Let’s talk cake pops, and how to make cake pops with the Babycakes Cake Pop maker!
Tips For Using The Babycakes Cake Pop Maker
When I make cakepops, more often than not I make them using the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker. I received this as a gift, and honestly my first thought was “gimmick”.
Well it turns out, it’s a great little machine and extremely useful. I LOVE the taste of cake pops made this way, compared to the cake and frosting method, and you can add a filling if you like.
Kohls often has it on sale and if you can catch it with a sale and a coupon, you can usually get a great price.
Getting Round Cake Pops
The question I get the most about the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker is how I get my cake pops round, with many people telling me that theirs come out flat or and odd shape. My immediate question is if they used a regular cake mix or a recipe from Babycakes.
They almost always reply that they used a regular cake mix.
Cake Pop Maker Recipes
Given that a regular mix still requires adding ingredients, measuring and mixing, it only takes a few more quick steps to make them from scratch using one of the Babycakes recipes. Making a recipe from scratch with the cake pop maker is still quicker than the original method of baking a cake, and then chopping it up and mixing it with frosting and shaping the balls by hand.
EDITED TO ADD: As of 2017, it looks like the recipes are no longer available on the website unfortunately. Never fear, I have a chocolate cake pop recipe at the end of this post, and you can find the VANILLA CAKE POP MAKER RECIPE here.
Babycakes has their instruction manual, with recipes (previously available on their website). I absolutely LOVE the vanilla cake pop recipe that is in the manual, and it’s my go to recipe for cake pops, it reminds me of pound cake. I’ve found each one that I’ve tried to be delicious and they work great with the machine. I am very excited that they have a brand new cookbook of cake pop recipes with 175 cake pop recipes. I can not wait to try them.
Cake Pop Mix Vs From Scratch Recipe
My take is that if you are going to use the machine, use one of their recipes. 
They’ve been developed for and tested in the Babycakes machine. The included instruction manual includes some great recipes.
I’m not saying cake mixes won’t work, I just think that it makes sense that you will get the best results following a recipe that was made specifically for this purpose. The Babycakes recipes seem to produce a much thicker batter, which certainly makes it easier to fill the wells of the machine.
The batter is so thick that put my batter into a Ziploc freezer bag and “pipe” it into the wells. I tried this with a cake mix and it was not fun, the cake mix was just too runny. I also saw a suggestion to use a Pancake Pen for the batter. This sounds like an excellent idea that I might have to try.
As of 2019, it appears that Babycakes no longer sells cake pop mixes. I’ve seen this cake pop mix on Amazon, but can’t speak to the results it produces.
Using A Cake Mix To Make Cake Pops
If you want to use a store bought mix, I recommend cutting back on the amount of liquid in the recipe. This is something that is likely going to be different with each brand and flavor, meaning there is no blanket “cut back x amount”. I would also recommend adding a bit more baking powder to the mix, even if just half a teaspoon.
Another fun thing about making your cake pops with the Babycakes machine is that you can easily add/inject a filling into the cake pops! We’ve only used frosting (because we love frosting) but I’m sure you could put lots of other yummy fillings in.
Also, check out this fantastic video from Ahh’s Cakes where she uses the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and goes through every step – it’s about ten minutes long and very helpful. She appears to be using one of the Pancake Pens to dispense her batter.
The Babycakes Cakepop Maker might take a bit of practice (though I have to say my very first batch turned out quite nicely), but I really think it’s worth figuring it out, especially if you need to make large batches of cake pops. It also makes some delicious donut holes. There are other cake pop makers and pans, such as cake pop pans. I haven’t tried it, so can’t speak for how it works.
Make sure to check out this post for tips, advice, idea and resources for dipping and decorating your cake pops and thoughts on some common cake pop challenges such as getting the chocolate smooth, preventing the chocolate from cracking and getting the cake pops to stay on their sticks.
CHOCOLATE CAKE POP MAKER RECIPE
Babycakes Chocolate Cake Pops
Ingredients
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cocoa
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup freshly brewed hot coffee
- Glaze or coating of choice
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla. Using a mixer, blend until smooth.
- Add coffee and continue mixing until coffee is evenly incorporated into mixture.
- Fill each cooking reservoir with about 1 tablespoon of batter.
- Bake 4 to 5 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cake pop comes out clean.
- Allow to cool and glaze or coat, as desired.
- Makes about 3½ dozen cake pops
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Want a vanilla cake pop recipe for the
Babycakes cake pop maker? I’ve got one here!
Leanne says
I used a 3 egg Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe box mix and divided approximately into THIRDS. I used my kitchen scale for accuracy and then only used 1/2 of the oil and 1/2 of the milk…
1/3 cake mix
65ml milk
20 ml oil
1 egg
Turned out great. Frosted devils chocolate balls with premium Duncan Hines Creamy Homestyle mixed with white chocolate chips and nuked in 15sec intervals so as to only warm and NOT boil.
Fantastic 1st effort!!
Leanne says
Ps….made 40 cakepops
Leanne says
I used a 3egg box cake mix
Leeann says
Just a lil info i used a regular cake mix but used milk in place of the water left out the oil and added an egg to what the mix called for and it worked perfectly for my first time using my cakepop maker…
Hope says
I bought mine less than a month ago and have made close to 150 pops so far. I love this little machine!!! It has made my life SO much easier!
janine says
Hi there! I live in SA but we don’t have the cake pops machine, only the pans. I used regular cake mix, but I agree it doesn’t work that well. I would like to know how do you ice your cake pops. They are so soft and moist, it totally breaks when I tried to ice mine.
Lily says
i just got this cakepop machine! 😉 i want to know if banana bread would work with it?
Mayan Rowling says
Hiya,
I was wondering if any of you have a recipe for white choc mud cake that is suitable for the cake ball maker? If so can you please share it?
Thanks
Mayan
Christi says
Mayan, I’m sorry I don’t – I’ve never even tried one. Sounds yummy!
Jennifer says
I was wondering if anyone has made a savoy cake pop with the maker? I think it would be great to make a breakfast one with sausage, ham or bacon or an appetizer version. I am gonna experiment…
Marie says
Hi Christie,
Great post! Quick question, when you use the cake mix recipe posted above (with pudding mix), do you still also add the oil as per the box instructions, or is the only liquid the milk?
Thank you! I bought a smaller version cake pop machine (Nostalgia electrics) and can’t wait to try it!
Best,
Marie
Christi says
Hi Marie, thanks so much – glad it’s helpful. I pretty much always make my cake pops using the recipes from Babycakes. The vanilla one in their owner manual (link in the post) is so delish and so easy (truly only a minute or two more time than a box mix), and I like how predictable the results are. If I use the Babycakes Cake Pop Mix, I just follow the directions as written on the box. 🙂 Hope that helps.
melisss says
I was wondering… I used boxed Devil’s food cake mix. It was awesome and thick and made perfect rounds balls. But I do agree that the old way of adding frosting and molding the balls was more moist. So I have 2 questions. .. one; what if I add frosting to the uncooked mix and then bake in my cakepop machine. Would that cook and make balls more moist? And what about regular boxed cake mixes? I used a white cake mix and added maraschino cherry chucks. But the batter was to thin and didnt form nice big balls. Any advice on thicken box cake mixes?
Christi says
Melisss, I have pretty much stuck with the recipes from Babycakes. I believe somewhere on their site or cookbook (their Cakepop cookbook is incredible) they talk about modifying mixes a bit. I’m not sure about adding frosting in when baking. You could inject some into the baked cake ball prior to covering in chocolate. A frosting filled cake pop! 🙂