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These red velvet Valentine’s Day Cake Pops are sure to be love at first sight. Combining chocolate-y red velvet cake with a festive red frosting and decorated to your heart’s content. These are sure to impress, but couldn’t be easier!
Need more Valentine’s Day treat ideas? Be sure to try my Valentine’s Day Brownies, Valentine’s Day Cookies or Valentine Sugar Cookies.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Celebrate the ones you love with these Valentine Cake Pops for your Valentine’s Day! These cake balls have an outer layer of hardened sweet chocolate coating with moist red velvet cake and chocolate frosting on the inside. I make this as simple as possible by using a red velvet boxed cake mix and my homemade chocolate frosting recipe. You can even take more help from the store and use a can of premade frosting if you’d like. Get your kids involved for a fun activity and decorate with different sprinkles, jimmies or sanding sugar! These cutie little cake pops take food on a stick to the next level!
Ingredients Needed For Cake Pops
for the cake
- Red Velvet Cake Mix– I used a Red Velvet Betty Crocker boxed cake mix. If you want to make a homemade cake, use my Red Velvet Cake recipe.
- large eggs– (room temperature) see the directions on your cake mix for quantity.
- frosting– I like to use my chocolate frosting recipe for these. Feel free to use Cream Cheese Frosting or another flavor you love, store-bought or homemade.
- pantry staples– vegetable oil, water
for the decorations
- melting wafers/candy melts– for dipping chocolate. I used red chocolate melting wafers. Mix it up and use pink, red and white chocolate wafers! Melted almond bark will also work here.
- festive sprinkles– I used these Valentine’s Day sprinkles and jimmies, feel free to use what you have or can find.
equipment
- cake pop sticks– these 6″ lollipop sticks are needed to insert into each cake ball.
- cake pop holder– optional, but super helpful while your cake pops are drying.
How to Make Red Velvet Valentine’s Cake Pops
Not only are these scrumptious (and slightly addicting) but they’re so pretty and so easy to make. For full recipe details, including ingredient measurements, see the printable recipe card down below. Here are my step-by-step directions to making these fun cake pop’s for Valentine’s Day:
Preheat Oven + Prep Pan
Preheat oven to 350° F (or whatever your cake mix requires). You’ll need a cookie sheet to place all the cake balls on and transfer to the freezer. Line the baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper. Set aside.
Make + Bake Red Velvet Cake
In a large bowl, mix cake mix and other ingredients indicated on the box together. Then bake cake according to package directions. Allow to cool completely. Depending on which brand of cake mix you use, you may need to change the measurements for eggs, oil, and water listed in the recipe card.
Make the Frosting (if using homemade)
While the cake is baking, make the frosting, if you’re making it from scratch. I used my chocolate frosting recipe, but feel free to use another frosting recipe or even store-bought is fine- no judgement here!
Remove Cooled Cake From Pan
Remove cooled cake from the pan and using a large sharp knife, remove the hardened outer layer of cake and discard.
Pro Tip: I like to remove the dark outer hardened layer of the cake. Discard or save for snacking. This is an optional step but I think it makes for a better ball-rolling experience if the hard outer edges are removed.
Combine Cake + Frosting
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), crumble cake. Mix in the 1 cup of frosting. At this point you can add in some sprinkles if desired. The mixture should be moist and stick together easily. If the dough is too dry, add in more frosting a tablespoon at a time.
Form Cake Balls With Cookie Scoop
Using a cookie scoop, scoop cake balls onto the baking sheet.
Roll each ball in the palm of your hands. If the dough sticks to your hands, you’ll need to wash them occasionally.
Cover + Freeze
Cover with plastic wrap and freeze cake balls for about 30 minutes. Remove from freezer and give each ball a second roll with the palm of your hands. This will ensure an evenly round ball. Recover and place back into freezer for 1 hour.
Melt Chocolate Wafers
Right before you’re ready to pull out your cake pops from the freezer, melt candy melts. Microwave in a microwave-safe bowl or cup (preferably a tall one that you can easily dip the cake pop in). Start out with 30 seconds, stir, and then melt at 20-second increments until melted. Be careful not to overcook the chocolate or it’ll seize up!
Pro Tip: If the chocolate is too thick, you can add a tiny amount of coconut oil to thin it out, just be careful not to add too much because the chocolate won’t set! You can also use Crisco shortening.
Pro Tip: Work in small batches! Pour ⅓ of the bag of chocolate in the bowl and then once it’s used up, melt another ⅓ of the bag, and so on.
Insert Cake Pop Sticks into Cake Balls
Remove cake pops from the freezer. Dip the tip of a cake pop stick into the melted chocolate and slide it about two thirds the way through a cake pop ball. The chocolate will act as a glue for the stick. Do this with all 40 cake pop sticks, placing each one back on baking sheet as you go.
Pro Tip: If this step was giving you a hard time, you may consider re-freezing your cake pops for 15 minutes or so and re-melting the chocolate. This is a general rule throughout this entire process.
Time to Dip Cake Pops!
Now you’re ready to dip! Holding the cake pop by the bottom of the stick, place upside down and dip cake balls into the cup of melted chocolate, turning a bit to get every piece of the cake ball covered.
Let as much chocolate drip off as possible, gently tapping on the side of the cup to remove excess.
Decorate!
Moving quickly, decorate the top of the cake pops with sprinkles and/or jimmies before the chocolate sets. Place into a cake pop holder – cake pop up (a styrofoam block, a dish with rice to hold cake pops in place, or a box with holes, etc.). Allow to set completely (about 1 hour), serve and enjoy!
Storing Valentine’s Cake Pops
If you have leftover cake pops, store in an airtight container in the fridge to keep them fresh and from drying out.
Make Ahead: These can be made 2-3 days in advance. Keep your valentine’s cake pops in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
To Freeze: If you want to store and use them later, after they have dried, place in a freezer safe, airtight container or bag for up to 1-2 months! Allow to thaw in the fridge overnight.
Tips For Success With Making Cake Pops
Use a Small Cookie Scoop: to help you shape uniform cake truffles, use a small cookie scoop then roll with your hands. Or even a round tablespoon would work.
Use the correct amount of frosting: Using too much frosting can cause the cake balls to have too much moisture and become greasy and soggy.
Melting Chocolate: you don’t need to use the double boiler method to melt your chocolate wafers. Instead, just pop the wafers in the microwave and melt in 30-second intervals. If you notice the chocolate is a little thick, add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to help thin it out.
Dipping: use a deeper cup, about the size of a tall drinking glass for dipping. If you use a shallow dish, make sure you have a spoon handy to scoop up the melted chocolate and pour it over to coat evenly.
Use a cake pop stand: whether you buy one or make one at home, it’ll really help keep them upright so they can dry. You can make one by poking holes in a box, using a styrofoam block or put rice in a glass or smaller mason jar.
More Red Velvet Treats to Try!
- Red Velvet Cookies
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Homemade Red Velvet Oreos
- Red Velvet Nanaimo Bars
- Mini Red Velvet Cheesecakes
- Homemade Red Velvet Cake
More Cake Pop Recipes to Make!
This red velvet cake balls recipe is an easy Valentine’s Day dessert to surprise your loved ones with this year, plus they are so much fun to make! The printable recipe card is below. Enjoy, friends!
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Valentine’s Day Cake Pops
Ingredients
for the cake
- 15.25 oz Red Velvet Cake Mix*
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup chocolate frosting or frosting of choice, store-bought or homemade
for the decorations
Equipment
- cake pop holder optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F (or whatever your cake mix requires).
- Mix and bake cake mix according to package directions. Depending on which brand of cake mix you use, you may need to change the measurements for eggs, oil, and water listed.
- While the cake is baking, make the frosting (if using homemade). Allow baked cake to cool completely.
- Remove cooled cake from the pans and using a large sharp knife, remove the dark outer hardened layer of the cake. Discard or save for snacking. This is an optional step but I think it makes for a better ball-rolling experience if the hard outer edges are removed.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), crumble cooled cake. Mix in frosting. At this point you can add in some sprinkles if desired. The mixture should be moist and stick together easily. If the dough is too dry, add in more frosting a tablespoon at a time.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper and using a cookie scoop, scoop cake balls onto the baking sheet. Roll each ball with your hands. If the dough sticks to your hands, you’ll need to wash them occasionally.
- Cover with plastic wrap and freeze cake balls for about 30 minutes. Remove from freezer and give each ball a second roll with the palm of your hands. This will ensure an evenly round ball. Cover and place back into freezer for 1 hour.
- Right before you're ready to pull out your cake pops, melt chocolate wafers. Microwave in a microwave-safe bowl or cup (preferably a tall one that you can easily dip the cake pop in). Start out with 30 seconds, stir, and then melt at 20-second increments until melted. Be careful not to overcook the chocolate or it’ll seize up!**
- If the chocolate is too thick, you can add a tiny amount of coconut oil to thin it out, just be careful not to add too much because the chocolate won’t set! You can also use Crisco shortening.
- Remove cake pops from the freezer. Dip the tip of a cake pop stick into the melted chocolate and slide about two thirds the way through a cake pop ball. The chocolate will act as a glue for the stick. Do this with all 40 cake pop sticks, placing each one back on baking sheet as you go.
- If this step took you a long time to do, you may consider re-freezing your cake pops for 15 minutes or so and re-melting the chocolate. This is a general rule throughout this entire process.
- Now you're ready to dip! Holding the cake pop by the bottom of the stick, place upside down into the cup of melted chocolate, turning a bit to get every piece of the cake ball covered.
- Let as much chocolate drip off as possible, gently tapping on the side of the cup to remove excess.
- Moving quickly, decorate with sprinkles and/or jimmies before the chocolate sets.
- Place into a cake pop holder – cake pop up (a styrofoam block, a dish with rice to hold cake pops in place, or a box with holes, etc.).
- Allow to set completely, serve and enjoy!
