The Clever Hack For Making Cake Pops Less Sweet

In a world that's constantly on-the-go, cake pops eliminate the need for plates and forks. However, because many cake pop recipes involve mixing frosting into crumbled cake, this treat can quickly become overwhelmingly sweet. The average cake mix already has 18-20 grams of sugar, with frosting adding another 19 or so grams -– a tried and true sugar bomb.

Fortunately, there's an easy fix. Rather than mixing the crumbled cake with several spoonfuls of frosting, you can forgo the frosting completely. Instead, if your cake is still warm, you can use the cake's own moisture to bind the crumbs together into spheres. No need to use frosting as sugary glue.

Once you've packed your cake together into little spheres, you can put them on sucker sticks, dip them in melted chocolate, and decorate as desired. Sure, these cake pops are still a ball of sugar, but they won't be as sickly sweet as those made with frosting as a binding agent.

Although the aforementioned cake pop hack may be one of the simplest in that you only really need cake mix and melting chocolate, it's far from being the only way to achieve cake pops that aren't super sweet.

For instance, you can swap out the cake mix, frosting, and melting chocolate for sugar-free versions. Pillsbury sugar-free cake mixes, in particular, use Splenda as a sweetener. This option is also great for those who may need to watch their sugar intake for dietary and/or medical reasons.

You can also use different types of frosting. A homemade cream cheese frosting can still bind your cake together and add flavor and moisture, but it'll be less sweet than a buttercream variety. Alternatively, instead of using cake mix, you can use muffin mix or pre-made muffins to make cake pops. Blueberry muffin pops with icing and streusel crumbs? Yes, please! Even when you're trying to reduce your sugar intake, the possibilities are endless.