Pop Rocks

With less than a week to go, baby shower preparations are in full swing over here. Favors are ready, decorations are almost done, and the menu has been planned. It took me a while to make all the decisions, but one thing I knew weeks ago was that I wanted to serve cake pops. I first tried these delicious little balls of delight at a friend's baby shower back in September, and it was love at first bite. I'm a fan of all things cake and icing - and these are the best combination of both. I was hoping to make my own for next weekend, but thought I better have a trial run in case alternate plans were necessary. I read through a few online recipes, which all said pretty much the same thing:

1. Make a sheet cake from a box
2. Crumble it into a bowl
3. Mix it with 1/2 to 3/4 of a tub of icing
4. Form into golf size balls
5. Chill in the fridge for one hour or overnight
6. Insert lollipop stick
7. Dip in melted chocolate
8. Sprinkle with decoration

So off I went!

Overall it was a pretty easy process, and they were super yummy (the kids even asked me to make them for their birthdays), so I'm definitely moving forward with my plans to make them for the shower, but I did learn a few lessons from this batch:

1) The cake balls shouldn't be bigger than a bite or they'll be too heavy for the stick.
2) I should have a foam block ready ahead of time (preferably more attractive than the piece of styrofoam I pulled out of the garage at the last minute) to put the sticks in while the chocolate hardens.
3) The cake crust (bottom and sides of the baking dish) need to be broken up thoroughly so the cake pops have a smooth consistency. I'll probably use my food processor next time.

Oh, and the most important lesson I learned - after eating three today and two last night - is that I cannot have these in the house!