Have leftover cake or cupcakes from the holidays or some just chilling in the freezer? These cakesicles are an easy way to use it up and make fun New Years treats!
Not New Years anymore? No problem – change up the colours (or don’t) and customize them to any occasion or season!
I originally posted cakesicles here on the blog last spring and they are by far the most popular item on the blog and on Pinterest with tens of thousands of views and repins ! When I posted them the first time, I posted one of two ways to make them which is to line the molds with the melted chocolate or candy melt, then add the cake. However I have been wanting to share another way that I see posted often, which is to dip them in the melted chocolate. It’s a little bit easier if you have the right consistency of melted chocolate and definitely cuts down on the time!
Cakesicles sound good to you? Let’s get baking!
What are cakesicles?
Literally like a bigger cake pop! They are basically the same idea – crumbled up cake (or cupcakes), mixed with a little bit of icing to keep it all together, covered in melted chocolate or candy melts. Sounds delicious? I agree!
What I love most about these it that you have endless flavour options that you can make. You can always do classic chocolate or vanilla but you can also change it up with your favourite cake flavours and add a little extra flavour into the mix as well!
Not a baker? Don’t worry – you can totally used store bought cake mix or even cake to make these!
Over the summer I took extra chocolate raspberry cupcakes and used the chocolate cupcake, chocolate icing and a small bit of the raspberry flavour to make delicious chocolate raspberry cakesicles! For the ones featured today I used leftover white chocolate espresso cupcakes.
Not a baker? Don’t worry – you can totally use a box cake mix or even leftover store bought cake! If you need a cake recipe though you can use my funfetti sheet cake recipe as well !
Like I said above there seem to be two main ways of making cakesicles. The first way which I have previously posted on the blog, you can find it here.
The second way is a little different, let’s breakdown the steps:
Crumble
Mix
Mold
Freeze
Melt
Dip
Chill
Decorate
Eat & enjoy!
Let’s make them together !
step 1: crumble
Crumble cake, then add 1 tbsp of desired icing flavour.
step 2: mix
Mix until cake crumble sticks together. It’s best to start with less icing and add more if needed, if it get’s too “wet” then you will need to add more cake which can be difficult if you are working with leftovers and don’t have any left.
step 3: mold
Grab your cakesicle mold, and fill each one with cake. The best practice here is to form a little cake snowball then press it down into the mold. If you fill the mold in sections then it is more likely to fall apart later on.
Once you have all your molds full, place in freezer for 30-60 mins (I left mine for 45 mins while I made dinner and that was plenty of time)
step 4 : melt your candy/chocolate
While the cake freezes you can prep your melted chocolate or candy melts, just be careful not to do it too early or it will cool down again before you are ready to use it.
Ally’s tips: Chocolate will burn and candy melts crumble when too hot so what I find works best is this:
- if you are melting less than 1.5 cups, microwave in 30 second increments
- If you are melting more than 1.5 cups, you can start with 1 minute the first time, then 30 seconds after that
how to avoid overheating
The biggest trick when melting anything is not to forget that the bowl/measuring cup you are using is also hot and will continue to heat ingredients after it has been removed from the microwave. Between each time you microwave your chocolate/candy melts,, make sure you stir it but for 15-30 seconds and you will see how more melts as you stir.
Once you have the chocolate or candy melts completely melted then I add 1/2 tsp (per 1.5 cups/ 1/4 tsp for every 3/4 cups) of vegetable oil to thin the candy melts. If you do not thin your melted candy/chocolate you will have a difficult time dipping as it will be too thick/heavy to dip.
Then, once you have thinned out your candy/chocolate, transfer to a glass or container that will allow you to dip your cakesicles into.
step 5 : remove from mold
Once your cakesicles are nice and cold (30-45 mins in the freezer) and you candy/chocolate is melted, thinned and still warm, it’s time to dip them! Make sure you prepare a parchment lined cookie sheet to place them on after you dip them to cool.
Carefully remove your cake from the molds. I find it easiest to apply pressure by pressing downwards on the stick and angling it up as you see below. Putting pressure on the cake can cause your cakesicles to break.
step 6 : dip
Dipping them is almost as simple as it seems more or less, dip them in the melted chocolate/candy and then as you drag the bottom along the edge of the glass so the excess on the bottom comes off clean and place on parchment paper. If you do not do this then when you place it on the parchment paper all the extra will spill out from the bottom and look like melting snowman – haha!
Once you have them all dipped on the pan, place in fridge for at least 20 mins before decorating.
step 7 : decorate
Finally to the fun part !
Possibilities are endless when it comes to ways to decorate cakesicles! There is so much inspiration on Instagram or Pinterest but I did mine for New Years just because of the timing when I made them.
What you can use to customize yours:
- White chocolate and food colouring to make a desired colour
- Various colours of candy melts
- sprinkles
- chocolate Chips/flavoured chips/mini chocolate chips
- m&m’s/other candies
Ally’s tips when decorating:
The trick with this part is that you need to work quickly.
Your cakesicles have been in the fridge while they harden so remember that they are already cold, so even when you drizzle melted candy or chocolate on top it will cool very quickly and things like sprinkles won’t actually stick.
I recommend having your sprinkles ready and close by so that you can quickly sprinkle on top. Worst case scenario you can always use your melted chocolate/candy like glue to put sprinkles/candies on one at a time but as you can imagine this could be very time consuming.
step 8 : Eat and enjoy!
Storage: Keep in fridge up to 10 days or freeze up to 3 months.
