Starbucks Cake Pops Menu USA

All four pops share the same build, so the choice comes down to the cake inside and the look outside. Two are vanilla with a character face, one is vanilla in pink, and one is chocolate from the center to the shell.

If you want the taste and not the decoration, the Birthday Cake Pop and the Chocolate Cake Pop are the cheaper pair and the two that most stores keep in stock all day.

Birthday Cake Pop

The Birthday Cake Pop is the one most people mean when they say Starbucks cake pop. Vanilla cake is mixed with vanilla buttercream, rolled, dipped in pink chocolaty icing and finished with white sprinkles. It carries 160 calories, 16 g of sugar and 8 g of fat, and the reference store lists it at $3.65. Why choose the Birthday Cake Pop?

• Familiar taste: plain vanilla cake, nothing to dislike for a picky kid.
• Price: one of the two cheapest pops in the case.
• Portion: 160 calories is a full stop on a sweet craving without ordering a pastry.
• Looks: the pink shell reads as a party treat in a way the chocolate pop does not.

Best pairing: a Tall Pike Place Roast or a kids hot chocolate, depending on who is eating it.

Chocolate Cake Pop

The Chocolate Cake Pop swaps vanilla for chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream, then goes into the same chocolaty icing with white sprinkles. At 150 calories it is the lightest pop on the list, and it matches the birthday pop on price at $3.65. Why choose the Chocolate Cake Pop?

• Fewest calories: 150 per pop, ten under the vanilla version.
• Richer center: chocolate buttercream reads as denser than vanilla, so it feels like more.
• Less sweet on the tongue: the cocoa takes the edge off the icing.
• No character face: fine for adults who feel silly holding a hedgehog.

Best pairing: an Americano or a plain cold brew, so the chocolate does the sweet work.

Hedgehog Cake Pop

The Hedgehog Cake Pop is a vanilla cake and buttercream pop dipped in chocolaty icing and piped to look like a hedgehog, with chocolate spikes and a small face. The reference store prices it at $3.85, a little above the plain pops, and it lands at 160 calories with 15 g of sugar. Why choose the Hedgehog Cake Pop?

• Kids: the face is the whole point, and it survives the drive home.
• Vanilla inside, chocolate outside: the same combination as the birthday pop, in a different coat.
• Sugar: 15 g, the lowest of the four by a small margin.

Nutrition tip: the difference between the four pops is 20 calories at most, so pick by look, not by numbers.

Unicorn Cake Pop

The Unicorn Cake Pop is vanilla cake with confetti sprinkles baked in, dipped in white chocolaty icing and finished with a unicorn face and horn. It is the highest of the four at 170 calories and 17 g of sugar, and the reference store does not list a price for it, so ask at the register. Why choose the Unicorn Cake Pop?

• Birthday order: the one that gets photographed before it gets eaten.
• Confetti cake: the sprinkles inside give it a texture the plain pops do not have.
• White icing: a milder, sweeter shell than the chocolaty coating on the other three.

Best pairing: a Pink Drink for the color match, or plain milk for a child.

Every cake pop sits in a narrow band. The Chocolate Cake Pop is the floor at 150 calories and the Unicorn Cake Pop is the ceiling at 170. Fat runs 8 to 9 g, most of it from the buttercream and the coating, and protein is 2 g across the board.

A cake pop is about a third of a pastry. The Chocolate Chip Cookie in the cookies section is 370 calories, so two pops still come in under one cookie.

People ask this at the counter more than any other cake pop question. The answer is the cake pop, by a wide margin, on calories, sugar and price.

Order the pop when you want three bites of sweet with a coffee. Order the cookie when the treat is the point and you have twenty minutes to sit with it.

Cake pops are the easiest Starbucks item to buy in bulk because they are individually wrapped and do not need heating. A few things worth knowing before you order a tray:

• Quantity: stores keep a limited number in the case, so for more than six, call the store a day ahead and ask them to hold or order extra.
• Mobile order: the app lets you add several of the same pop in one order, but it will only show the flavors that store has in stock.
• Character pops: the Hedgehog Cake Pop and the Unicorn Cake Pop sell out first on weekends; the plain pops are the safe bulk choice.
• Rewards: cake pops earn Stars like any food item, and they are a common item to redeem 100 Stars on.
• Storage: keep them at room temperature and eat within a day; the icing sweats if refrigerated.

Prices come from Starbucks (Northgate Way & I-5), Seattle and are pickup prices, so delivery apps will show more. Starbucks sets prices per store, and cake pops in airport and hotel locations often run higher.

The Unicorn Cake Pop has no listed price at the reference store. Where it is stocked, expect it to sit at or a little above the Hedgehog Cake Pop at $3.85.

Every pop declares the same four allergens: Egg, Milk, Soy, Wheat. The cake brings egg and wheat, the buttercream brings milk, and the chocolaty coating brings soy. None of the pops contain nuts as an ingredient, but they are decorated and stored in a case with items that do.

There is no gluten-free or vegan cake pop. If that is the need, the Marshmallow Dream Bar covers gluten-free and the fruit bars in the snack section cover vegan.

I buy the Chocolate Cake Pop most often. It is the lowest calorie of the four, it costs the same as the birthday pop, and the chocolate center holds up better against a black coffee than the vanilla ones do.

For a child, the Hedgehog Cake Pop wins every time. For a birthday tray, mix the two plain pops and add a few unicorns for the top row.