4-Ingredient Cake Pops are simple to make, requiring just 20-minutes hands on prep. Crumbled chocolate cake meets vanilla frosting, gets shaped into bite sized balls, dunked in chocolate and served up lollipop style.

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A little known fact about Simply Sissom... I used to have help with ANY recipe that required ANY type of baking. I never specifically went out in search of a babysitter/fabulous baker situation, buuuuut, sometimes life works out in your favor and our family ended up with Miss Maty. She moved to North Carolina several years ago, but this weekend... she visited! Out of habit, we found ourselves whipping up yummy things in the kitchen (ok, I held the baby while she did the whipping). The result... these 4-ingredient cake pops that my family Can. Not. Get. Enough. Of.

Are they sugar free and made from dates, oatmeal and maple syrup? Well, no. Things rarely are when Miss Maty comes to visit, but every single ingredient is recognizable AND with a few carefully selected store-bought purchases they became free from funky-ingredients and unwanted additives.

You could go the route of making a cake from scratch, busting out your Kitchen Aid and whipping butter + sugar into homemade frosting, but you guys.. it's really not necessary. These adorable little guys are just the right amount of sweet and jut the right amount of effort.

Step 1: Bake a cake. I used Simple Mills Chocolate Muffin and Cake Mix. It does contain sugar but I love that all the ingredients are recognizable. I feel compelled to tell you.. this is NOT sponsored. Just a brand I love and want to share with you.

Step 2: Crumble the cake into 5 million little pieces.

Step 3: Add frosting. Again.. I went with the Simple Mills Vanilla frosting.

Step 4: Roll the cake/frosting combo into cute little balls, insert a stick and let those guys freeze.

Step 5: Make a quick little "candy coating" from melted chocolate + coconut oil and dip.

Step 6: Add sprinkles if you're feeling festive. The sprinkles pictured are Nature's Colors Rainbow Mix Decorating Sugar from India Tree. They are made from all natural ingredients.

So let's review.. cake mix + frosting + melted chocolate + coconut oil. That's it. Here's a few tips to get the best results possible:

the cake balls MUST be completely frozen through before you coat them and add sprinkles. They thaw quickly so I leave them in the freezer right until I'm ready to decorate each individual one.
It's important that the sticks don't slip when you are applying the chocolate coating. To help prevent this, dip the end of each stick into the coating before inserting it into the formed cake ball.
Don't make the cake balls too big. If they're too heavy they will fall off the stick. I like to use about 1 Tbs.
Move quickly. Once the outer chocolate coating is applied, it dries fast. Get those sprinkles on if you're using them!
Have a plan. You want the cake pops to dry completely before laying them on their side. You can use a cup with rice or beans (like in the first photo of this post) as a way to keep the pops upright.

Time Saving Tips and Tricks:

Prep: To get a jump start on this recipe, you could bake the cake ahead of time. This is especially helpful if you have tiny kitchen helpers who may get impatient while waiting for the cake to cool.

Make Ahead: The cake pops can definitely be made ahead. They keep well in the refrigerator for several days. You can either go ahead and add the chocolate coating and sprinkles to the outside or just let them hang out in undecorated ball-form.

Freezer: The freezer is exactly where my cake balls are hanging out as I type this. I like that they last longer AND having to allow them a few minutes to thaw before eating keeps me from having an unfortunate incident involving myself and the disappearance of All. The. Cake. Balls. I try to avoid these types of accidents.

📖 Recipe

How To Make 4-Ingredient Cake Pops

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Author: Bailey Sissom
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: 40 cake balls 1x
Category: dessert

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Description

4-Ingredient Cake Pops are simple to make, requiring just 20-minutes hands on prep. Crumbled chocolate cake meets vanilla-frosting and then gets shaped into bite sized balls, dunked in chocolate and served up lollipop style.

Ingredients

Scale

Special Equipment: Lollipop sticks

Ingredients:

1 box of cake mix in the flavor of your choice (I used Simple Mills Chocolate Muffin and Cake Mix)
⅓ cup of vanilla frosting (I used Simple Mills Vanilla Frosting)
32 oz. of pure white or dark chocolate
½ tsp. coconut oil
Sprinkles (optional)

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Instructions

Bake cake in a 9x13" pan according to the instructions provided on the box. Allow cake to cool completely.
Crumble the cooled cake and pour it into a large mixing bowl. Add frosting. Turn the mixer on low and beat the frosting and the cake crumbles together until combined.
Measure 1 Tbs. of cake mixture and roll into a ball. Place balls on a lined baking sheet. Dip a lollipop stick about ½ inch into the coating, and then insert into the center of the cake ball. Only push it about halfway through. Place rolled cake balls into the freezer for 1-2 hours or until frozen.
Chop up the chocolate into small pieces. Melt it down using a double boiler (or a glass bowl on top of a pan containing boiling water) with ½ tsp. of coconut oil to thin it out. Let the coating cool down for a few minutes before you begin dipping or it will crack. Once it cools a bit, place the coating back onto the double boiler so that it stays warm for the whole cake pop making process.
Remove only 2-3 cake balls from the freezer at a time (they need to stay cold for coating). Dip the cake ball into the coating until completely covered. Make sure the coating covers the base of the cake ball too. Very gently tap the stick agains the edge of the bowl to allow excess coating to drip off. Decorate the top with sprinkles and place up-right in a glass cup filled with rice or beans as described in the post. Repeat with the remaining cake balls.
The coating will set within an hour. Store the pops in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes

Nutrition facts will vary greatly depending on the type of cake mix and frosting that you choose to use. For this reason, this information was not calculated for this post.

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You can find Simply Sissom on Instagram where I share even more recipes (some that aren’t on the blog), behind the scenes pics and videos AND tips and tricks to make healthy eating realistic for your busy family.