I am new to the cake business, and I have decided to venture out with cake pops. I saw the book from Wilton at my local store and thought that they are sooo cute and it looked easy!
My first issue is I dipped the stick in chocolate, inserted in cake ball, and refrigerated for a few hours, but when I went to dip some of them in chocolate the cake ball fell off the stick! What did I do wrong?
My 2nd issue is I do not have a clue as to how much these things sale for. I have called bakeries aroud here to kind of get an idea, but NO ONE sales them (which really is an advantage to me)! If you don't mind, please help me with this. Plain cupcakes sale for around 0.75 each here, so what would these sale for??
There's probably a reason no one sells cake pops -- they are (at least in our experience) too labor-intensive to be profitable for the mainstream market. We looked into offering them but based on our costs we would need to charge $4 each, and at that price demand will be very low.
If you lived in a state with a cottage food law that allows homemade food to be sold you might be able to make it work, but I believe LA requires a commercial kitchen so you would need to build that rental cost into your price.
Not sure about your states food law but I can tell you how I do my pops.. just to help you out. refrigerate your cake balls for at least 2 hours then make sure you dip your sticks in candy melt before you insert them into cake balls. and put them back in refrigerator for another 30 minutes or so. make sure you don't put too much frosting in your cake since that make cake balls too soft. I charge $1.50 for my basic cake pop.
I made them for the first time today, OMG they were so labour intensive,I followed all the steps and froze them for a few minutes to harden and they still dropped in the chocolate 
.I will never ever sell them. I can't even make them again for myself,let alone for someone else. Plus, for some funny reason I had to melt all the chocolate I had just to cover about 10 cake pops, and it still wouldn't have covered it if I had decided to continue,had to chuck the rest in the bin. 
I'm done with them.
Thank you all so much!! They are a job!! I had calculated a price including the ingredients and all the time, but I thought it was too high! I guess I will go with my price and maybe I won't have to make many!! lol
Thank you all so much!! They are a job!! I had calculated a price including the ingredients and all the time, but I thought it was too high! I guess I will go with my price and maybe I won't have to make many!! lol
I sure hope that last sentence was a joke. 
Jenniferthecakediva: I am glad that you brought Cake pops up. I too, have had lots of problems making them work. I too was told to dip the stick in cho. and then stick into the cake ball.
ufo9978, you say to dip the stick into the cake ball and then put back in the fridge for 30 min. or so. I assume that the cho. hardens on the stick and because the cake balls are cold to it doesn't allow them to come off? How do they keep from coming off the top of the stick when you are dipping them? I can see how they might not come down the stick, but I am still not understanding how the cho. on the stick keeps them from coming off when you are dipping them.? I will try again and try this trick. Thank you.
Jennifer, I wish you much success with these. I have not had much myself to date, but decided that since everyone loves them on or off the stick that they are a great way to bring a fun yummy goody to a get-together and a wonderful way to not waste cake scraps from carving cakes. I recently made a lot of cake balls from left over scraps and no body cares that they are not on sticks. so if nothing else works for you selling them you can at least use your cake scraps and eveyone will enjoy. I hope that you can make them work for yourself so you can sell them.
I make Cake Pops almost weekly to sell at a local Farmers' Market. I make about 130 at a time. I rarely have any trouble getting them to stay on the sticks. I roll the cake balls and refrigerate them overnight. During the warmer summer months, I let the cake balls come back to room temperature for 3 - 4 hours so they are not covered in any condensation. Coat the sticks in chocolate and insert them into the cake balls. Let them sit until the chocolate around the stick has hardened. The time will vary according the temperature in your kitchen. In the winter months this does not take long. Dip them in the chocolate and decorate as desired. I use homemade scratch cake recipes and buttercream frosting. I charge $2.00 for a basic cake pop and $3.00 for a fancy one. Kids and parents love them. Best of luck!
lakeof the woods: Thank you for yet more helpful information on this subject.. ok, I want to make sure that I understand this. You make the cake balls and let them sit in the fridge overnight; since you don't mention putting them back in the fridge again before you dip the cake balls in the chocolate what exactly does leaving them in the fridge so long do for them? does this set the shape? or what? Then after they have come back to room temp you dip the sticks in cho. and stick them in the cake balls. Since the cake balls are at room temperature what helps them to not slide down the stick till the cho. sets? Then how do you know that the cho. has set on the stick and it is ok to dip the balls in the cho.? I know lots of questions, but it seems to me that you have this all figured out and are selling them successfully so I want to learn why you do what you do and why and how it works? thanks for your patience and help. Julie
p.s. If you have a particular ratio of buttercream to cake or anything else that would be helpful please include that also. Thank you again.
I don't think that my chocolate is the problem. The cake balls sometime want to slide down the stick before I even dip them. I may have too much icing per cake ratio? not sure what my problem is exactly except that I don't think it is my cho. It could be that I have them too cold to dip and the weight of the cho. just adds to it and causes them to slide? I usually have no problem with dipping cake balls that aren't on sticks. That is why all the questions. I usually have my chocolate at a nice consistency and I have no trouble dipping things that are not on sticks. Thank you again for your patience.
Are you making the cake pops too big I use the Wilton sticks and a heaped tablespoon of the mixture is about the right size for them to stay on. I also make the balls and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours then dip the sticks in chocolate then put them back in the fridge for another half hour then dip them. I find that the chocolate gets thich quite quickly so i frequently blast it in the microwave for a few seconds to kepp it good dipping consistancy. The only time mine have fallen off was when I had made the balls too big or let the chocolate get a bit thick.
jillyscakes: I actually make mine quite a bit smaller than that. I make mine a rounded teaspoon full. I don't like them as big as the rounded tablespoon makes them. you're saying that you put your cake pops in for a couple hours and then back in after putting the sticks in. Everybody has such different methods. I will give them all a go and see which is the first one to work for me. Thank you.
I have one of those wilton cho. pots that melts the cho. and then keeps it warm for you. I usually have to use a couple of tablespoons full of paramount crystals to get it to a nice consistency and I keep stirring it after I turn it to warm just to make sure that it is keeping the consistency I want on warm.
I know most of us have seen the video, but just in case someone needs to see it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811876373/?tag=cakecentral-20
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