Description
These Rainbow Cake Pops feature moist, colorful cake centers coated in a smooth and vibrant candy melt shell, perfect for parties or festive occasions. Combining a simple white cake mix with vibrant gel food coloring and finished with a variety of colored melting wafers, these cake pops are a fun and eye-catching dessert that delight both kids and adults alike.
Ingredients
Scale
- 16.25 ounce box white cake mix (plus ingredients listed on the back of the box)
- 6–8 tablespoons vanilla frosting
- Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, & purple gel food coloring
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
- 1 cup white melting wafers
- 1 cup multi-colored melting wafers (blue, pink, orange, yellow & green; optional)
- 3 tablespoons Crisco shortening
- Sprinkles (for topping, optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven according to the white cake mix box instructions for cupcakes. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray to prevent sticking.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients required for the cake mix using an electric hand or stand mixer until fully blended.
- Separate batter evenly into six small-medium bowls (about 2/3 cup per bowl). Add a different gel food coloring to each bowl (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and stir with a fork until colors are fully blended and vibrant, adjusting amount of gel to reach desired shade.
- Pour each colored batter into two of the 12 muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full. Discard any leftover batter from each color as needed.
- Bake according to the time specified on the cake mix box. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick; it should come out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
- Once cooled, remove cupcakes from the pan. Use a bread knife to cut off any hardened edges and discard those pieces.
- Crumble the trimmed cupcakes into six separate bowls, one for each color.
- Add about 1 tablespoon of vanilla frosting to each bowl and mix by hand until the mixture is moist and dense but not crumbly. Add frosting gradually if needed.
- Roll the cake-frosting mixtures into small balls about ½ teaspoon in size for each color.
- Take one ball of each color and flatten gently without making them paper-thin. Stack six flattened balls in the order purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red to form layers. Press pieces firmly together first from top to bottom, then around the sides, and roll gently into a single ball roughly slightly smaller than a golf ball. Repeat until all mixture is used, making 18-20 layered rainbow balls.
- Arrange the cake balls on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight to firm up.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, heat white chocolate chips at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir and continue microwaving in 30-second intervals at 50% power, stirring after each, until smooth and silky.
- Remove cake balls from the refrigerator. Carefully insert a cake pop stick about two-thirds into the center of each ball. Then, remove the stick, dip its tip into the melted white chocolate covering ¼ to ½ inch, and reinsert into the same hole. This anchors the stick securely.
- Place the cake pops back in the refrigerator to chill for 30-60 minutes to set the chocolate anchor.
- One color at a time, melt the colored melting wafers in a microwave-safe tumbler or deep glass at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir, then add ½ tablespoon Crisco shortening and continue to heat in 30-second increments at 50% power, stirring between, until silky smooth and easily coats a fork. Add more Crisco in ½ tablespoon increments if the coating is too thick.
- Dip each cake pop individually into the melted coating, allowing excess to drip off and twirling the stick gently to create an even coat. Immediately place the dipped cake pop upside down into a cake pop stand and add sprinkles while the coating is still wet. Repeat for all cake pops.
- Refrigerate the finished cake pops for another 30 minutes until the coating is fully set before serving.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American