Cake Pops using Cake Mix

 SO, if you humans are like me and you own a babycakes cake pop maker, one of the first things you learned is that regular cake mix doesn't work.  Also, if you are like me, you prefer to make as much as you can from scratch but do recognize the value in some preflavored things.  Case in point, cake mix of the orange or strawberry or red velvet varieties include pretty well done flavors that just need a touch of extra assistance. 

But still there is the problem of not liking the cake pop maker...WRONG! I was skipping through the links of the world wide web when I happened upon a forum on the babycakes site that I did not even know existed in the first place.  And on this site I found many people talking about how to use cake mix in their CPM! What luck! 

As it turns out, you just need to to not include the oil, substitute milk for water, and only use half of the water amount (now in milk).  The egg amount stays the same. I added a little extra milk, as I did not agree that only using half got me the texture I wanted.  I like for it to be thick but still to run off the mixing blade.  Here is what I did:

-1 box strawberry supreme cake mix
-3 eggs
-2/3 c +an extra dash (maybe a couple of TB) milk
-6 really big strawberries cut up really small (like I said, every cake mix needs a little boost) or more, as you see fit.

Just mix it all up and pop in your CPM.  It should take about 3-3.5 minutes to cook these.  I am not sure why these seem to cook so much faster than my cake pops that are completely scratch made, but I am sure there is some science behind it.  My bets are on the butter in the real recipes, it is such a sneaky little guy!  I filled some with strawberry cream cheese filling, and others with bavarian cream.  The recipe made close to 70 cake pops.  That is the main thing to remember with cake mix, you are going to come out with a LOT.  That is nice though, if you are having a big party because you get a lot of cake pops without a lot of brain strain.  For my smaller things, I would still stick to my scratch recipes for the times you just need 20 or so.  It took me 2 full things of white chocolate and maybe a half of a regular chocolate pack of candiquik to get all of these dipped. 

Some are coming with me to Terre Haute this Sunday, as they are one of my friend's favorite flavors (and mine too), and others will go to my sister's house for her party she is having.  Thankfully she agreed to take the orphans off my hands.  For anyone questioning my sanity for making them tonight when I do not need some of them until Sunday, I can assure you that cake pops are far better if they have a day or so to sit.  The cake pops I made for Christmas are still good and still being munched on, and that is without being in the fridge.  These little guys have a much longer shelf life than a cupcake does. 

And they are much simpler to transport.

If I was going to do red velvet, I would use chocolate milk instead of regular, and add in maybe a half a teaspoon of almond extract too.  If I was going to use orange, I would add orange zest to it, and an overly ripe banana to any banana mix. To lemon, I would add poppyseeds, haha!  I personally would not leave any mix alone.  They all have room for improvement.

Happy crafting!