Pumpkin Cake Pops

Pumpkin cake pop recipe

The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 25 mins
Total recipe time: 2 hrs
Total: 2 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 48 servings
Yield: 48 cake pops

It's the sweetest pumpkin patch in town! These adorable cake pops are made from pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese frosting to match their fall squash shape, but can be adapted to feature any cake-frosting combination you like. Don't feel the need to make cake from scratch if you're in a time crunch—a store-bought sheet cakes works wonderfully.

Ingredients

  • 1 (9 x 13-inch) cake

  • 1 (16-ounce) can prepared frosting

  • 1 pound orange candy coating

  • 2 tablespoons chocolate chips

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients for pumpkin cake pops
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  2. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil or waxed paper.

    Prepare a baking sheet
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  3. Place the cake in a large bowl and crumble it roughly with your hands. Once it's in fine crumbs, add about 2/3 of the frosting and begin to mix it with your hands into the cake crumbs, working until the mixture is evenly moistened. You want the cake mixture to easily hold together when you press it into a ball, but still retain a little texture. If the cake mixture is too dry, add more frosting until you're happy with the taste and texture.

    Place the cake in a large bowl
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  4. Using a cookie scoop or teaspoon, form the mixture into small balls. Roll the balls between your palms, then press them down slightly so that they're squat balls, similar to a pumpkin shape. Once all of the pumpkins are formed, place them on the prepared baking sheet and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour.

    Form mixture into balls
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck 
  5. After the pumpkin cake pops have been frozen, take them out of the freezer. Melt the candy coating in the microwave and stir until completely smooth.

    Melt candy
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  6. Use a skewer to poke a hole in the top of a pumpkin, then dip the tip of a lollipop stick in the candy coating and press it into the hole. This will help anchor the stick into the cake pop.

    Use skewer
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  7. After all of the pumpkins have been skewered, dip a pumpkin fully into the candy coating until it's submerged. Take it out of the coating and gently tap the stick against the lip of the bowl so that excess coating drips off. Sit the pumpkin back on the baking sheet with the stick up in the air and let the coating set completely.

    Dip pumpkin in candy
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  8. Once all of the pumpkins are dipped and the coating has hardened, melt the chocolate chips and put it into a plastic bag. Snip a corner off the bag and use it to pipe on their eyes and mouths. An easier alternative is to use a food-safe marker to draw faces on the pumpkins.

    Pipe on faces
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
  9. Store pumpkin cake pops in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. For the best taste and texture, allow them to come to room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving.

    Store in container
    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
178 Calories
9g Fat
24g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 48
Amount per serving
Calories 178
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 9g 11%
Saturated Fat 3g 15%
Cholesterol 19mg 6%
Sodium 86mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 24g 9%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 21g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 34mg 3%
Iron 0mg 2%
Potassium 59mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)