My Starbucks chocolate cake pops are rich, delicious treats filled with a tender cake filling coated in chocolate and white sprinkles. The homemade version is every bit as delicious as the coffee house favorite but at a fraction of the cost per cake pop. They're great fun to make, will save you a $$, and taste so good you'll make them all the time.
For more chocolate desserts, try my chocolate macarons, chocolate cookies, or chocolate pie.
You can never have too much chocolate, right? These tasty cake pops feature chocolate cake and chocolate frosting and are coated in melted chocolate.
They are truly a chocoholics dream come true. Plus, they are perfect for any birthday party, celebration, or event.
🥘 Ingredients
- Chocolate Cake Mix - Betty Crocker Delights is my preferred brand of boxed cake mix for cake pops. Of course, you could always make an easy chocolate cake from scratch, too.
- Eggs - Bring your eggs out of the fridge and let them come up to room temperature before getting started.
- Water - Some water to add moisture to the dry ingredients.
- Oil - I like to use coconut oil in my baked goods, but any neutral-flavored oil would work. Note: Omitting the oil in the base cake pop cake can help them hold their shape best.
- Chocolate Frosting - You can use store-bought frosting or some of my homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.
- Almond Bark - Chocolate almond bark melts wonderfully, but you could use your preferred variety of chocolate melting wafers.
- White Nonpareils - These white round sprinkles are used to decorate the familiar, well-loved cake pops.
Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!
🔪 How To Make Starbucks Chocolate Cake Pops
Using store-bought ingredients makes these cake pops incredibly easy. You will need a 9x13 baking dish, a mixing bowl, a hand mixer, your stand mixer, measuring utensils, and a cookie scoop.
This recipe will make about 28 cake pops.
Preheat. Preheat the oven to 325°F (175°C/Gas Mark 3) and spray or coat a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Prepare the Cake
Add the ingredients. Into a large mixing bowl, add 1 box of chocolate cake mix, 3 large eggs, 1 cup (237 milliliters) of water, and ⅓ cup (79 milliliters) of optional coconut oil (photo 1).
Mix the ingredients. Use a hand mixer or whisk to mix the ingredients until fully combined (photo 2).
Pour and bake. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish (photo 3) and then bake it in the oven for 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely (photo 4).
Make the Cake Pop Dough
Break the cake. Break your cake into chunks (photo 5) so that you can fit it into the bowl of your stand mixer.
Crumble it. Using the paddle attachment, mix the cake at low speed until it is fully crumbled.
Add frosting. Add 3 tablespoons of chocolate frosting (photo 6) and continue mixing on low speed, gradually increasing to medium-low, until you have a dough with the consistency of Play-Doh or modeling clay (photo 7).
Portion the dough. Use a kitchen scale, cookie scoop, or meatball maker (or cake baller) to portion your cake dough (photo 8) into equal-sized pieces (a standard cake pop is 1 ounce).
❗ Top Tip: Rolling Perfect Cake Pops
The balls are easier to round out into smooth, better-shaped cake pops if you chill them after combining and portioning. So roll the cake mixture out and pop them all in the fridge after they're shaped.
Chill for at least an hour before rolling them again to smooth out any misshapen edges.
Roll into balls. Roll the dough between your hands until a smooth ball is formed. Repeat until all of the cake balls are shaped (photo 9).
Dip & Decorate
Melt the chocolate. Place 1 pound (454 grams) of chocolate almond bark into a microwave-safe container and melt it by heating it in 30-second increments and stirring well in between each session (photo 10).
Add the sticks. Dip the end of each of your 28 treat sticks into the chocolate and then poke it into your cake balls (photo 11). Let them set for a few minutes.
Dip in chocolate. Pick up each cake pop and dip it into the melted chocolate, making sure it gets fully covered. Remove it from the chocolate and tap the stick on the side of the container so that all of the excess chocolate runs off. Twirl it around and tap a few more times to smooth everything out.
Add sprinkles. Immediately, while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some white nonpareils on top of the cake pops (photo 12). Now they'll look just like the ones available at our favorite coffee shop. 😋
Let harden. Place the decorated pops into a cake pop stand or piece of styrofoam and let them harden for about 5 minutes before serving or storing for later.
>>>See All Of My Tasty Recipes Here!<<<
💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Recipe Notes
- Quickly cool off your cake. To speed up the cooling time of your cake, flip it out of the baking dish onto a wire cooling rack. Baking the night before is ideal and my preferred method.
- Use almond bark. Almond bark melts exceptionally well, is affordable, and you don't need to add anything to thin it out.
- Try different melting wafers or morsels. If you aren't a fan of almond bark, you can use melted chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, or candy melts (the chocolate Ghirardelli ones are great).
📍🍡🎂 Top Tips to Master Cake Pops
See my top tips for the best cake pops to master cake pops in no time. There are 13+ great tips and tricks to help you skip my early mistakes 🤪.
With these tips, your first attempt at cake pops will look better-than-store-bought!
🥡 Storing
The cake pop dough itself can be kept in the fridge in a sealed container for 4-5 days or stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Once you have dipped your cake pops, keep them at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for 7-10 days.
Freezing
You can freeze fully assembled cake pops, but make sure to separate them with parchment paper to keep them from sticking together. They can be frozen for up to 6 weeks.
❓ Starbucks Chocolate Cake Pops Recipe FAQ's
Prices of Starbucks cake pops vary based on location. It could range anywhere from $2.25 - $3.75, depending on where you live.
If you have a particularly wet dough, you may see it leaking or 'oozing.' This usually only happens if you are using a recipe that has too much oil or eggs in it or if you've added too much frosting.
You can prevent this best (in general) by omitting the cooking oil called for in your cake mix instructions or cake recipe.
While it is understandable to think that cake pops might be raw, since it does look and feel like raw dough, they are completely cooked. The texture is because a fully cooked cake is crumbled and combined with frosting to add moisture and that crave-worthy chocolate cake pop.
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📖 Recipe Card
Starbucks Chocolate Cake Pops
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup coconut oil (optional - or use another neutral cooking oil)
- 3 tablespoon chocolate frosting
- 1 lb chocolate almond bark
- white nonpareils sprinkles
- 28 lollipop or treat sticks
(Note: 2x or 3x only changes the ingredient list)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (175°C/Gas Mark 3) and spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Prepare the Cake
- Into a large mixing bowl, add 1 box chocolate cake mix, 3 large eggs, 1 cup water, and ⅓ cup coconut oil.
- Use a hand mixer to mix the ingredients until fully combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and then bake it in the oven for 23-28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely.
Make the Cake Pop Dough
- Break your cake into chunks so that you can fit it into the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Using the paddle attachment, mix the cake on low speed until fully crumbled.
- Add 3 tablespoon chocolate frosting and continue mixing on low speed, gradually increasing to medium-low, until you have a dough with the consistency of play-doh or modeling clay.
- Use a kitchen scale, cookie scoop, or meatball maker (or cake baller) to portion your cake dough into equal-sized pieces (a standard cake pop is 1 ounce).
- Roll the dough between your hands until a smooth ball is formed.
Dip & Decorate
- Place 1 lb chocolate almond bark into a microwave-safe container and melt it by heating it in 30-second increments and stirring well in between each session.
- Dip the end of each of your 28 lollipop or treat sticks into the chocolate and then poke it into your cake balls. Let them set for a few minutes.
- Pick up each cake pop and dip it into the melted chocolate, making sure it gets fully covered. Remove it from the chocolate and tap the stick on the side of the container so that all of the excess chocolate runs off. Twirl it around and tap a few more times to smooth everything out.
- Immediately, while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some white nonpareils sprinkles on top of the cake pops.
- Place the decorated pops into a cake pop stand or piece of styrofoam and let them harden for about 5 minutes before serving or storing for later.
Notes
- Omit the cooking oil in your cake mix instructions or cake recipe to help the cake pops hold their shape best.
- To speed up the cooling time of your cake, flip it out of the baking dish onto a wire cooling rack. Baking the night before is ideal and my preferred method.
- Almond bark melts exceptionally well, is affordable, and you don't need to add anything to thin it out.
- If you aren't a fan of almond bark, you can use melted chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, or candy melts (the chocolate Ghiradelli ones are great).
- The cake pop dough itself can be kept in the fridge in a sealed container for 4-5 days, or stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Once you have dipped your cake pops, keep them at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for 7-10 days.
- You can freeze fully assembled cake pops, but make sure to separate them with parchment paper to keep them from sticking together. They can be frozen for up to 6 weeks.
Angela Latimer says
These cake pops are just like your favorite coffee shop snack and so easy to make that you really don't have an excuse not to get started - ASAP. You'll love them! ~Angela