Leftover Carrot Cake Pops

This Carrot Cake Pops recipe is designed to use up the leftovers from my Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

To frost that cake, you need to lop off the rounded tops of both those cakes. It would be a real shame to let that extra cake and frosting go to waste, so I designed these Leftover Carrot Cake Pops to make the most of the leftovers. And I really didn't expect to fall in love with them as much as I did!

Cake pops became super popular a few years ago and I never really got in on the trend. But when I found myself with these cake and frosting leftovers, it seemed like a sign. Then I wasn't even going to publish this recipe, but you asked for it! And ya know what, I think this is really useful to answer the question:

What should I do with all this leftover cake?

1. Eat it, of course.
2. Turn it into cake pops!

The real trick to cake pops is in the ratio of cake crumbles to frosting. The golden ratio that I've found is about 1 1/2 times as much cake crumbles as frosting. Of course, if your cake is super moist, then you'll need less frosting.

So whether you had to lop off the tops of the cake layers to make a flat styled layered cake and only have a cup or two of cake crumbles, you'll need about a 1/2 cup to a cup of frosting to turn it into cake pops. And if you make a whole cake but only eat a few pieces, then want to turn the rest into cake pops, crumble it all up and add some canned frosting until you reach that moist, scoopable consistency!

That said, you're welcome to make the carrot cake recipe and use all of it to make cake pops. The ratio remains the same. You need about 1 1/2 times as much cake as you do frosting. You'll certainly need more white chocolate or white candy melts though.

Before starting, make sure that you prep yourself a cake pop holder. Grab a cardboard box and poke holes in the bottom of it, just big enough for the lollipop sticks to stick through. I used a pair of scissors to pop the holes and tested them with the lollipop sticks to make sure that they were big enough to fit, but not so big that they just slipped right through.

You'll want to prep these in advance, because the magic happens when the warm melted chocolate hits the frozen cold cake ball so that the chocolate hardens quickly. Make sure the cake balls are cold enough before starting to dip, otherwise you'll have a runny mess!

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Leftover Carrot Cake Pops

Prep Time 15 minutes

Resting Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 16

Ingredients

• Leftover Easy Carrot Cake about 1 1/2 cups
• Leftover Cream Cheese Frosting about 1 cup
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips or white candy melts
• orange sugar sprinkles
• 16 lollipop sticks

Instructions

• In a large bowl, crumble up the leftover carrot cake into small crumbs. Mix in the leftover cream cheese frosting. 
  
  
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop and roll into 1-inch balls and place in the freezer for at least an hour. Remove from the freezer and re-roll into smooth balls and place back in the freezer to harden for a few minutes.
  
  
• Create a place to let the cake pops rest by poking small holes, big enough to hold the lollipop sticks, into a cardboard box. Melt 1/2 the chocolate in a 1 cup glass measuring cup in the microwave in 15-30 second increments until melted and smooth, stirring in between each increment. It should take about 1 1/2 minutes.
  
  
• Removing one ball from the freezer at a time, dip a lollipop stick a 1/2 inch into the melted chocolate then stick into the center of a cake ball about halfway. Do not push all the way through. Then carefully dip the entire ball into the chocolate and slowly pull it out, letting the excess white chocolate drip off. Let it hang out upside down for a moment to let the chocolate harden a bit, then put into the cardboard box holder and sprinkle with orange sprinkles while still wet. Repeat with all cake balls, melting more chocolate as needed.
  
  
• Let harden for at least an hour, then store in the fridge for up to 5 days.