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These Christmas Cake Pops are sweet, flavorful treats that make darling holiday gifts or decorative centerpieces to your holiday celebrations.
Meet Heidi: Expert Baker and Cookie Artist
These Christmas Cake Pops are bite-sized, hand-decorated treats that add a festive touch to any holiday gathering. They’re perfect for class parties, neighbor gifts, or a fun DIY baking project with your kids. As a professional cookie maker and decorator with years of experience running my own baking business, I’ve perfected the process of creating beautiful, foolproof cake pops that look impressive but are simple to make.
Each pop starts with crumbled cake that is mixed with creamy frosting. This is shaped into balls and dipped in white chocolate or a colorful candy coating. Decorate with festive sprinkles or candies and you have the kind of treat that rivals even the most decadent Christmas desserts.
❤️ Heidi
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Cake pops are easy to make and can be made uniquely festive with holiday decorations and colors. Here’s what you need for a basic cake pop recipe:
- White Box Cake Mix: You’ll also need oil or butter, eggs, and water to bake the cake.
- Vanilla Frosting: You can use our vanilla buttercream frosting recipe or a can of frosting from the store.
- Candy Melts: In Christmas colors, or the colors you want on your cake pops. I like to use red, green, and white.
- Christmas Sprinkles: These are optional, but fun when decorating your cake pops for the holidays.
- Lollipop Sticks: You’ll need about 30 sticks.
How to Make Christmas Cake Pops
- Bake the cake according to the cake mix instructions. Let the cake cool completely.
- Crumble the cooled cake with your hands into a large bowl.
- Add frosting to the cake crumbs and stir to combine.
- Use a standard cookie scoop to scoop out a ball of cake mixture. Roll it with your hands into a cake ball, then place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Melt about a quarter of a cup of the white candy melts in the microwave, stirring until they’re melted. Dip each lollipop stick into the chocolate, then insert the sticks into each cake ball, about halfway through.
- Place the lined baking sheet of cake balls and sticks in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two to chill. This will help the balls maintain their shape when you dip them in the chocolate.
- Melt chocolate or candy coating in a microwave-safe bowl, then dip each cake pop into the coating, allowing any excess chocolate to drip off.
- Finally, add sprinkles or decorations while the coating is still wet.
Additional Flavors to Try
I used a vanilla cake and vanilla frosting combination to create these Christmas Cake Pops, but you can use any combination of cake and frosting you like for adorable and delicious bite-sized desserts:
- Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting
- Make Chocolate cake pops with peppermint flavored frosting
- Gingerbread cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting
- Vanilla cake with eggnog flavored frosting. Add a couple of tablespoons of eggnog for a deliciously rich holiday flavor.
Themed Cake Pops
This basic cake pops recipe can be switched up and decorated all kinds of ways for different holiday occasions:
- Use white melting chocolate to create a snowman cake pop. Use orange frosting to make a carrot nose, and some black chocolate melts for eyes and a hat
- Shape the cake and frosting mixture into a triangle and decorate as Christmas tree cake pops.
- Make a reindeer cake pop using pretzel antlers and a red hot to make Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Creating a Cake Pop Display
If you’re serving these cake pops at a school party, church potluck, or Christmas house party, use a Styrofoam block as a base, then insert each lollipop stick into the block. Then place the block into a decorative bowl or wrap fresh greenery around the Styrofoam for a gorgeous display.
Frequently Asked Questions
I have run into this problem in the past and I found my cake mixture was too dry. Just add a little more frosting to the cake crumbles until they easily hold their shape.
Store cake pops in a Ziplock bag for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. Or single wrap them in little plastic baggie, and tie them with a bow for the perfect holiday gift.
Yes! Freeze undipped balls up to one month or dipped pops for 1 to 2 weeks. Thaw slowly in the fridge to avoid cracking.
Once fully set, stick them upright in a foam block or box. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and keep cool until serving.
Yes, just make sure it is moist enough to form into balls. Add more frosting if necessary.
Read More: 25+ Christmas Dessert Ideas
More Cake Mix Treats
If you try these Christmas Cake Pops, I’d love to hear how they turned out! 💚❤️
Leave a comment and a 5-star rating below. Your feedback helps others find our favorite holiday recipes, too.
Easy Christmas Cake Pops
Video
Ingredients
- 1 white cake mix, prepared
- 1 cup vanilla frosting
- 1 1/4 cup white melting chocolates
- 1 cup dark green candy melts
- 1 cup red candy melts
- sprinkles, optional
- 30 lollipop sticks
Instructions
- Bake cake according to package directions in a 9×13 baking dish and allow to cool completely.
- In a large mixing bowl, crumble cake with your hands.
- Add frosting and combine.
- Using a standard cookie scoop, scoop out a ball of cake mixture and roll it with your hands into a cake ball. Place on cookie sheet.
- Melt ¼ cup of white candy melts according to package directions in the microwave. Dip the lollipop tip into the candy melts and stick into a cake ball.
- Place cookie sheet of cake balls with sticks in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt 1 cup of green candy melts according to package directions. Dip cake ball into the candy melt, allow the excess to drip off, place sprinkles on top and place on cookie sheet to dry.
- Allow cake pops to completely dry then serve, wrap or store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Add more frosting if the cake crumble is not holding together. It needs to be dense enough to hold it on the stick, but still soft when it’s eaten.
- It will help to dip the cake pops while they are cold.
- Store wrapped in a Ziplock bag in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Holiday Gift Treats
Food always makes the perfect holiday gifts. Who doesn’t love fresh baked treats or festive candy wrapped up with a bow? Try some of these adorable, edible Christmas gift ideas!
Curious as to what size cookie scoop is used for in this recipe (Christmas Cake Pops)? Is a #60 melon baller too small?
#60 – Small – 1 Tbsp
#40 – Medium – 1.7 Tbsp
#10 – X-Large – 5.5 Tbsp
#20 – Large – 2.93 Tbsp
The cookie scoop I always use is a #40. A #60 may be a little small but that just means more cake pops to go around! It will make the cake mixture go further!