I wanna make these soooo bad but I can't get them to turn out right.

I understand the consistency part my issue is that they come out so darn sweet, its sickening. then add the chocolate coating... you can't even eat them.

Chocolate coating is my other issue. It's so thick they won't dip nicely, it looks like a mess. Unfortunately, the search function doesn't like me today and I can get much to come up.

Does anyone have ideas or suggestions to help me? I would really like to nail these. Thanks!

Sorry you had the issue with them being so sweet, but I'm glad I'm not alone. Last weekend, I made some strawberry cupcakes for a co-worker and had some left (that didn't fit into the box). I crumbled these to make my first ever cake pops and I had just one of the finished product and the rest are still sitting on my counter sealed in a container. Too darn sweet!!! So much so, they aren't enjoyable..well, to me anyway.

....that reminds me, today makes 1 week since the cupcakes were baked - guess I'll be tossing out the rest of the pops.

Anyway...my consistency was OK - I was advised to use the 'damn buttercream' because it's so thick, which only adds to the sweetness level. I'm just not sure what to use as a binder that won't make them soggy OR too sweet.

Ok! I can help you!! It took me about 4x to master this,,but I finally got it after SOOOO much frustration!

Ok,,first of all,,when you make the cake pops with the cake mix,,add a little powdered sugar to your hands to roll them into firm, good together balls..this helps the balls stay together! I figured this one by myself and what a difference!

Refridgerate for a minimum 3-4 hours. Then, once refrigerated,,take them out 1 by 1 and dip your sticks in the melted choc. and put into the balls! Take one out at a time and refridgerate/freeze right after..

Then once done, if you freeze you can do it 1/2 hour later,,but if you refridgerate, I would wait at least an hour. Refridgerating is best.

Ok. then melt your choc..and add a little shortening to your melted choc. and mix well..then let the choc. cool a little..I dipped mine while it was HOT and it messed up my balls by breakage and all...so just wait like 3/4 min. to cool choc. down..THEN

take your pops out 1 by 1 at time, and place your pop into choc quickly and quickly take your spoon and cover the whole thing INSTEAD of dipping it up and down constant for risk of breakage. THEN, swirl out of teh choc. to remove excess chocolate and place immediately into freezer..then do the next! VIOLA!! It really works and I had to figure this out by myself. Let me know if it worked for you and if you need more help, I can help you more! Good luck and you will be so happy once yu get this down!

But how do you keep the sweetness down? What are you using as a binder?

as far as sweetness goes, maybe make the frosting that is in the cake mix..less sweeter with salt,,otherwise, I can't help you with that part..so sorry/

If your cakes are moist enough, you don't even need a binder. I don't use one, but if it just needs a teeny bit more moisture, i will put a couple of drops of milk into it.

Try not using any icing to bind. My cakes are pretty moist so I can usually just crumble those and they stay together. Add cream or milk if you need a little moisture hth

The bakery I worked for was known for it's cakeballs...AND for the fact that they weren't too sweet.

We would take cake that had been broken up and air dried a bit and start kneading it like dough. I mean knead it. Smash it, squeeze it, smoosh it down and keep at it until it is very compressed and looks like cookie dough. We didn't add icing or any other additive to it. IF the cake was way too dry, we might add a few sprinkles of water. It's important that the cake not be too fresh (not stale!) because when it is compressed to the degree we did it, if it's too fresh, it won't roll as smooth...it will be too loose. When that would happen we would let the balls air dry a while.

We then took meatballers (they look like scissors with rounded ends like melon ballers) and would portion the balls. After which we hand rolled them into smooth balls and dipped them into melted chocolate...Merckens is what we used. I was not good at dipping. I've never tried the pops however which might get me into doing this again. I saw some tutorials the other night and what will keep them from falling off the stick is to add melted chocolate to stick before inserting into the ball and then cooling them in the fridge until solid and then dipping them. They also said that adding a bit of shortening to the chocolate would help loosen things so it wasn't so thick (I just think the chocolate needs to be very hot).
At any rate, our cakeballs were very rich, but not super sweet, They were not MY favorites but we had a waiting list of people who wanted cake balls. And this is how we did them! HTH!

Wow guys...thanks for the tips.

You can't let the chocolate get TOO hot or it will cook (it gets hard and opaque).Just melt it till it loses its shape. Putting some shortening into it will thin it down for dipping and will make the shell crunchy, as well. I don't always use anything to bind my cake, either, but I do like to put flavorings, nuts, chopped dried fruit and sometimes a little Bailey's or rum in them. I freeze the balls, but leave them out for about 15 minutes before dipping so that the chocolate shell won't crack. I don't put them back in the fridge or freezer after I've dipped them. If they're totally sealed by the chocolate shell, they last for months, by the way.

I agree, binder is not always needed. If it is, use only a bit...like a Tablespoon per cake mix.
I've seen many recipes where it says use a tub. or 1/2 a tub. of frosting...ICK!!! I use a buttercream recipe from here and only use a tiny bit, if any at all. NEVER too sweet.