1-First, gather all your ingredients and prepare the cake crumbs by baking and crumbling the cake. If you’re using a box mix, add the vegetable oil as directed, bake it, and let it cool for 15 minutes before crumbling into fine pieces in a bowl. This step sets the base for everything else, so take your time to get those crumbs just right.

2-Next, make the frosting by beating the butter, icing sugar, vanilla, and milk on medium speed for about 4 minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Then, mix 3/4 of the frosting into the cake crumbs until combined; add the rest only if needed to avoid making it too mushy. Roll the mixture into balls using tablespoons, place them on a lined tray, and chill for 10 minutes in the freezer or 30 minutes in the fridge.

3-After chilling, roll the balls again to smooth them out, then chill for another 30 minutes in the freezer or 1.5 hours in the fridge. Melt half the chocolate in 20-second bursts in the microwave, stirring between each, or use a double boiler to keep it thin. Dip the tip of each cake pop stick into the melted chocolate and insert it halfway into a cake ball, repeating for all.

4-Finally, dip each cake ball into the melted chocolate, swirl to cover it completely, tap off excess, and decorate with sprinkles right away. Let them set upright using something like a cup of rice or a styrofoam block, and reheat the chocolate if it thickens. Once set, your cake pops are ready to enjoy, with a total prep time of about 1 hour plus 2 hours for cooling and chilling, yielding around 40 treats.