Gluten free cake pops

This guest post is by @erinkbolton

After months of staring at the cake pops at Starbucks and seeing recipes for them everywhere, I decided to try making them for a Thanksgiving get-together with my boyfriend’s family. I scoured the internet for recipes and found that they all are all pretty similar with technique.

My excitement grew when I found a Gluten Free Betty Crocker cake mix at Save-On Foods. Since I was strapped for time (school, work, long weekend plans, etc.) I decided to go the “cake mix and ready made frosting route” (something I wouldn’t normally do). One note to make is that cake pops take a lot of patience – there are multiple steps and it’s good to have time for things to set before you move on to the next step. I started making them on Thursday for dinner on Saturday.

I got the cake mix and frosting from Save-On. I got Wintson’s candy melts (for coating, 2 bags), lollipop sticks (package of 30), two 4 inch x 12 inch styrofoam blocks (for standing them up in), and decorations from Michael’s.
Here’s an outline of what I did:

Ingredients:

• Gluten Free Betty Crocker Cake Mix
• Betty Crocker Whipped Milk Chocolate Icing
• Winston’s candy melts
• Sprinkles

Extra Supplies:

• Lolly pop sticks
• Styrofoam block
• Parchment paper

Directions:

• Bake the cake according to the box directions. Let cool on a baking rack. (I left it overnight)
• Crumble the cooled cake into a bowl, either with a fork or with an electric mixer. I found that using the mixer made crumbs fly everywhere so I did most of it with a fork. 
• Add icing (I used Betty Crocker Whipped Milk Chocolate icing) a little bit at a time until the cake crumbs reach the consistency of cookie dough. I used almost the whole container.
• Roll the cake into small balls (about 1 inch by 1 inch) and put them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. (I made an 8x11 cake and had enough for 24 balls plus a lot of sampling – I couldn’t help myself!)
• Melt some of the Winston’s candy melts and dip the end of the lollipop sticks in, up to about an inch. Roll the stick around to get rid of the excess candy melt and then put the stick gently into the center of the cake ball. I tried to get it so that it was about halfway through the ball – not too close to the other edge. 
• Put the pops cake-side down on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate the pops with the sticks until the candy melt on the stick is hardened. 
• After a few hours (I waited about 6 hours), take the pops out of the fridge. Melt the rest of your candy melts in a bowl or large coffee mug, 30 seconds at a time on the medium setting of your microwave. 
• Take the pops and dip them into the melted candy melts. Try not to rotate the stick too much because that can cause your pop to fall off the stick. If you can’t cover an area, spoon the melt over the pop. Once it’s been submerged then let the excess chocolate drip off, and stick upright in a styrofoam block.
• If you want to add decorations like sprinkles, sprinkle them over the cake pops (don’t try to dip the pops in the sprinkles – it creates a huge mess) while the candy melt is still soft so that they will stick. Other decorations such as fondant decorations or paints should be added later after the coating has hardened. 
• Chill until the surface is hard, and serve!

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