Pumpkin Cake Pops
These Pumpkin Cake Pops are the bite-sized taste of a fall afternoon at the farm! With real pumpkin, spice cake, cream cheese frosting, and a white candy coating, they're an easy, crowd-pleasing treat for Halloween parties, bake sales, or cozy autumn days.
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Pumpkin Cake Pops
- 🕰️ Prep Time: 45 minutes
- ⏰ Cook Time: 25 minutes
- 🍁 Flavor Profile: Spiced pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, wrapped in a sweet candy coating.
- 🥄 Good For: Halloween party snacks and fall parties. Kids and adults love cake pops!
- 🧡 Difficulty: Kiddos love to help make cake pops!
"Made these this weekend for my hubby to take to his office! Deeeeeelish!...I'm always appreciative when a recipe calls for box mix but doesn't look or taste like it came from a box. Total winner!"
- KIM -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
This Halloween, learn how to make festive pumpkin cake pops. Everyone will love this easy, bite-size cake dessert! Serve them up with a big bowl of this witches' brew recipe for kids, or double up on the pumpkin-white chocolate combo and serve them with a pumpkin spice hot chocolate.
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Kid-friendly: My kiddo loves to help make these cake pops! Mashing the cake with the frosting is so satisfying (it's like edible playtime!), and the lollipop sticks protect little hands from hot candy coating. They're almost more fun than decorating sugar cookies for Halloween!
- Homemade or from scratch: You can go full from-scratch baker or use a few ready-made shortcuts (hello, boxed cake mix and canned frosting!)...either way, they'll taste delicious and homemade.
- Party perfect: Cake pops travel well, look adorable, and disappear faster than you can say "pumpkin cake pop." We love a 2-3 bite treat that you can easily hold in one hand, with no mess! (For a savory version of a treat like this, check out our jalapeno popper mummies!)
🎃 The Ingredients You Need
- Spice cake mixture. If you've only ever hit up the cake mix aisle to grab chocolate or white cake for birthday cakes, you might not know that these little boxes of fall-flavored deliciousness are there. Grab it. Buy it. You will love it. If you can't find it or aren't a fan of boxed cake mix, you could make your own pumpkin spice cake recipe.
- Pumpkin puree. Instead of the oil or butter that the cake mix calls for, you're going to use pumpkin puree-it will keep the cake moist. Be sure to choose the pure pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie filling), since there will be plenty of sugar and pumpkin pie spice from the other ingredients, so you don't need the pie filling! Or, use your own homemade pumpkin puree.
- Vanilla candy coating. You may also see these sold as candy melts. We can usually find them in craft stores or in the baking aisle at the grocery store. You might be tempted to go with a chocolate coating instead, but I've found that the chocolate overpowers the pumpkin spice too much. Stick with the vanilla!
- Cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. With these three ingredients combined, you get a dreamy cream cheese frosting to help hold the cake pops together. But if you don't want to make your own frosting, as Ina Garten would say, "store-bought is fine."
- Lollipop sticks. If you want to make cake balls instead of cake pops, you can skip the sticks!
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Cake pops or cake balls: These little bites of pumpkin spice tastiness can be make into cake pops (on lollipop sticks) or cake balls. We'll show you how to do both methods!
- Color changing cake pops: Feel free to mix up the colors of the candy coating. Orange candy melts would be fun and festive, while green or purple will give a monster vibe (especially if you add some candy eyes!).
- Skip the chocolate drizzle: If you don't want the chocolate drizzle, then make sure you add the sprinkles before the candy coating dries!
- Cake pop graveyard: Cover a box with brown or black paper, decorated to look like dirt in a graveyard. Cut holes in the box to stand each cake pop up like little round gravestones.
- Fall bake sales: Your fall cake pops could be the hit of the bake sale! Package them in little cellophane bags tied with Halloween ribbon or orange twine for easy sales.
🥣 How to Make Pumpkin Cake Balls
Step 1: Grease and flour two cake pans. The flour is key to getting the cake to release from the pan-greasing alone is not enough! But if you accidentally forget to flour, no worries. You're going to be crumbling this cake up anyways!
Step 2: Beat the cake mix with the eggs and pumpkin puree, then pour into the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, no crumbs (or close to no crumbs). Let the cake cool all the way.
Step 3: Whip up the cream cheese frosting. It's important to add the powdered sugar a little at a time to avoid poofing yourself with a big cloud of sugar.
Step 4: Break up the cake and mix in the frosting. That's right, the frosting is getting mixed into the cake, not going on top. You'll get the best results if you drop the spatula and finish the mixing with clean hands.
Step 5: Get your hands damp, and roll the cake mixture into 1" balls. You may need to rinse your hands a few times if your hands start to get too sticky. Freeze all the cake balls on a baking sheet.
Step 6: Melt the candy coating over low heat, until smooth. Stir in the oil, a bit at a time, until it takes on the consistency of thin alfredo sauce. You have to use oil here-milk or water will make the coating clump up (ask me how I know...oops). Remove from the heat. Use a fork to dip a cake ball into the coating, allowing the excess to drip off over the pan, then move to wax paper to harden.
Step 7: Melt the chocolate and use a piping bag or a spoon to drizzle it over each cake ball. Top with sprinkles.
🥣 How to Make Pumpkin Cake Pops
Step 1: Cake pops start out the same as cake balls-make the cake, mix it with the frosting, and form it into balls that you then freeze. Just like before, melt the candy coating, thinning it out with oil-do not try to thin it out with water or milk, or these cake pops won't work.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the candy coating, then gently press the dipped end into a cake ball. Dip the cake pop into the candy coating, spooning more over the top if needed.
Step 2: Dry the cake pops upright. There are a few ways to do this: in a piece of foam, in a cardboard box with holes poked through it, or even stuck into an upside-down colander if the holes are big enough! Drizzle with melted chocolate and top with sprinkles.
🙋🏻♀️ Pumpkin Cake Pops FAQs
Two tips are essential for beautiful cake pops: 1. Letting the cake cool all the way before mixing it with the frosting, and then freezing the cake balls before dipping them in the coating. 2. Dip the end of the lollipop stick into the candy coating before pressing it into a cake ball. This will help keep the cake pop secure on its stick!
I'll be honest-I don't have the patience to wait for the fridge. Instead, freeze the cake pops for 20-30 minutes before dipping them in the candy coating.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- Keep it chill: Frozen cake balls are way easier to work with. If you try to move on to dipping them in the candy melts before freezing the cake, you'll just end up with gloppy piles of cake crumbs. That's not great eats! When frozen, the cake balls stay together and hold their shape during the dipping stage.
- Stick with vanilla or white chocolate: I really like the way these cake balls look with a little dark chocolate drizzled on top and some fall-colored sprinkles, but, take it from me, don't be tempted to swap out the candy coating for chocolate. I've done them with chocolate before, and they're still delicious, but the chocolate flavor way overpowers the pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese frosting. Stick with the vanilla or white chocolate coating.
- Double dipping: For a more even coating, dip the cake pops in the candy melts twice, allowing the coating to harden in between.
- Cool the cake: Make sure the cake is cooled all the way down before you mix it with the frosting if you don't want a gloppy, sticky mess on your hands!
- Add it to a cheeseboard: These cake pops are always a hit when added to my Halloween charcuterie board.
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📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Cake Pops
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 1 15- ounce can pumpkin puree or about 2 cups
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ stick butter softened
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pound vanilla candy coating
- 1-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 ounce semisweet chocolate
- Sprinkles
- Lollipop sticks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour two cake pans, and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cake mix, eggs, and pumpkin puree on medium-low speed until just combined. Then turn the speed up to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely.
- To make the frosting, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer. Add in the powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, until smooth.
- To make cake balls, break up the cake into a large bowl, add in the frosting, and using clean hands, smoosh it together until well-mixed. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1" balls and place them onto a baking sheet. Repeat with all the cake mixture, and then place the baking sheet in the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
- While the cake balls are chilling, melt the candy coating in a saucepan over low heat, until smooth. Add in the vegetable oil, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is the thickness of a thin alfredo sauce. Do not try to thin out the coating with milk or water (it'll just make it clumpy). Turn off the burner.
- Remove the cake balls from the freezer. Dip one end of a lollipop stick in the candy melts and gently press it into a cake ball. Gently dip the cake pop into the candy coating, and spoon more over top to coat. Place it on wax paper to harden. Repeat with remaining cake balls-you should have just enough candy coating to do all the pops.
- For decoration: melt the semisweet chocolate in the microwave. Then, using a spoon, drizzle it on the cake pops and top with sprinkles.
Notes
- For the best results, dry the cake pops upright. You can do this by sticking the ends of the lollipop sticks in a thick piece of foam, in a cardboard box with holes poked out, or in an upside down colander (if the holes are big enough).
- Store-bought cream cheese frosting will work if you don't feel like making your own.
- Run the cake pops or balls through the candy coating twice for the most even coating layer. You'll want to allow them to dry in between coats.
The only thing my kids love more at Halloween than decorating sugar cookies is making these cake pops! They're a perfect parent-kid joint activity...I deal with the oven and the stove, and they get to do the mixing and dipping and decorating.
how much cream cheese frosting if using store bought?
Hi Didi! We haven't made these with store-bought frosting, so we're not sure exactly how much you'd need. But our frosting ingredients in this recipe equal about 12 ounces, so that would be my best guess for how much you're looking for. I think most tubs of frosting are 16 ounces, so you'll need a little less than a full tub. You want the mixture to be moist and hold together when you roll it!
For others looking to make this but cannot find a box of spice cake, it's pretty easy to make from scratch: 1.25 cup of flour (I used pastry flour bc it's all I had aside from GF flour and I didn't want to risk these beauties crumbling everywhere!), 3/4 cup of sugar (I used turbinado but I think it would work with any kind), 2 tablespoons of corn starch, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (you can also prob just make it with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves) and an additional 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ginger.
Then I just followed the exact steps here and it turned out great!
Do we still add the one cup of water that it instructs on the cake mix box ?
Hi Cassandra! Nope! You won't be following any of the instructions on the box. The only things you'll add to the mix are the eggs and pumpkin puree called for in the post before mixing really well and baking. Let us know how they turn out for you!
Where do you store these cake pops? In the refrigerator, Airtight canister, countertop cookie jar?
They are delish BTW
I'd store them in the fridge in an airtight container. Glad you like them!
When is the vanilla extract used? I don’t see this in the directions.
It should be added when you are creaming the frosting ingredients together. I've updated the recipe card with this correction as well—thanks for the catch!
Has anyone made these to some point days in advance and frozen them? I'd like to make it ahead of time if possible
Made these this weekend for my hubby to take to his office! Deeeeeelish! As a new-ish mom myself to a little one just a few months younger than yours, I'm always appreciative when a recipe calls for box mix but doesn't look or taste like it came from a box. Total winner! Thanks again!
Absolutely wonderful recipe. Tasted great, directions were easy and clear. My batch made about 4 dozen, I wanted small enough to put in mini muffin cups, to give out as gift. Down side is their too good, my kids were grabbing them as soon as they hit the wax paper....
In your comments you say my to use chocolate because it's overpowering, is that for all chocolate? I was thinking of maybe trying white chocolate (though milk chocolate is my love affair) but wanted to get an opinion from someone who's made and tried these first.
Can I freeze or refrigerate them after making?
Yup, both!
they look amazing! I on the other hand love my cake pop maker but try to use the recipes and change them to be able to make this way too. Have you ever done this? If so how do you change the box recipe to fit? Anyone?
Nope, never used one! 🙂
Exactly how much is 1/2 a stick of butter? Are you talking 1/2 a pound? They don't sell sticks of butter in my neck of the woods.
1/2 a stick of butter is 1/4 cup or 1/8 of a pound.
Thanks! I can't wait to make these for thanksgiving in a few weeks.
um, yum!! these look amazing.
So making these tonight. 😀 Thanks, Cass!
These look SOOOO good, I think I will bring them in for my office next week.
Good for you! We all need to cave a little and just enjoy life. I told my doctor today that if cupcakes were making me overweight then so be it. Who wants to be super skinny and deprive themselves of cupcakes? Not this girl!
These are adorable & sound so sweet & delicious! Probably a great Halloween party food!
Mmm... those look amazeballs! (*giggle*) I envy your boxed cake mix because I'd have to bake these and give them all away and, well, where is the fun in that! LOL Hmm... I may need to look for an easy-from-scratch alternative...
My favorite fall dessert is anything apple! Apple pie, apple cobbler, caramel apples, you name it! I have an easy recipe for an apple cake that will likely get made this weekend. 🙂
Amazing. Can't wait to try these! As an October baby myself, I LOVE SPICE CAKE! 🙂