How to Make Cake Balls

To create cake pops, you need to start by making cake balls that you will later apply to lollipop sticks. The easiest way to make cake balls is to start by following the directions on a box of cake mix. I usually deviate from the directions in one way, I use half the amount of oil. For this strawberry banana cake pop recipe, I also replace the water with strawberry daiquiri mix. This gives the cake pops a stronger strawberry flavor and a beautiful pink color.

After you bake your cake, let it cool completely and… get ready for destruction! Your goal is to crumble your cake into fine crumbs. You can do this one of two ways:

1) Use your hands. Put chunks of your cake into a large mixing bowl and use your hands to crumble it into a pile of fine crumbs.

2) Use a food processor. Put chunks of your cake into a food processor and pulse it into fine crumbs. Then, move the crumbs into a large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix 1/3 cup of frosting starter with 1/4 teaspoon of strawberry shortcake strawberry mix (you can also substitute pre-mixed strawberry frosting).

Add the frosting to your cake crumbs and thoroughly combine using your hands. Continue until your crumb mixture becomes the consistency of clay.

Once you have created your cake pop ”dough”, you can begin rolling your cake balls. I like to use a stainless steel coffee scoop to portion out my cake mixture so that all my cake balls are the same size, about 1.25″. Roll the mixture in the palm of your hand to create round cake balls.

Set your cake balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet or plate and put them in the freezer or refrigerator. If you have time, keep the cake balls in the fridge for a few hours until chilled. If not, about 15 to 20 minutes in the freezer will do the trick.

Helpful Tip: Keep in mind that making cake pops is a temperature sensitive process. Putting cake balls in the freezer may make them too cold for dipping, so you will need to let them sit for a few minutes after removing them.

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How To Turn Your Cake Balls Into Cake Pops

Microwave your yellow candy melts in a bowl on low power for 30-seconds at a time. Stop and stir after each 30-second interval then repeat until the coating is completely melted. Stir in 1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon of LorAnn Banana Cream Flavoring, depending on how strong you want the flavor.

Helpful Tip: Make sure that you use LorAnn Super Strength Flavors, which are made for flavoring candy and chocolates. If you use a water-based flavoring, such as LorAnn Baking Emulsions, your coating will seize up. Save the emulsions for when you want to make awesome sugar cookies and funfetti cake cookies!

Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melted coating and then into a chilled cake ball, gently pushing until the stick is about half way through the cake ball. Turn your cake pops upright, set them in  a  cake pop stand, and place them in the fridge to chill before dipping.

Helpful Tip: Work with just a handful of cake balls at a time. Rotating them in and out of the fridge ensures that you are always working with perfectly chilled cake balls. This is where it comes in handy to have a few petite cake pop stands to rotate around!

Dip each chilled cake pop straight down into the melted coating until the cake ball is completely covered and sealed. If you need to angle the cake pop, gently tilt it in one direction and then another. Resist the temptation to stir the coating with the cake pop. If you do, your cake pop may fall off of the stick into a candy coating abyss.

Remove the cake pop from the melted coating by pulling it straight up. Then, turn the cake pop at an angle and gently tap off any excess coating.

Helpful Tip: A tall narrow bowl works best for dipping cake pops. Keeping the coating warm throughout the entire dipping process is key to having a smooth coating on your cake pops. To avoid having to repeatedly reheat your coating, a chocolate melting pot is a great tool.

While the candy coating is still wet, sprinkle sparkling sugar all over the surface and add a banana Runt to the front of your cake pop. Set your cake pops in your cake pop stand until the coating has hardened.

Repeat all of the above steps using pink candy coating, red sparkling sugar and red Runts. To learn how easy it is to turn your red runts into strawberry candy decorations, check out How To Make Easy Fruit Candy Decorations.

Is the strawberry at the top of your list of favorite fruits? Are there any other fruits that get a whole month dedicated in their delicious honor or is the strawberry just special?

Looking for even more cake pop fun? Follow my Cake Pop How Tos board on Pinterest for all the how-tos you need to make impressive cake pops and my Cake Pops board for an inspirational gallery of cake pop ideas.

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut using a square cookie cutter
• Icing made from your favorite royal icing recipe in navy, red, electric blue, white, gray, and black (I used 10-count consistency icing for all the steps in this tutorial. If you need help with icing color or consistency, check out the How To Make Royal Icing section of 101 Essential Cookie Decorating Resources.)
• Red sparkling sugar
• Electric blue sparkling sugar
• Toothpicks
• Icing bags or bottles, couplers, and tips (I used a #2 tip for all the steps in this tutorial.)

 

 

 

9. Strawberry Creamwiches by The Farm Chicks
10. Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies w/ Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting by averie cooks

11. Strawberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies by Not Your Momma’s Cookie
12. Strawberry Lemonade Cookies by Jen’s Favorite Cookies

13. Strawberry Milk Macarons w/ Cookie Dough Buttercream by Raspberri Cupcakes
14. Strawberry-Nutella Thumbprint Cookies by Sinfully Spicy

15. Strawberry Shortcake Cookies by Glorious Treats
16. Strawberry Shortcake Whoopie Pies by Cookies & Cups

17. Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes by Smells Like Home
18. Strawberry Banana Cupcakes w/ Strawberry Frosting by Crepes of Wrath

19. Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes w/ White Chocolate Frosting by Crazy For Crust
20. Strawberry Colada Cupcakes by Your Cup of Cake

21. Strawberry Cupcakes w/ Strawberry Meringue Buttercream by My Sweet Life
22. Strawberry Kiwi Cupcakes w/ Creamy Frosting by Little Leopard Book

23. Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes by easybaked
24. Strawberry Lime Cupcakes by Your Cup of Cake

25. Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes by Best Friends for Frosting
26. Strawberry Mimosa Cupcakes by Oh My Veggies

27. Strawberry Patch Cupcakes by the decorated cookie
28. Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes by Lady Behind the Curtain

29. White Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Cupcakes by Bakingdom
30. Strawberry Cupcakes Shaped Like Strawberries by bubbly nature creations

If you’re looking for a simple way to add strawberry cuteness to an already-made sweet treat, check out How To Make Fruit Candy Decorations for an easy strawberry add-on.

And for even more strawberry inspiration, follow my Strawberry Sweets board on Pinterest. With over 60 pins and more being added each day, you’ll never run out of ideas for baking berry-licious sweets!

How To Make Sparkly Cherry Candy Decorations

To make cherry candy decorations you will need:

• Red Starburst Fruit Chews candies
• Green shoe string candy
• Red disco dust
• Red decorating icing
• Meringue powder
• Toothpicks

 

Begin by shaping your red Starbursts into balls for your cherry candy decorations. To make the candy pliable, slightly heat it up in the microwave. If you overheat the candy, it will be too hot and liquidy to work with. I suggest heating each piece of candy for just 5 to 10 seconds on 50% power. After removing the candy from the microwave (and making sure it’s not too hot to touch), rip each piece in half and use your hands to roll them into balls. Let the candy completely cool before moving on to the next step.

Prepare two bowls: one with a small mixture of half water and half meringue powder completely blended and one with a small amount red disco dust. Roll each Starburst ball into the meringue powder and then into the disco dust until it is coated. Set your sparkly cherries aside to completely dry.

Prepare your green shoe string candy by using a sharp knife to slice it into thin stem-shaped pieces.

Use a toothpick to poke a hole in the top of each cherry candy. Fill the hole with red decorating icing, either by putting a blob of icing on a toothpick or by attaching a small decorating tip to the end of the icing tube. While the icing is still wet, insert a cherry stem into the hole. Set your sparkly cherry candy decorations aside to dry completely. The hardened icing will hold the stem in place.

With just a touch of icing, you can now “glue” your sparkly cherry candy decorations to any decorated cookies, cake pops, cupcakes, or other sweet treats you create.

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How To Make Strawberry Candy Decorations

To make strawberry candy decorations, you will need:

• Strawberry Runts candies
• Green flower sprinkles
• Red decorating icing
• White gel food coloring
• A small food safe paint brush

Turn your green flower sprinkles into strawberry stems by using a knife to cut off two petals from each sprinkle. Then, use a dab of red decorating icing to attach each stem to the top of a strawberry Runt candy. Paint seeds onto each strawberry using white gel food coloring and a small food safe paint brush.

Set your strawberry candy decorations aside to dry completely before adding them to any of your baked goodies.

If the photos of strawberry cake pops and banana split cake pops are making your mouth water, hang in there… recipes and tutorials are coming soon. If you don’t want to miss the step-by-step directions for creating these sweets, make sure you are subscribed to sugarkissed.net by email. Simply scroll up to the top right hand corner of the blog, enter your email address in the subscribe form, and click OK. With sugarkissed.net posts delivered directly to your inbox, you’ll never miss a single creative sweet made simple!

In the meantime, check out my Strawberry Sweets and Banana Sweets boards on Pinterest for some fruity inspiration!

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut using a square cookie cutter
• Icing made from your favorite royal icing recipe in dark pink, medium pink, light pink, black, and white (I used 12-count consistency icing for all the steps in this tutorial. If you need help with icing color or consistency, check out the How To Make Royal Icing section of 101 Essential Cookie Decorating Resources.)
• A food coloring marker in any color
• Icing bags or bottles, couplers, and tips (I used a #2 tip for all the steps in this tutorial.)

 How To Make Minecraft Steve Cookies

To make Steve cookies, you will need:

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut using a square cookie cutter
• Icing made from your favorite royal icing recipe in dark brown, light brown, beige, blue, and white (I used 12-count consistency icing for all the steps in this tutorial. If you need help with icing color or consistency, check out the How To Make Royal Icing section of 101 Essential Cookie Decorating Resources.)
• A food coloring marker in any color
• Icing bags or bottles, couplers, and tips (I used a #2 tip for all the steps in this tutorial.)

Start by using a food coloring marker to draw straight lines breaking each cookie up into eight rows and eight columns. This will give you 64 squares to fill with icing.

Using your printed template as a guide, fill in all of the squares labeled with the #1 with dark brown royal icing. Before icing, you may want to mark the squares with your food coloring marker to help prevent mistakes. Complete this step on all of your Steve Minecraft cookies and let the icing dry somewhat before moving on to the next color.

Repeat the above steps for each of the additional four colors you are using on your Steve cookies. Let the royal icing dry completely (preferably overnight) before stacking or packaging your cookies.

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 How To Make Minecraft Creeper Cookies

To make Creeper cookies, you will need:

• Cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie recipe and cut using a square cookie cutter
• Icing made from your favorite royal icing recipe in black, light green, medium green, and dark green (I used 12-count consistency icing for all the steps in this tutorial. If you need help with icing color or consistency, check out the How To Make Royal Icing section of 101 Essential Cookie Decorating Resources.)
• Black sanding sugar (optional)
• A food coloring marker in any color
• Icing bags or bottles, couplers, and tips (I used a #2 tip for all the steps in this tutorial.)

Start by using a food coloring marker to draw straight lines breaking each cookie up into eight rows and eight columns. This will give you 64 squares to fill with icing.

Using your printed template as a guide, fill in all of the squares labeled with the #1 with black royal icing. Before icing, you may want to mark the squares with your food coloring marker to help prevent mistakes. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle black sanding sugar onto the surface of your cookie. Complete this step on all of your Creeper cookies and let the icing dry somewhat. Remove any excess sanding sugar by tilting your cookie vertically and gently shaking or brushing the sugar off.

Helpful Hint: To easily save any unused sanding sugar, do your decorating over a coffee filter. After you shake off the excess sanding sugar, you can easily pour it back into your sugar container.

Next, fill in all of the squares labeled with the #2 with light green royal icing. Complete this step on all of your Creeper Minecraft cookies and let the icing dry somewhat before moving on to the next color.

Fill in the squares for the medium green and dark green colors using the same steps as above, letting the icing dry somewhat in between colors. Let the royal icing dry completely (preferably overnight) before stacking or packaging your cookies.

 

Whether you’re planning a Minecraft party or simply looking for a fun cookie decorating project, I hope you can take a break from diamond mining to give these Minecraft cookies a try!

If the animals of Minecraft are more your style, hang in there… tutorials for the pig and sheep cookies are coming later in the week. If you don’t want to miss the step-by-step directions for creating these sweets, make sure you are subscribed to sugarkissed.net by email. Simply scroll up to the top right hand corner of the blog, enter your email address in the subscribe form, and click OK. With sugarkissed.net posts delivered directly to your inbox, you’ll never miss a single creative sweet made simple!

In the meantime, check out my Geeks Rule! board on Pinterest for some more geeky inspiration!

Stack the colored dough so that you have three layers of color on top of a sheet of parchment paper. The colored dough on the bottom of the stack will be the outer edge of your pinwheel swirl cookies. Try to line the layers up as closely as possible. Any excess unsightly pieces can be trimmed off later. 

If at any time, the cookie dough becomes to soft to work with, set it in the fridge until it is chilled. Be careful not to let the dough get too cold or it will crack when you try to bend it.

Using the parchment paper to help smoothly guide the dough, gently roll it into a log shape. 

Pour your sparkling sugar onto parchment paper, spreading it out in a thin layer. Beat your egg to make an egg wash and brush it on your cookie dough. Roll the dough in your sparkling sugar until it is evenly coated.

Set the log of dough in the fridge, along with a sharp knife, until both are chilled.

With  your chilled knife, slice off the jagged ends of your colored dough log. Then, slice the rest of the dough into approximately 1/4″ thick circles.

For circular pinwheel swirl cookies: Set the sliced dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake according to the directions of your favorite sugar cookie recipe. You may need to add a couple of extra minutes to the baking time if your pinwheel swirl cookies are thicker than your usual sugar cookies.

For leaf (or other shaped) swirl cookies: Use your cookie cutters to cut into the center of the circular dough. Set the sliced dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake according to the directions of your favorite sugar cookie recipe. You may need to shorten the baking time by a couple of minutes if you used mini cookie cutters for smaller than usual cookies.

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Not sure what to do with those left over outer rings of your cookie shapes? Add a little hard candy to the center and turn them into stained glass swirl cookies. For a step-by-step tutorial on making stained glass cookies, check out Stained Glass Christmas Cookies | Edible Ornaments.

 

Supplies for Adding Bonnets to Chick Cake Pops

• Rolo caramel candies

• Pink and white candy melts

• Rainbow disco dust (optional)

• Tiny white non-pareils

• Flower sprinkles

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How To Add Bonnets to Chick Cake Pops

Start by microwaving your pink candy melts in a pastry bag or sandwich bag on low power for 30-seconds at a time. Stop and massage the bag after each 30-second interval then repeat until the coating is completely melted.

Cut off the tip of the bag and pipe the brim of a bonnet onto a square of wax paper. If your shape is a little lumpy, simple drag a toothpick through the coating to smooth out the surface.

If you would like your bonnet to sparkle, sprinkle rainbow disco dust onto the candy coating. Then, set the wax paper on top of one of your chick cake pops to dry. The edges of the wax paper will droop, giving the brim of the bonnet a wavy shape. Repeat this process for all of your bonnets. Once the brims have hardened, remove them from the chick cake pops and set them aside for use in the next step.

To create the dome of a chick’s bonnet, insert a toothpick into the top of a Rolo and dip it straight down in the pink candy coating. Gently tap off any excess coating. If the dark color of the Rolo is showing through your coating, you may want to let it harden and dip it again before moving on.

Use a second toothpick to push the Rolo off of the first toothpick and onto the brim of the bonnet. Sprinkle disco dust onto the wet coating for a little sparkle. Repeat this process for all of your chick bonnets, moving onto the next step once all of the coating has hardened.

Melt your white candy melts in a microwave safe bowl. Use a toothpick to apply a stripe on the bonnet where the dome and brim pieces connect. Sprinkle tiny white non-pareils onto the coating before it hardens.

To add flower accents to your chick bonnets, use a toothpick to apply a touch of coating to the back of a flower sprinkle as glue. Attach the flower to the front of the bonnet.

Once the coating on all of your bonnets has hardened, use a bit of candy coating to glue them to the tops of your chick cake pops.

I could never pull off an Easter bonnet, but these chicks sure can!

For even more cake pop inspiration, check out our group Cake Pop board: