Chocolate Covered Katie will be doing a “Hug A Vegan Dessert” post featuring all vegan dessert recipes submitted to her (click here for details!), and while I’m not vegan, I do enjoy vegan foods quite often, and I took this on as a challenge to create something fun and so delicious that anyone, regardless of dietary choices or restrictions, could enjoy.
Since I’ve had cake pops (and cake balls and cupcake bites) on the brain lately, I decided that’s what I would veganize. It needed to be done, don’t you think? Who says we need butter and eggs to make a delicious cake pop? This recipe proves you don’t! And you don’t even need any strange or fake ingredients to get your dairy and egg-free cake pops groove on. This recipe consists of common, every day ingredients, or those that you can easily find at any supermarket without looking in any special sections.
And.
They are delicious! In a side-by-side comparison I have to admit I do slightly prefer the taste of regular cake pops, but I donated most of this vegan batch to be served at a sister’s housewarming to non-vegan guests and they were none the wiser, all enjoying them thoroughly. These have more of a homemade taste and aren’t as sweet, but there was nary a complaint and I even overheard the children begging for seconds. I ate six of them myself, so that should give you an idea of how much I liked them since I pretty much blew my entire weekly Weight Watchers Points Plus allowance on them.
One reader recently left a comment on my cake pops post asking if they were any good because I failed to mention that in my post. What? Me, forget to rhapsodize about how great cake pops are? How did that happen? I couldn’t believe it! Well, let me ameliorate that omission right here and now.
They. are. so. good. The center is more dense than cake and the frosting, being mixed in, gives it a little bit of a truffle-like consistency (but still with the taste of cake), and the chocolate shell gives it more of a candy feel. A cake pop is like the perfect blend of cake and candy. And that is just what these are. Cake-candy perfection.
Need I say more? Let’s do this!
Vegan Dark Chocolate Cake Pops
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
1 recipe Wacky Cake, prepared with Dutch process cocoa powder
1 recipe Shiny Chocolate Icing, prepared with Dutch process cocoa powder
1 (12 oz) bag Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Sprinkles/nonpareils/cookie crumbs/other decorations of choice
50-70 lollipop sticks
Foam board
Optional packaging supplies:
50-70 clear treat bags
Curling ribbon or twist ties
**Veronica’s notes: I used only 2/3 of my Wacky Cake for this and still got more than 50 cake pops, so unless you need enough to feed an army, feel free to enjoy some of the cake before making it into cake pops. If you do use the entire cake, you may need a second bag of chocolate chips. Also, many canned frostings are naturally vegan, so if you prefer, you can save yourself a step and purchase a can of dark chocolate frosting to use in this recipe. **
Pull off chunks of cooled cake and process them in a food processor in batches until fine crumbs, putting the crumbs in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of the icing and mix up with your hands until the icing is completely incorporated. You will most likely need more, but it is better to start with less than to add too much right off the bat. I added more after taking this photo, using about a cup total, and I should have used a little more–the dough was a little stiff and should have been less thick.
Roll into balls the size of walnuts (a small cookie scoop works well for portioning–mine fits a tablespoon of dough) and place on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate two hours or overnight.
Gently melt chocolate with the oil in a double boiler or in the microwave. If using the microwave, stir every fifteen seconds after an initial 30 seconds. Once chocolate is mostly melted, remove from heat and stir, stir, stir, until the residual heat melts the rest of it. Don’t overheat your chocolate or it will become too thick to dip your pops.
Check out the ingredients-Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips are naturally vegan and have a delicious chocolate flavor with underlying floral notes.
Remove cake balls from refrigerator and dip one end of the lollipop sticks into the chocolate, then insert half way into each ball. Once there are sticks in all the balls, place the tray in the fridge and take them out one by one to dip so they stay cold during the dipping process.
Take each by the stick and dip into the chocolate, tapping off excess, apply sprinkles if you wish, then insert into foam block to set up. Repeat until all pops are dipped.
I was multitasking on Saturday. Behind the cake pops are two round cakes, wrapped until I had the time to frost them, two sticks of butter waiting to be turned into frosting, and cake tops in a small bowl, waiting to be turned into more cake pops once the icing was made. I never waste cake!
Most sprinkles are naturally vegan. I checked the labels on my entire sprinkles collection and found no animal products listed in the ingredients, inlcluding in the mini candy-coated chocolate drops in the Chocolate Accents jar.
Place your foam block in the refrigerator or freezer to set the chocolate. Once it’s hardened, you can arrange them on a platter or package them individually by slipping a small plastic treat bag over the top and tie it with a ribbon. The chocolate coating on these melts at a lower temperature than regular candy coating, so store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
OK, Katie, I’m reluctantly posting a picture here of me hugging my vegan dessert, just for you! I even kept my face makeup free because I’m lazy in keeping with the all-natural theme here. :)
Veronica's Cornucopia 
