Learn how to make pumpkin shaped cake pops for an easy recipe for Halloween! These jack o lantern cake pops are fun for all ages. Definitely add this to your pumpkin cake recipes list, Halloween crafts for kids, or preschool Halloween party!
Cake Jack-o-Lanterns: How To Make Pumpkin Shaped Cake Pops for Halloween
How To Make Pumpkin Shaped Cake Pops
To make pumpkin shape cake pops you’ll need:
- Cake mix (flavor, brand of choice) and ingredients to make cake
- Icing, flavor of choice
- Wilton Candy Melts , (orange)
- Green gumdrops
- Baker’s marker
- Lollipop sticks (if you’re going to make them as pumpkin lollipops)
(see full recipe below)
What Are Cake Pops?
Cake pops, sometimes called cake balls, are simply cake rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate or an icing. (You may have even seen or had cake pops from Starbucks!) You can leave them as cake balls (like we did for our pirate brownie cannonballs) or you can put a stick in them and make them cake pops.
Cake Pops With Cake Mix
- Follow the directions on the cake mix packaging.
- Bake the cake as directed.
- Once the cake is baked and cooled, crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl.
- Add icing and, using your hands (the kids love this part!), squish together the cake and icing.
- Then, form the cake balls into your size of choice.
[SEE FULL RECIPE BELOW]
We clearly made our cake pops at Halloween, but you can use the cake mix type of choice and chocolate dipping or icing for any party theme and roll them in sprinkles or other candies to match your theme.
You can also make these pumpkin pie pops by using a spice cake mix and you’ll have pumpkin spice cake pops recipe!
How many cake pops per box of cake mix?
Our Halloween pumpkin cake pops were Halloween treats ideas for school preschoolers, so we made them a little smaller and got well over 30 cake pops from our mix. However, if you roll them to about a 1-inch to 1 1/2-inch balls, you’ll get around 20-30 cake pops.
Again, it will all depend on how large or small you roll your cake balls.
ALSO CHECK OUT THESE OTHER HALLOWEEN TREATS IDEAS:
Halloween Treats Spiders and Bugs
Halloween Treats with Apples
Halloween Treats with Popcorn
Halloween Treats with Brownies
Halloween Pumpkin Cookies
How To Make Cake Pops With Mold
There are other ways for how to make jack o lantern cake pops. You don’t just have to roll the cake pops by hand if you don’t want! You can also use these molds with a recipe for pumpkin cake pops!
A few years back, my daughter received a cake pops maker as a gift and really has a lot of fun with that, too!
I was surprised how quickly the cake balls “baked” in the cake pops maker.
Also, it may be a safer alternative than using the oven if you’re cooking with little ones.
Making the recipe with a cake pop maker is the same—we used a boxed cake mix for with the maker the same as we did when making the cake balls by hand.
How To Make Cake Pops in a Silicone Mold
There are also cake pop molds (or a cake pops pan) that you can use to make your cake balls.
You pipe the cake batter into the silicon mold and then bake them in the mold.
Once the cake balls are baked and cooled, you removed them from the mold.
You may have to trim any overspill batter (around the middle) to make them smooth before dipping or icing them.
Pumpkin Cake Pop Tips
Cake pops are really easy to make, but here are some tips and answers to questions that will help make your cake pops perfect!
For our pumpkin cake pops:
• DO NOT use food coloring with the Wilton’s chocolate melts for your pumpkin pops. It will make the melts break apart and you will not be able to get them smooth again. If you cannot find the orange Wilton candy melts, use the Wilton Color Set made specifically for the melts.
• DO NOT use one of those decorating gels to make the faces. The gel never completely dries, so you can’t put them in treat bags without them smearing. (We found out the hard way!)
• DO NOT use a soft tip decorating food pen. It’s too soft to make little faces on the pumpkins. (Use the thick tip baking markers instead.)
• You can also use candy eyes for the eyes. (We used baking marker to do the whole face, but candy eyes would be super cute, too!)
But, how to decorate cake pops with icing?
What is the frosting for cake pops?
The frosting for cake pops is usually made up of a chocolate melt like Wilton Chocolate Melts or Candiquik. The cake pops are dipped into the melted chocolate and then form a harder outer coating. You can also frost the cake pops with regular frosting or melt a tub of store-bought frosting and dip the cake pops into that, but the icing won’t get hard like the melts.
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What to stick cake pops in?
We used regular cake pop sticks (like lollipop sticks) to stick into our cake pops. But, once you have your cake pops assembled, now what? You need to put them somewhere (or stick them in something) until your cake pops have time to dry or harden. We used a block of styrofoam (that we purchased specifically for that purpose), but you can also use a cake pop holder or even a cute cake pops stand that you can use to display at the party, too.
How long do cake pops last once made?
You may be wondering how far in advance can I make cake pops? Cake pops are like decorated cake or cupcakes and many stay fresh for around 1 week at room temperature, or refrigerated for around 2 weeks.
How do you store finished cake pops?
Carefully store finished cake pops in an airtight container. Make sure that you place them in a single layer, especially if they are decorated, so that you don’t ruin any of the cake pop faces, icing or decorations.
Do cake pops freeze well?
The best way to freeze cake pops is to do it before they are frosted or dipped. Frozen cake pops (without being dipped or iced) will last up to 6 weeks. You can also refrigerate cake pops or cake balls for two days.
DON’T MISS: Ideas for Halloween Treats Easy
Halloween Pumpkin Cake Pops Recipe
Here’s how to make cake pops step by step!
Pumpkin Cake Pops for Halloween
Ingredients
- 1 Box of cake mix flavor, brand of choice + ingredients to make cake
- 16 ounce container Icing flavor of choice
- 24 ounces 2 packages Wilton Candy Melts , (orange)
- Green gumdrops
Instructions
- Bake cake as directed in a 9 x 13 pan and let cool completely.
- Crumble cake up into a large mixing bowl.
- Remove lid and seal from frosting and place tub in microwave for 10 seconds to soften.
- Add half of the frosting to the crumbled cake and mash with a fork until the cake and the frosting is mixed. Use more icing, if needed.
- Pick up a small amount of the cake/frosting mixture and shape into about a 1-inch ball (or square if you're making Spookley pumpkin). It should hold together without breaking apart. If mixture is too dry, add a little more frosting to the cake mixture in the bowl.
- Continue making cake balls (or squares) and place on a wax paper lined baking cookie sheet.
- Make sure balls are tightly packed and look smooth with no cracks. If they appear cracked, add more frosting.
- Transfer cookie sheet with cake balls to freezer for 15 to 20 minutes.
- While cake balls are in the freezer, place 12 ounces of the candy melts in a small, deep microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring each time until completely melted. The melted coating should coat a spoon but still be able to slowly drip off. (Or, you can use the small crock like we described in the post.)
- Remove cake balls from freezer. Dip the lollipop sticks into candy coating and then insert the sticks into center of your cake balls, taking care not to go all the way through. Let them set for 1-2 minutes, with sticks in the air.
- Pick up cake pop by the stick and dip into candy coating. Rotate the cake pop to help get rid of excess coating.
- Reheat and/or melt more candy coating as needed.
- Place cake pops sticks into the cake pops stand (or a block of styrofoam). Allow to dry completely, about 5 minutes.
TO DECORATE THE PUMPKIN CAKE POPS
- Draw face onto the cake pop and let dry.
- Cut green gum drops in half. Use warm candy coating to stick half of the gum drop to the top for the pumpkin stem.
- Stick back into the cake pops stand to dry completely before placing in favor bags or container.
- Repeat until all pumpkins have faces!
Notes
Nutrition
Pumpkin Cake Pops Recipe paired with Spookley The Square Pumpkin Children’s Book
There are so many great Halloween books out there for kids, but one of our all-time favorites is Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano and Susan Banta.
One of the great things about this book is that it’s not just about Halloween, it’s about a little square pumpkin who gets teased and made fun of because he’s different than the other (round) pumpkins.
It’s a fantastic book to get your kids talking about bullying and kindness.
(There’s also a really cute Spookley cartoon, too!)
For our Halloween book pairing, we made Halloween Cake Pops.
I didn’t think about it until after, but it would be just as easy to make the cake pops into squares (like Spookley) instead of cake pop balls.
Next time we’ll do a mixture so there can be some square Spookleys in there!
Have fun learning how to make pumpkin shaped cake pops!
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