My first attempt at Cupcake Pops, or more commonly known as Cake Pops and I nailed it. I hate to toot my own horn, but that's why I am sharing this recipe with you, these were hands down amazing.

Bonus! I actually made these gluten-free minus the graham crackers, oops.. but if you need a great GF recipe, you can substitute with store bought gluten-free shortbread or cookies, the rest of the recipe is completely GF.

I like to call them cupcake pops because I really did make them from cupcakes! Actually, I had no idea what cake pops were until my friend explained them to me and I thought, ok these I HAVE to try for myself and make them really special!

I made a gluten-free vanilla bean cupcake and a pumpkin pie frosting for the inside. This pumpkin pie "frosting" is more of a sweet baked filling, but you can use it as a frosting which actually pipes beautifully.

In this case, all you do is mix the crumbles of cupcakes with the frosting and hand roll them into balls. You dip your pop stick into a bit of melted chocolate and then stick it mid way into the balls. Once you have a full tray, stick them in the fridge for about 30 minutes, just to firm them up before you coat in chocolate. 

Here's the part where I messed up my whole idea for a gluten-free cupcake pop.. I made the entire inside completely GF and then used these store bought graham crackers to sprinkle and coat the outside.

Oh well, my co-worker who inspired my GF baking project appreciated the effort anyway. As I mentioned, you can just substitute the sprinkles with store bought gluten-free shortbread or other type of cookie. 

The one thing I noticed about the few cake pops I have tried is that the outside coating is oddly thick and super sweet. So, I tried my best to coat these with a thin milk chocolate layer.

Then all you do is sprinkle on the crumbled graham crackers.

I stuck them in the fridge overnight and in the morning they were perfect! They tasted like a yummy pumpkin pie bite on a stick. The chocolate coating was the perfect thickness and the cookie crumble coating was a great complimenting texture to the soft inside. 

You can use mini cupcake liners like I did, or arrange the sticks in a styrofoam block and let them stand upright. Wrap a ribbon around these and viola! The sweetest treat for any Fall occasion!

Makes about 40 - 45 cupcake pops

Frosting & Cupcake Prep: 2 hrs.

Cupcake Pops: about 1 hour

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Pumpkin Pie Frosting: 

2 large eggs, whisked

16 oz. – 1 can pureed pumpkin

2 tbsn. molasses

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½  tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice (found at Trader Joe’s. Or use ½ ground ginger + ¼ tsp. ground cloves)

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tbsn. Gluten-Free Baking Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

14 oz. – 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 425º F. In a medium sized bowl, mix together all ingredients until well combined. Pour into a glass baking dish, round pie dish preferable. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350º F and continue baking for 45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cover with aluminum foil and place in fridge, letting cool completely before using.

Gluten-Free Vanilla Bean Cupcakes: 

1 3/4 cups Gluten-Free Baking Flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

¾ cup + 1 tbsn. Honey

½ tbsn. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup vanilla almond milk or skim milk, divided

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350º F. Line cupcake pan with liners, set aside. Stir together the gluten-free baking flour, honey, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl and use electric mixer to blend together. Add unsalted butter and ¼ cup of milk. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 4 minutes. In another bowl, blend the eggs, egg white, remaining ¼ cup milk and vanilla bean paste. Add this mixture to the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing for 2 minutes on medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until an inserted wooden toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

Cupcake Pops:

40 -45 lollipop sticks

1 bag of chocolate candy coating morsels (Hershey's or Ghirardelli)

5 graham cracker cookies or other gluten-free cookie option

Unwrap cupcakes from liners and place into a large bowl. Break up the cupcakes into small to fine sized crumbles by rubbing the cupcakes together.

Scoop chilled Pumpkin Pie Frosting into bowl of cupcake crumbles and mix together thoroughly with clean hands or rubber spatula.

Roll small to medium sized balls in the palm of your hands and set on aluminum covered cookie tray. Melt a handful of chocolate to coat tips of lollipop sticks. Insert sticks into ball about midway.

Set tray into fridge and let chill for about 30 minutes. Once chilled and firm remove tray from fridge. Melt the remaining chocolate and use rubber spatula to help coat the balls in a thin layer of chocolate.

Once a cupcake pop is coated in chocolate, dip into bowl of crushed graham crackers and coat completely in sprinkles. Set in a mini cupcake liner or secure stick upright in a styrofoam block to harden. Cover and refrigerate overnight to completely chill pops.

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