These cake pops are very nutritious as they are packed with superfoods and contain no refined ingredients.
Some raw cake recipes I’ve seen resemble more of an energy bar texture, they look great and taste delicious but they’re not very cake-like.
However, the mixture of coconut flour and cashews in this recipe, give a really light, fluffy cake texture and taste.
It’s like biting into a moist sponge cake!
I have made 2 different flavours: Lemon Poppy Seed and Chocolate Strawberry.
But the possibilities are endless.
You could use matcha powder and lime zest to make green coloured lime pops, you could make orange carrot cake cake pops, or acai powder and lavender for a perfumey purple pop!
Experiment and see, they’re lot’s of fun to make. Kids will love them too.
For the lemon chia seed flavour, the chia seeds act as poppy seeds to recreate a classic flavour combination whilst adding more nutritional value.
And for the chocolate strawberry, you can either have strawberry cake batter covered in chocolate or chocolate cake batter covered in a strawberry “icing.”
To decorate the pops, there are plenty of options, including; desiccated coconut, raw chocolate shavings, a dusting of strawberry powder, dried lemon zest or if you have a dehydrator, you could make these cute ‘raw sprinkles‘
📖 Recipe
Raw Cake Pops
Raw cake pops made in lemon chia seed and chocolate strawberry flavours
Ingredients
- 50 g ½ cup raw coconut flour
- 70 g ½ cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 1 least an hour or overnight.*
- An extra 130ml, ½ cup of water or more if needed
- 2 tbsp raw honey or maple syrup, or more, to taste
- 1 tsp raw vanilla extract or powder. See here to learn how to make your own
- Flavourings: 2 tbsp lemon zest and 1 tbsp chia seeds, for the lemon chia seed pops or 1 tsp raw cacao powder (for the chocolate strawberry pops)
- To decorate:
- 50 g ¼ cup cacao butter
- 35 g ¼ cup cashews, soaked for at least an hour or overnight*
- 3 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp raw honey or maple syrup, or more, to taste
- 1 tsp raw vanilla extract or powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp lemon zest, for the lemon chia seed pops
- 2 tbsp strawberry powder**, for the chocolate strawberry pops
Instructions
- Drain the cashew nuts and add to a blender or food processor. Add the coconut flour, agave nectar, vanilla, water, flavouring of your choice and blend until well combined and a dense breadcrumb mixture is made.
- The batter should be light and crumbly but stays firm when molded. If it's still too crumbly, add more water or if it's too dense, add more coconut flour.
- Wet your hands and gently roll a tbsp of the batter into a ball shape. Do this until all the batter is used up, then place them on a baking tray. Leave in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up.
- Whilst the cake balls are in the freezer, make the cacao coating by melting the cacao butter on a low heat.
- Add the cashews, water, agave, vanilla and either the turmeric or strawberry powder and blend until velvety smooth. Add the melted cacao butter and blend again until the consistency is thick but runny.
- Once the cake balls have firmed up, gently push a lolly pop stick into each of them.
- One by one, dip the lollipops into the cacao mixture, submerging them until they are fully coated, then gently lifting them out and placing them in a cake pop stand or a glass. The coating shouldn't drip but if it does, slowly twist the pop so the chocolate coating settles.
- Do this for each of the pops and decorate how you please.
- The cake pops will last 3 days in a cool dark place.
Notes
* You could skip the soaking process but I like to soak them because it activates enzymes and aids digestion.
** You can make your own strawberry powder by grinding up freeze dried strawberries, available in the baking section at most supermarkets
Nutrition Information
Yield 30Amount Per Serving Calories 42Carbohydrates 3gProtein 1g
Lee says
Just found this recipe and tried it out–these are delicious! I ran out of strawberries when I wanted to make a second batch, so I added a few tbsp of frozen raspberries to the dough and omitted the water with no effects on consistency. I also replaced some of the coconut flour with vanilla rice protein powder in another batch, with very little change in texture (always looking for more protein sources!), though those aren’t raw anymore then.
Aimee says
Thanks Lee! So glad you enjoyed them :-) Great to hear the tip about frozen raspberries and protein powder too. I think you can get raw vanilla protein powder so I might look into that!
Chrisy says
Hi Aimee,
These looks absolutely fantastic on your pictures and I made them today for my birthday (I had planned this some time ago and could hardly wait). I followed the recipe precisely apart from replacing the strawberry pweder with raspberry as it was the only freeze dried fruit I could find in the local stores.
However, there is no way on earth these could stay firm on the sticks. One by one they all slided down as they were softening even though I worked fast to dip them after taking them our from the freezer and immediately placed them in the fridge once coated. It was very disappointing, with all my display prep going in vain. I had to put them in paper cases to preserve something but they all have holes on both sided now.
Is there some trick that I have missed and how do yours stay firm?
Tiv says
Another reader tried dates instead of agave in the cake portion of the recipe. That should really help it stay firm. Best regards ~
Lily says
Hello! These cake pops look amazing! Before I start making these for my sister’s birthday… do you bake them at all? Thank you :)
Aimee says
Hi Lily :-) Nope, no baking as it’s raw, only freezing is involved. Good luck, let me know how they turn out!
maya says
Hello
Thank you for this great idea.
My daughter is intolerant to cashews, can I replace them with any other nuts?
Thank you
Maya
Aimee says
Hi Maya, I haven’t personally tried but I imagine you can use almonds in place just fine. Let me know how it turns out :-)
KMF says
These look great!
I just made the “cake” part but eliminated the coconut flour (had none) & agave (as it’s too close to corn syrup for my liking) and used 4 dates instead in place of both. Just added vanilla & consistency was perfect
Only could get 7 balls (just under an inch) without the coconut flour & it’s already 75 calories (without coating too) but they turned out great!
Thanks for the post
Aimee says
Ooh that’s great to know, thanks Katie! I haven’t been using agave nectar recently either – I always thought of it as a “health food” but it’s really not. Maple syrup or honey is way nicer anyway :-)