Are you looking for Valentine’s day recipes or dessert ideas to give to your special someone? Spend valentine’s day making something sweet and delicious to share with loved ones, and better yet, make this easy recipe with each other! Plus, Valentine’s day does not have to be reserved for couples, get your little ones involved too!
Easy No Bake Recipe For Valentine’s Day
When it comes to easy Valentine’s day recipes, one of the first things that come to mind are cake pops. This is a bonus if you were searching for kid friendly recipes as well since it is no bake and easy to make. Cake pops are fun, you can let your creativity run wild, and you can even use up that leftover cake in your fridge from that one birthday party.
Holidays are a busy time for everyone and when you have a kid in the house, you’ll want to find anything that is a time-saver. This is why I’m sharing this easy cake pop recipe made from leftover cake. However, feel free to use any store-bought cake or whip up one with store-bought cake mix! You can always bake a cake from scratch as well. I have even seen some easy cake pop recipes out there that just dip in pound cake cubes on a stick.
Cake Pops – A Kid-Friendly Recipe
Get your kids involved in making this easy cake pop recipe. Even if you have young toddlers, they can help out with crumbling the cake and shaping them into cake balls with their hands.
An added bonus is all the ingredients used in this recipe are safe to eat! There are no raw ingredients or baking involved, meaning if your child starts getting messy and licking their fingers, everything is all good.
Tip: if you have a younger child or you’re concerned about the safety of using a stick for your cake pops, you can make them into cake balls or truffles instead!
A Healthy Cake Pop Recipe
There are many recipes on how to make cake pops with leftover cake, but if you are looking for a recipe that is slightly healthier for you, you are in the right place. Ingredients involved in a cake pop recipe do not typically provide a whole lot of nutrients, and can be high in fat and sugar.
Cake pops usually use frosting or cream cheese to bind the cake together, which is absolutely delicious, but can be replaced with a healthier alternative with less sugar since the cake is already sweet. This cake pop recipe uses greek yogurt as the binder, which works exceptionally well. You may taste a slight tang that mimics the flavor of a creamy cheesecake.
To boost the nutrition profile of this cake pop recipe, add a tablespoon of flax seeds or hemp seeds (or both) into the cake crumbs for extra texture and a tiny dose of omega-3. As long as there is chocolate, your kids will probably not notice there are seeds in the cake pop!
Tips:
- you may need to add a little more greek yogurt to bind the mixture together if you add additional seeds to the mixture.
- All cakes have different moisture levels. The more moist the cake is, the less greek yogurt you need, so make sure to add a little at a time until the mixture can hold its shape but still slightly crumbly!
As for the chocolate coating for the cake pops, you can also look for lower sugar options, such as dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, or those that indicate it has reduced sugar on the label. In this recipe, you can see that the pictured cake pop is not fully dipped. You can also dip it halfway so there is less sugar per cake pop.
For more ideas on how to reduce sugar in your diet and cooking, check out this post: 12 Ideas On How To Reduce Sugar Intake For You And Your Child.
Customize your cake pops with different flavors, colors, and designs
This easy cake pop recipe is going to be a hit whether it’s for the family or your valentine, especially because there are so many ways to customize it. You can use different types of cake such as chocolate, banana or lemon cake. You can use different types of chocolate for the coating. You can even add some food coloring into your white chocolate coating for a fun pop of color. And lastly, you can get creative with the toppings, with some crushed nuts, coconut flakes, or heart shaped sprinkles.
How To Make Cake Pops
Valentine’s Day Cake Pop Recipe
Equipment
- 4 Cake pop sticks or chopsticks
- Wax or parchment paper
- Microwaveable bowl
- Microwave
- Freezer
- Styrofoam block optional
Ingredients
- 100 g ready-made cake (about two 1-inch slices of a loaf cake)
- 2 tbsp greek yogurt (amount depends on moistness of the cake, may need more yogurt if the cake is drier)
- 1/2 cup good quality chocolate, chopped (look for melting chocolate or candy melts, do not use chocolate chips)
- Toppings of your choice: sprinkles, chopped nuts, coconut flakes
- 1 tbsp flax or hemp seeds optional
Instructions
- Add your leftover cake into a bowl and crumble with a fork or hands until it resembles the texture of soft sand. Get your child to crumble the cake with their hands! Add flax seeds or hemp seeds here if desired.
- Add 1 tablespoon of greek yogurt, mix and observe if the cake can hold a ball shape. Keep adding greek yogurt 1 tablespoon at a time until the cake is moist and can hold its shape and still slightly crumbly.
- Use hands to incorporate cake crumbs into the greek yogurt.
- Divide the mixture into 4 and use hands to roll them to make 4 balls total. Get your child to help here too!
- Gather half of the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and set the other half aside for later.
- Microwave the first half of the chocolate in the microwave in 15-second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate is smooth and fluid.
- Dip the stick into the melted chocolate and insert the stick into cake balls about halfway through. This will help the cake ball stay secured on the stick. Omit this step if you want to make cake balls or truffles without the stick.
- Let the cake pops set in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- In the same microwave-safe bowl used for melting chocolate, melt the rest of the chocolate in the microwave.
- Remove cake pops from the freezer and slowly dip cake balls into chocolate until the desired level of coating.
- Decorate with toppings.
- To set the cake pops: if you have a styrofoam block, stick the cake pop sticks through the styrofoam and let them stand upright. If you do not have a styrofoam block, you can place the finished cake pop on a sheet of wax or parchment paper, with the stick pointing towards the ceiling. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes and enjoy!
Let me know what you thought about this easy cake pop recipe! Did you try making it with your kids?
I love that you found an alternative to frosting. That super-sweet taste is why I don’t enjoy cake pops. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Hi Carolyn, thanks for your comment! I hope you enjoy cake pops now with this recipe!
These look great! I love the idea of using Greek yogurt instead of frosting, and adding the hemp or flax too! If you or your kiddos don’t like the seeds, I’ve used ground flax in recipes often, and it’s completely hidden. You can buy ground flax meal, or grind it yourself in a blender or coffee grinder.
Hi Melissa, thank you so much for your suggestion! Ground flax meal is a great idea!
I love that these are a “healthier” version of cake pops. I always forget about cake pops to be honest but my girls love them so much. I need to try them this way. So good!
Hi Rachael, I’m glad you want to try them this way! Hopefully your girls will love the healthier version too!
My son came across this post of yours and requested I try out these pops for him. I was scared if I could really make it or o but then I followed all your steps and it turned out to be great thank you so much.