Cake Pops

Happy Mother's Day!


Today, I don't have a recipe per se for you. I have more of an solution. Have you ever made a batch of cupcakes; taken them out of the oven, gotten excited because they're perfectly risen and gorgeous, only to walk by your kitchen counter and see them completely deflated and sunken in? Well I did, just the other day. I had made yellow cupcakes for my daughter's birthday party and they looked amazing - but by the time I realized that they weren't quite done, it was too late. They fell flat and were heavy, far from the beautiful specimen I had taken out of the oven.

Before, I would have simply thrown them away. However, in this day and age, when Cake Pops are all the rage, failed cupcakes (or cakes for that matter) are no longer destined for the garbage.

Most of the recipes out there for Cake Pops are made with boxed cake mixes and store-bought icing. Imagine how much better these adorable bites are when made with homemade cake and icing. Even if the homemade cake part is a failed batch of cupcakes. Particularly when it's a batch of under-baked cupcakes, there's even more moisture to bind them together. However, if your failed cupcakes or cakes are over-baked, they'd work too. You could even add a bit of melted butter to the mix to moisten them up. I won't tell.

So here's the perfect solution to your baking failures - or when you find some leftover cupcakes in the freezer. Don't pitch them. Grind them up, add some icing, make balls, poke a stick in it and dip it in melted chocolate and Voila! My kids loved these.


I used 12 cupcakes. Broke them up and put the crumbs in the bowl of my stand mixer.

Added 1 1/4 cups of buttercream icing and mixed until thoroughly moistened and the 'crumbs' were able to hold their shapes when rolled into balls.

Refrigerate balls until slightly firm. (Or if you're impatient, like me, put them in the freezer for 10 minutes to speed things up.

Melt your chocolate candy melts and dip the end of the stick into the melted candy before poking halfway through the balls. Back into the fridge (or freezer) until set.

Then you just dip the whole Cake Pop into the melted chocolate, shake off excess, decorate with sprinkles before chocolate sets (it sets quickly because the pops are cold - so work fast), then stick the Cake Pops into a piece of styrofoam until dried. 

Enjoy!