes punched into it
• Your sprinkles tub
• Some coloured paper
• A little sticky tape

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan assisted, 325F), then get all your cake ingredients ready. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and vanilla essence. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cocoa, then spread evenly in the lined cake tin and bake for around 35-40 minutes until springy on top. When completely cool, cut the cake into large chunks and place in a large bowl.
2. Crumble the cake with your hands gently until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, then use your hands to work in the frosting, adding spoonful by spoonful until it just starts to come together as a crumbly but mouldable mixture. Exactly how much frosting you need will mainly depend on how much sponge the kids sneakily eat during the crumbling process. In our case, they ate A LOT.
3. Roll your cake mixture into balls about 1.5-2 inches in diameter – try to get them as round as possible but don’t squash them too much – you don’t want them to be too dense.
4. Get your melted chocolate and dip each cake pop stick in about 5mm, then push it half way in to the cake ball.
5. Repeat until you’ve pushed all the sticks in to an equal depth, then put them all in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, preferably two or more.
6. Melt the chocolate / colour melts as directed and get the sprinkles ready in a separate small bowl. Make sure everything is ready before you take the pops out of the fridge so that they stay as cold as possible.
7. Dip each cake in turn to cover the whole pop, then twist a few times over the tub to get rid of the drips.
8. Before it dries, dip the pop in the sprinkles and swish the sprinkles up the sides  to cover the whole thing, then push each cake pop stick carefully into a piece of polystyrene or box lid so that the pops stand up while they set.
9. When set, put a few back into your empty sprinkles tub and arrange as if arranging flowers.
10. Wrap with coloured paper as you would flowers, secure with a little tape and ta da! An edible spring bouquet!

Here’s a printable version of this cake pop bouquet recipe.

Cake pop bouquet

Servings: 1 bouquet

Author: Emily Leary

This is a fun way to get the kids involved in baking, and cake pops are always a popular choice. These cake pop bouquets would work well at a party or picnic.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Metric - Ounces

Ingredients

• 150 g butter or margarine softened
• 200 g caster sugar
• 3 medium free range eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 200 g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Cake tin
• Grease proof paper
• 8 tbsp chocolate frosting
• 12 cake pop sticks
• 25 g milk chocolate for securing the sticks (we used chocolate buttons)
• 200g chocolate or candy melts
• 50g sprinkles
• Something to stand your pops up in such as a polystyrene block, or a box lid with holes punched into it
• Your sprinkles tub
• Some coloured paper
• A little sticky tape

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan assisted, 325F), then get all your cake ingredients ready. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and vanilla essence. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cocoa, then spread evenly in the lined cake tin and bake for around 35-40 minutes until springy on top. When completely cool, cut the cake into large chunks and place in a large bowl.
• Crumble the cake with your hands gently until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, then use your hands to work in the frosting, adding spoonful by spoonful until it just starts to come together as a crumbly but mouldable mixture. Exactly how much frosting you need will mainly depend on how much sponge the kids sneakily eat during the crumbling process. In our case, they ate A LOT.
• Roll your cake mixture into balls about 1.5-2 inches in diameter – try to get them as round as possible but don’t squash them too much – you don’t want them to be too dense.
• Get your melted chocolate and dip each cake pop stick in about 5mm, then push it half way in to the cake ball.
• Repeat until you’ve pushed all the sticks in to an equal depth, then put them all in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, preferably two or more.
• Melt the chocolate / colour melts as directed and get the sprinkles ready in a separate small bowl. Make sure everything is ready before you take the pops out of the fridge so that they stay as cold as possible.
• Dip each cake in turn to cover the whole pop, then twist a few times over the tub to get rid of the drips.
• Before it dries, dip the pop in the sprinkles and swish the sprinkles up the sides to cover the whole thing, then push each cake pop stick carefully into a piece of polystyrene or box lid so that the pops stand up while they set.
• When set, put a few back into your empty sprinkles tub and arrange as if arranging flowers.
• Wrap with coloured paper as you would flowers, secure with a little tape and ta da! An edible spring bouquet!

* Note: nutritional information is estimated, based on publicly available data. Nutrient values may vary from those published.

Course: cakes and bakes

Keywords: cake, cake pop bouquet, cake pops

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Some helpful hints for how to avoid your cake pops from cracking, recipe ideas and storage instructions.

What are cake pops?

Cake pops are essentially lollipops but made out of of cake crumbs that have been mixed with icing or chocolate and rolled into small balls.

Cake pops are fantastically fun to make from scratch or a great way of using up leftover cake.

What is cake pop dough? What flavours can I use for my cake pops?

If the the cake you love has a traditional crumb then the sky’s the limit. So whether you enjoy white sponge with a hint of vanilla and lemon or chocolate cake with cherries and freeze dried strawberry you should be able to make it work as a cake pop.Just make sure you have enough frosting to make the cake crumbs hold together

To decorate use anything from fun sprinkles to chopped nuts and puffed rice. If you want to get more creative you can think of a fun cake pop shape ahead of time and what you need to make it. I’ve used some waffle cones to make microphone cake pops and it was tons of fun.

Can I make cake pops from cake mix? Is making cake pops from scratch better?

I don’t have too much experience with using cake mix, but they’re generally quite heavy on raising agents, which might make forming them into balls a little more difficult. I find a cake made from scratch will have the perfect density and crumb for a cake pop.

Can I make my cake pop other shapes? Are there cake pop moulds available?

For simple balls cake pops are easy to roll with your hands, but there are all sorts of fun shapes you can bake or press your pops into.

The simplest option is to use a large cookie cutter shape and press your cake and frosting mixture into it until it’s decently thick. I remembered simple shapes that aren’t as likely to fall apart like stars and circles.

If you’re using a mould there are two types to choose from…

The first type of mould is where you spoon the cake mixture into the bottom half of a mould and then put the top on so it bakes into the perfect shape every time (in theory).

The other kind is where press your crumbled mix into a hinged mould – this one is much easier if you’re working with little hands!

Can cake pops be frozen? Can I make them ahead of time?

Yes they can – if you want to freeze the cake pops after dipping then they should keep well for at least a month if stored in an airtight container. To defrost leave in the fridge overnight.

Why do my cake pops have condensation on them when defrosting? Why are there beads of water on my chocolate?

Condensation or ‘sweating’ happens when the water vapours in the air hit something cold enough to turn them back to a liquid – in this case the outside of your cake pop.

To avoid this from happening store your cake pops in an airtight container in the freezer and don’t take them out of the container until they have warmed up, which will expose the cake pops to less temperature variation and water vapour.

What’s the difference between a chocolate coating and a colour melt coating?

Colour melts are type of candy coating that is easier to work with and is generally more stable and gives uniform finish.

Why did my cake pops break? Why didn’t they stay on the stick?

Make sure that the diameter of your cake pops are a good ratio for the size of the stick you’re using. Usually the trouble is a big cake pop on a little stick where the weight of the cake pop means it breaks away from the stick.

A small cake pop and a big stick will cause the balls to simply flatten out and crack rather then pierce the cake pop.

If you didn’t roll the the cake pops tightly enough this can also be a problem. You don’t want to to press so hard it’s no longer a sponge cake but you should make sure they feel solid in your hand.

If you didn’t use enough frosting to bind your cake pops this can cause them to fall apart and they’re too loosely bound.

You could have also used too much oil, which will make the mixture looser.

Why are my cake pops cracking?

If your cake pop balls are fridge-cold and dipped into the hot liquid coating this can cause your cake pops to crack. Getting the cake pop balls down to room temperature first is important, so it’s best to aim for a finished cake pop as soon as your bake has cooled down to room temperature.

Why are my cake pop coatings not smooth?

If the cake pop balls are too cold it will set the chocolate before you have time to drip the excess off, so make sure your cake pop balls are close to room temperature before you begin dipping.

Why are there little bubbles in my cake pops?

If you mixed the chocolate or melts too much then they will take on a lot of air bubbles which can get transferred to the surface of your cake pop, so try to mix with a light hand.

Why is my chocolate coating so thick and claggy?

If using a stove be careful not to overheat the mixture – if the sugar in the chocolate gets too hot it will burn, and even a little can dramatically change the consistency and taste of the chocolate.

The best way of avoiding this is to pay careful attention while cooking and remember that as the mix will contain a lot of heat you can usually work out the last few little lumps off the heat.