Sweet gluten-free chocolate pound cake and low carb salted caramel in a delicious Starbucks copycat recipe. These Low Carb Salted Caramel Cake Pops will satisfy any sweet tooth.
When I first encountered cake pops, I was quite dumbfounded by them. I was already well set in my low carb ways at that point, so I wasn’t drawn to them so much for their promise of a sweet treat, but more because they struck me as simply brilliant. I am quite sure that the idea of crumbling a cake, mixing in a little frosting, rolling it into little balls, sticking lollipops into them and dipping them in chocolate would never have occurred to me in a million years. I have a lot of great ideas but that one was best left to someone else to invent. And some people get wildly creative with their cake pops. I’ve seen snowmen and Christmas ornaments and a veritable menagerie of animal-shaped cake pops and I marvel at them. That sort of thing is simply beyond my ken and I’m okay with that. But I can certainly admire them from afar.
When cake pops started showing up in my local Starbucks, I had to smirk a little. I don’t blame them one bit for jumping on that train, because kids and adults alike love cake pops. They’re cute, they’re sweet and they can be very eye-catching in their pretty pastels or bright colours. But the ones that always catch my eye are the dark chocolate cake pops. It’s the chocoholic in me, I suppose. I’d happily by-pass all the pretty pinks and greens and blues for the intense dark brown. Add a little salted caramel on top and now you’ve really got my attention.
I’ve long eyed those Salted Caramel Cake Pops at Starbucks, thinking it wouldn’t be all that hard to make my own healthier, low carb version. And then providence gave me the little push I needed in the form of some cake that didn’t come out of the pan in one piece. I was trying to make muffin tops out of my Low Carb Chocolate Pound Cake and I apparently didn’t grease the pan very well because they stuck like mad. Not one to waste good food, I took all the bits and pieces and popped them into a bag and stuck them in the freezer for a time when I wanted to give my low carb cake pops a go.
I will tell you that I wasn’t all that well prepared when I did decide to make my cake pops, as I discovered I only had 10 lollipop sticks in the house. So I made those and turned the rest into cake balls or cake truffles, whichever you prefer. Although it’s always fun eating things from a stick, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to how they taste!
Keto Salted Caramel Cake Pops
Equipment
- Lollipop sticks
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Keto Chocolate Pound Cake baked and cooled
- 1 recipe Sugar-Free Caramel Sauce cooled
- ½ teaspoon caramel extract or vanilla extract
- 4 ounces sugar-free dark chocolate chopped
- 1 tablespoon powdered Swerve Sweetener
- Coarsely ground sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper. In a large bowl, break up the cooled chocolate pound cake with your hands into crumbs.
- Reserve about 2 tablespoon of caramel sauce for garnishing cake pops and set aside. Stir the remaining caramel sauce and caramel extract to crumbled cake. Combine well.
- Use your hands to squeeze dough together and roll into 1-inch balls. Your dough should be moist enough to hold together very well when squeezed. If not, add a few tablespoon of water, one at a time, to the mixture and stir to combine. You should get about 36 balls.
- Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet and freeze at least one hour.
- When the cake balls are frozen, melt the chocolate in a bowl set above barely simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch water), stirring until smooth.
- Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into chocolate and press into the centre of a frozen cake ball, then dip the cake pop into the chocolate, turning to coat.
- Tap the lollipop stick gently against side of bowl to remove excess chocolate. Turn the pop a few times above bowl of chocolate to catch any stray drips.
- Push the tip of the lollipop stick into styrofoam and let set. Repeat with remaining cake balls and sticks.
- If the cake balls start to soften too much, return them to the freezer (they are easier to work with and chocolate coating adheres better and hardens faster when they are frozen).
- When the pops are all set, combine reserved caramel sauce and powdered Swerve in a small bowl until smooth (if your caramel has hardened, warm it gently in the microwave).
- Cut the very tiniest tip off the corner of a ziploc bag. Spoon the caramel mixture into ziploc and pipe over teh cake pops. Sprinkle each with a few grains of sea salt.
- To make cake truffles instead of pops, simply dip the frozen balls in chocolate with a fork, tapping off excess. Return to parchment or waxed lined baking sheet and let set, then continue with remaining directions.
Notes
Allyssa says
Really loved this! This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make recipe! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!
Eden says
These were wonderful! I love that they are keto and the flavor was perfect. They look luxurious too!
jess says
these are top notch and amazing! thank you so much for sharing!
Becky says
When I first heard about cake pops they were being made with crumbling the cake, mixing them with icing. I have cake pop pans from Wilton. Do you think the pound cake recipe would work in these pans, thus reducing the calories and carbs? I am going to try baking the cake in these pans, then dipping them in dark chocolate and drizzling with the salted caramel. I think they’ll be less sweet this way.
BTW, I love your recipes. I’m going to make your pecan pie cheesecake for Christmas. It looks amazing.
Carolyn says
I don’t have that pan so I can’t be sure but why not give it a try.
Lauren says
I used Chocoperfection for these, and they were DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Allie says
Would chocoperfection bars work in the place of Lily’s?
Carolyn says
Probably!
charlotte says
these look really good!
Malainie says
These would be a perfect dessert for dinner guests! I don’t have a sweet tooth, so if I even have dessert, I only have one bite.
Stacy | Wicked Good Kitchen says
Carolyn, your cake pops look phenomenally good! Such pretty photography, too. Thank you for sharing!
Carolyn says
Thanks, Stacy!
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction says
I’m all about chocolate and salted caramel!
Becca from ItsYummi! says
These look crazy good, Carolyn! I”m a salted caramel addict!
Carolyn says
I know, me too. And now that I’ve finally created a decent low carb one, I can’t get enough!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
These look absolutely amazing!
Brenda@SugarFreeMom says
These look fantastic! You’ve outdone yourself!! I want to eat a whole lot more than just one that’s for sure!
(Can you delete my first comment, name was all messed, too early to type fast lol!)