Birthday Cake Pops
Make colorful birthday cake pops with vanilla cake, creamy frosting, white coating, and festive rainbow sprinkles.
🍽 24 servings
⏱ Prep: 40 min
⏰ Total: 105 min
📊 Medium
Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 4 cups cups Fully cooled 8-inch vanilla cake or approximately 4 cups vanilla cake crumbs
- 1/3 cup (start with 1/4 cup) cups Perfect Swiss Meringue Buttercream or compatible vanilla buttercream
- 2 tbsp tbsp Rainbow jimmies
- 16 oz oz White candy coating
- 24 sticks Cake-pop sticks
- as needed cups Additional rainbow jimmies for decoration
Instructions
- Crumble the fully cooled vanilla cake into fine crumbs.
- Add 1/4 cup of buttercream initially and mix thoroughly.
- Fold in 2 tablespoons of rainbow jimmies. Do not use nonpareils inside if they bleed excessively into moist cake.
- Add additional buttercream 1 tablespoon at a time only if necessary. The mixture should hold together when compressed but not become greasy.
- Portion approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons per pop and roll into smooth balls.
- Chill the cake balls for 30 minutes.
- Melt a small amount of white candy coating.
- Dip approximately 1/2 inch of each stick into the melted coating.
- Insert the stick into each cake ball approximately halfway.
- Chill for another 15 minutes to set.
- Melt the remaining white candy coating according to product instructions.
- Dip each cake pop completely, then gently tap off excess.
- Decorate immediately with additional rainbow jimmies.
- Stand upright in a cake pop stand until the coating sets.
Chef's Notes
CRITICAL CAKE POP NOTE: Do not use too much frosting. The cake should bind together without becoming wet or overly sweet. Do not use nonpareils inside if they bleed excessively into moist cake. OPTIONAL VARIATION: Fresh Strawberry Birthday Cake Pops — use Fresh Strawberry Buttercream as the binder instead of vanilla buttercream, provided consistency is firm enough for cake-pop shaping. Do not automatically convert the main canonical recipe to strawberry. CROSS-LINKS: Vanilla Bean Bakery Cupcakes (cake base), Perfect Swiss Meringue Buttercream (binder), Fresh Strawberry Buttercream (optional variation).