You Can Make Starbucks-Style Cake Pops With A Store-Bought Shortcut

With the price of a single Starbucks cake pop averaging between $3 and $4, purchasing more than one pop can quickly become very expensive. Thankfully, there are a couple of easy, much more affordable ways of recreating the iconic cake pop at home with store-bought ingredients — and with the added bonus of being able to flavor and decorate the pops to your personal preferences. These shortcuts will save you a good chunk of change, and they will likely taste better than those from Starbucks as they will be freshly made.

For the first shortcut, all you need is a container of store-bought sugar cookies, 8 ounces of room-temperature cream cheese, wooden sticks, and either white chocolate or candy melts, as well as any food coloring or sprinkles you'd like to use. Instead of a wooden stick, you can also make your entire cake pop edible with pretzel sticks. Add the cream cheese and store-bought sugar cookies to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment until you have a homogenous paste, tossing in any flavorings or mix-ins you'd like at this time as well. Use a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to portion out the balls, then use your hands to roll them into uniform spheres and chill for at least a few hours on a baking tray, or overnight if you have the time.

Our second store-bought shortcut uses a boxed cake mix, but you'll still need to bake the cake. Once it's baked, while the cake is still hot from the oven, immediately add it to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and begin to mix up the cake chunks. The steam from the hot cake will aid in binding the mixture together without the need for added cream cheese, like in our first shortcut. If you like, you can add extra powdered sugar to this mixture to mimic the extra sweetness found in the Starbucks cake pop. From here, use the same process to portion out, roll, and chill the balls until completely firm. If you're in a rush, you can always keep your cake pops together by freezing them.

Once the balls are solid, melt your coating into a tall, narrow vessel like a mason jar, and add any food coloring. Dip about 1/2-inch of the skewer in the melted chocolate before skewering the wooden stick into the cake ball, as it acts like glue. You can use an egg carton for hassle-free cake pop prep, then chill in the refrigerator for at least thirty minutes. After, fully submerging one ball at a time into the melted chocolate, chill until the chocolate layer is completely set. Repeat this dipping process at least once more until you have a thick outer layer. After your final chocolate dip, decorate with any sprinkles you see fit before returning to the refrigerator for one final chill.