Graduation Cake Pops

A few weeks ago my sister’s boyfriend received his master’s degree in education (yayyy Joe!), and his family threw a party to celebrate. My sister (Kelly) wanted to make the perfect treats for the occasion, and found these great cake pops at bakerella. She called me in for backup, and with a little improvising we made these delicious graduation cake pops.  

What we used:

Red Velvet cake mix / Cream cheese frosting / Candy melts / Twizzlers

Candy molds / Mini M&Ms / Wax Paper / Lollipop sticks / Styrofoam

Fist things first… bake the cake. Then, crumble the cake and mix in the cream cheese frosting. Form small balls with the mixture and set them aside.  Also, slice the twizzlers into small pieces to be used as the tassels on the graduation cap later.

Next, melt the candy melts. We didn’t have square shaped candy molds for this next part, so we created our own squares by pouring the candy into a wax paper lined dish then put it in the fridge to harden.

Pour the melted candy into a candy cup mold making sure to only fill it halfway. Place a cake ball into the center of each cup and then pour more candy on top to fill up the remainder of the mold. 

Then, take a lollipop stick (we cut ours in half because they were too long) and stick it into the center of each cup.  Place the mold in the fridge for the candy to harden.

At this point, the candy that was put in the fridge earlier should be ready to cut into square shapes. So… do that. Then, using more melted candy, drip a dot of it on the top of each square (one at a time so it doesn’t harden) and stick an M&M on top. The melted candy acts like glue and holds it right in place. Use the same method to attach the twizzler tassels. 

Now it’s time to attach the bottom and top halves of the graduation caps. Pop the candy cups out of the candy mold and hold them upside down. Pour a little bit of melted candy on top, and then place the square piece of candy on top. Push it down firmly for a few seconds and then it should be hardened in place.

Earlier, Kelly had gone one step further and created a graduation cap using Styrofoam, paint, and a real tassel (see the pic at the top of the post). Once the pops were ready, we stuck them into the cap and kept them in the fridge until they were ready to serve. Joe now has two masters in his life... a master’s degree and a master chef girlfriend.

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