25 Festive Cake Pops for All Your Parties, Holidays and Bake Sales

When life calls for cake pops, we answer. Bite-sized, endlessly customizable and made for sharing, they’re just as welcome at a birthday celebration as they are on a game-day spread. With a little melted chocolate, a handful of sprinkles and some imagination, a simple cake pop can become almost anything: a themed dessert for a Halloween party, a big-batch treat for a holiday potluck or the perfect addition to the school bake sale.

Cake pops are a breeze to make, too. You can even start with your favorite boxed cake mix and store-bought frosting in a complementary flavor — no need to bake from scratch if you don't want to. The key to decorating is ensuring that your cake pops are securely attached to their sticks. We recommend dipping the end of the stick into melted candy wafers before poking it into your ball of cake — and giving your cake pops a double dip in coating before decorating.

Looking for a recipe that will walk you through those steps? This is our test kitchen's go-to cake pop recipe. It's perfect when you want to learn the basics — and can easily be customized when you're ready to make it your own by changing up the flavors or decorations.

Instead of the typical cake base, these pops start out with store-bought Hawaiian sweet rolls, which have a cakey texture and slightly sweet flavor. Grated coconut, coconut extract and almond extract really drive home the Hawaiian-inspired flavor profile.

Trisha Yearwood uses lime-flavored gelatin mix as a shortcut for the key lime cake base of these cake pops. Dip the cake pop sticks into melted candy wafers (which you’ll also use as the cake pop coating) before sticking into the pops to keep them in place.

Use leftover cheesecake to make frozen chocolate-dipped cake pops, coated in an assortment of your favorite candies. They're also a perfectly festive gift for your holiday party hostess.

Add something sweet to your game day menu with these chocolate football cake pops. Don’t skip freezing the pops before dipping in chocolate — this step allows you to smooth out any imperfections in the shape as well as helping the chocolate harden faster.

This might be the easiest dessert you ever make. Start out with store-bought doughnut holes and all you have to do is dip in chocolate and decorate. The perfect project for little ones.

Pecan pie on the inside and pumpkin decoration on the outside, these cake pops are the perfect fall treat. Use boxed spice cake mix as a shortcut but set aside plenty of time for decorating, as you’ll need some time between steps to let the candy melts harden.

No deep-frying required for this chicken: It's a pile of cake pops! To make the faux drumsticks, we shaped crumbled chocolate cake into ovals and added candy-coated pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows for the bones. To get that just-fried look, we dipped the cake pops in melted butterscotch chips mixed with crushed cornflakes.

Use candy melts to transform store-bought doughnut holes into the cutest little springtime dessert. Resealable plastic bags are a good (and readily available) substitute for piping bags.

Even if your favorite cake is cheesecake, you don't have to miss out on having your favorite treat in cakepop form. Start out with a frozen cheesecake, cut it into squares, then dip and decorate to your liking. This 10-minute dessert is sure to please.

These aren’t garden-variety carrots: They’re carrot cakes! To make the veggie lookalikes, we mixed crumbled carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, formed it into logs, then coated the faux carrots in orange candy melts. The finishing touches: some scratches for texture, a little cocoa powder for dirt and a green licorice stem.

Trimming the tree gets new meaning when it comes to decorating these adorable cheesecake pops. Freezing the cheesecake slices overnight is the key to easy dipping. Which tree is your favorite — classic, rainbow lights, white lights or snowy?

A variation on the classic cake pop, these mix-and-match brownie pops are stuffed with one of three different fillings — cheesecake, cookie dough or marshmallow — then coated with white, milk or dark chocolate. A sprinkle of one of three fun toppings finishes them off.

Ruby chocolate is the perfect coating for these brains, but any color candy melting wafers work just as well if you want a silly rather than scary vibe. You can use a homemade recipe or store-bought cake mix for the red velvet cake.

Peanut butter, chocolate, and cheesecake? Put it on a pop and it's all our favorite things in a kid- and party-friendly form.

It's scary how adorable these festive Halloween cake pops are! You can easily switch up the decorations — these are just four of our favorites — so choose whatever combination works for you.

Don’t toss that leftover fruitcake this holiday season. Mixed with melted white chocolate, you can upcyle it into delicious cake pops perfect for your next holiday party.

These spiders are more cute than creepy and make for the perfect single-serve dessert at your Halloween party. Their licorice legs add a bit of Halloween-inspired flavor.

Carla Hall says, “Cake pops are a great project for kids: First of all, you can use store-bought cake and frosting, and second, it’s truly a hands-on recipe (meaning very clean hands, of course!). Just like making traditional Easter eggs, there are no rules when it comes to decorating these—it’s all about learning to have fun in the kitchen and letting kids get creative.”

Anne Burrell whips up a fudgy chocolate cake and mixes with a simple cream cheese frosting as the base for these creepy cake pops. Decorate with black and orange nonpareils or use candy eyes to up the scare-factor.

These sugarplum pops are actually crispy rice cereal treats coated in melted white chocolate. They get a festive dusting of colorful sanding sugar you can match to any occasion.

These single-serve desserts will be a hit at Thanksgiving or any fall festivity. Pro tip: Make the cake a day or two in advance, so it’s completely cool when you want to start assembling the pops.

It’ll be a very sweet holiday thanks to these adorable treats. Start out with store-bought cake white pops and decorate with candy melting wafers, sanding sugar and sprinkles. Halved mini marshmallows make for the perfect pom pom on Santa’s hat.

Chocolate cake and coconut-caramel cookies are the perfect pairing for an out-of-this-world dessert. Star sprinkles and edible luster dust create the quintessential galaxy look.