Red, White and Blue Cake Pops

Part cake and part candy pop, cake pops are a fun dessert for kids and adults. They can be prepared in advance and served up in millions of different ways. You can use any cake flavor or frosting of your choice, as well as decorative sprinkles, to make them all your own. They are a fun activity for the kids, too, allowing everyone to get messy in the kitchen and mix up some fun!

These patriotic cake pops can easily be made ahead of time for a party or a gift. They take some time to prepare but are fairly easy and very fun. If you have never made them before, let me show you how.

You start by making a 9 x 13 cake—any flavor or color of your choice. Once the cake is cool, crumble it completely.

Stir in a 12 oz. tub of frosting. (The frosting helps hold the crumbs together.) Roll mixture into 1-in. balls.

Place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Freeze for 15 minutes.

According to package directions, melt the white candy disks in the microwave along with a teaspoon of shortening. (This is important because when I first made these, I didn’t add the shortening and the melted candy was too thick to coat the cake pops and they fell apart.) 

Once the melted candy is a smooth consistency, you can begin to assemble the pops and decorate them. Remove cake pop balls from the freezer. Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted candy and then halfway into a cake ball. Place them on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet until all the cake balls have sticks.

Swirl the balls gently into the melted candy and coat well. Allow the excess coating to drip off in the bowl.

Stick the ends of the sticks into a foil-covered piece of Styrofoam; let harden.

If you want to get real fancy, you can decorate the hardened cake pops with special frosting pens.

Some people may think these are too pretty to eat, but I guarantee they will quickly disappear!