Stick&Pop puts cake and frosting on a stick

Jacki Caponigro and Christy Nyberg are real pop stars —

at least when it comes to cake pops.

After starting Stick&Pop as an online business more than a year ago, the two have opened a brick-and-mortar location in Chelsea.

The airy shop, with smooth white cabinets and girly pink details, stocks all 11 of their original decadent flavors, including Teddy Bear and Johnny Cakes.

Caponigro, who worked in fashion, and Nyberg, a former marketing professional, started Stick&Pop in 2010 while they were between careers.

“We had lunch one day and Jacki was talking about some pops she had at a party and how amazing they were,” recalls Nyberg. “I’m actually not into sweets, but I’m into small bites so we decided to start experimenting.”

Though cake pops look relatively simple — cake dipped in chocolate then topped with sprinkles — the pair discovered that the treats are actually quite time consuming.

It took a lot of trial-and-error before Caponigro, a French Culinary Institute grad, and Nyberg came up with a working formula — one that, even now, changes depending on the ingredients they use.

“It’s funny to think how many things we tried, like cutting silicone spheres and pouring the batter in,” says Nyberg.

“Or cooking peanut butter cups into them,”adds Caponigro.

The trick to having the cake stay on the stick, they eventually discovered, is rolling it with frosting.

“Baking it into the ball was never going to work if you want to dip it into chocolate,” explains Caponigro.

Stick&Pop’s menu is an homage to the mix-and-match feel of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.

Flavors include the O’Hara (coconut cake dipped in dark chocolate), Lunchbox (peanut butter cake with a raspberry swirl) and Moonpop (vanilla cream cheese cake dipped in crushed Oreos).

Instead of constantly changing the menu, Caponigro and Nyberg opted to roll out new ones for holidays instead.

Since they opened their Chelsea shop, the two have received plenty of suggestions from customers, something they’ve heartily embraced.

“You have these visions of getting feedback on Facebook, but it’s not like the face-to-face experience or the opinions, solicited and unsolicited, and ideas about things people want to try,” says Nyberg.

“I think it’ll be fun to do tastings. If you want to develop a flavor, that’s the way. You can’t do that online.”

Stick&Pop 233 W. 19th St., (646) 481-4767.

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