Chocolate Covered Brownie Cake Pops
Andrea Potischman
Jul 3, 2018
July 4th is a beloved American holiday. For some, that means watching fireworks; for others simply hanging out with family and friends in the backyard or by the pool. No matter what you do, you’re looking for fun, simple foods that work well with groups. A patriotic nod is a bonus. With that in mind, I decided a chocolate-covered brownie cake pop with red, white, and blue sprinkles would hit the nail on the head. They are easy to make ahead for large groups; no plates are required; and they are guaranteed to please kids and adults alike.
My whole family loves a great brownie. My husband and I love my grown-up brownies with cayenne; our boys love my vegan brownies and also love my pumpkin-cheesecake brownies. As a brownie lover, I support keeping multiple recipes in your baking arsenal.
Cake pops are themselves a thing. I resisted the trend, but my little one loved them and could not go into Starbucks without begging for one. I don’t like the store-made cake pops at all. But I came around to the fun aspect of eating a reasonably sized, tasty little cake (or brownie) on a stick. Stick food of all varieties has always been popular in American culture. From corn dogs to candy apples, Americans love easy-to-eat treats. In some places, you can even find a fried stick of butter, but I have my limits. This brownie recipe is a more cake-like one that works well for making brownie cake pops.
You can use any brownie recipe you love, just avoid an overly fudgy one. For this recipe, I use a cake pop press which can be found at many local cookware stores, grocery stores, and online stores such as Amazon. It is slightly trickier to make these without a cake pop press/mold, but you can make these simply using your hands. So if you are hosting or are headed to a July 4th celebration with friends and family and looking for a fun, relatively easy-to-make dessert, I got you. Happy 4th!
Chocolate Covered Brownie Cake Pops
Ingredients:
For the Brownies:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cups good quality Dutch-processed cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Dash of salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
For the Chocolate Coating:
- 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- Cake pop sticks
- Sprinkles of your choice
Directions:
- For the Brownies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan and set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl add the melted butter and sugar and whisk till smooth. Sift in the cocoa, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Mix well. Add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl down as you go. Sift in the flour and mix well to incorporate. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow the brownies to cool completely before continuing.
- Molding the Cake Pops: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Once the brownies have cooled, use your hands to crumble the brownies (this can also be done in a kitchen mixer such as a Cuisinart using the pulse setting).
- Using your hands take a good amount of brownie crumble and gently form it into a ball shape slightly larger than the cake pop mold cavity. Close the cake mold and press firmly down to compress. Add more crumbled brownies if needed to make nice uniform shapes.
- Remove the brownie cake pops from the mold and set on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining brownie mixture. Refrigerate the brownie cake pop tops for about 1 hour to set.
- Coating the Brownie Cake Pops: Melt the chocolate in the microwave until smooth. Dip the tip of the cake pop sticks into the melted chocolate and gently insert into each molded brownie cake pop top, being careful not to poke the stick through the top. Set the cake pops back on the baking sheet as you go.
- Set a couple of lowball glasses near your workstation for help with drying the brownie cake pops after coating them in chocolate. Working one at a time, dip each brownie cake pop into the melted chocolate and use a small offset spatula to help fully coat each pop. (Because you are using sprinkles to decorate them they do not need to look perfect). Once coated in chocolate, cover with sprinkles, as much as desired. Place the sprinkle-coated cake pops carefully in a lowball glass to dry. Repeat with the raining brownie cake pops.
- Allow the pops to dry completely before serving.
These look so cute! My kids will love these!
Thanks for writing, I hope your kids like this 🙂