Lion Cake Pops
- By Amy Dong
- Published Feb. 16, 2014
- Updated Nov. 16, 2023
These adorable lion cake pops are more delicious than imaginable! They are chocolate and peanut butter cake pops, which are an absolutely winning combination! Kids are immediately attracted to them. Grown-ups can’t stop eating them. Super easy for birthdays or any special occasion!
“What’s a motto?”
“Nothing. What’s a motto with you?”
Need a hint? Meerkat. From the mouth of Timon. The Lion King is one of my 5-year-old’s favorite movies of all time. He’s only seen it maybe twice, but I know he’d sleep with it if he could.
It might have something to do with his lifelong — all 5 years — obsession with lions.
Which might have something to do with the fact that the first stuffed animal I ever gave him was a huggable little lion…
Throughout his five years, our youngest has gone way beyond that very first huggable stuffed lion that became his sole lovey. He is now the proud owner of a roomful of lions. There are big lions, small lions, lion books, lion accessories, etc.
Everyone knows about his lion collection, so they give him another leo every occasion possible. But that first soft lion his chubby little fingers held in the crib is still the one he reaches for every night.
Guess what we do for his birthday cakes each year? Right. Last year, it was an ice-cream cake with a lion made of icing. I was reminded that I once made his brother these cute Puppy Cake Pops (that one’s got a puppy obsession.)
So this time, Lion Cake Pops were requested.
Everyone knows cake pops have become so popular these last few years because of how easy, attractive, and tasty they are. Though I make it a general rule to avoid boxed cake mixes and canned frosting, this is one of the verrry few times I’ll close my eyes, bite my tongue, and put those two things into my shopping cart. I thought about doing cake pops with homemade cake and frosting, but I ran clear out of time, so that will have to wait.
I used a fudgy chocolate cake, fudgy chocolate frosting, and peanut butter candy coating for these lion cake pops. It tasted like a Reese’s PB cup in cake pop form. A scrumptious combination that caused Hubby to grab a few extra when nobody was looking. I snuck an extra one, too. And so did a few of my grown-up friends. 🙂
Enjoy!
Did you make this?
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Lion Cake Pops
Ingredients
- 1 box cake mix, I used fudge chocolate, baked as directed on box and cooled
- 1 can frosting, I used fudge chocolate
- 2 packages peanut butter flavored candy melts, I used Wilton
- 1 bag peanut butter chips, 12 oz
- mini M&M's, for the noses
- candy eyes
- lollipop sticks
- Americolor Gourmet Writer black edible ink pens
- large styrofoam block
Instructions
- After cake is cooled, get your clean hands dirty and crumble it up in a large bowl. Mix well with 3/4 can of frosting. This is nice and messy! Roll mixture into balls a little smaller than golf sized. Place on wax paper, on a baking sheet.
- Melt candy melts in a small, deep bowl in the microwave according to package, stirring well. Dip tip of lollipop stick into melted candy and insert halfway into cake balls. Place in freezer to firm up, about 10 minutes. Once firm, work in batches: Hold each cake ball by the stick and gently rotate cake balls into melted candy until completely covered. Gently twirl so any excess comes off. Stick into styrofoam block, so cake pops are sitting right side up.
- Before candy coating completely dries, “glue” on the eyes and nose. If coating is already dry, just put a dab of melted candy coating on so you can do your gluing. Quickly "glue" on the peanut butter chips for the mane. If needed, dab chips into melted coating to adhere. Once coating is fully dry, use edible pen to draw the mouth, adding whiskers if you like. Pops can be kept in fridge until serving, if your room temp is too warm. Our room temp was 67, so we were able to keep finished pops at room temp just fine. Have fun!
Nutrition (per serving)
Source: Chew Out Loud, adapted from Bakerella
Here are those adorable puppy cake pops. I wanted to pet them. But I really wanted to eat them more.
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