The Castile Family: Cake Pop Fun

I love to bake. I think it makes for nice gifts and it is an "easy" thing to contribute to any event. For Madison's 1st Birthday, I had my heart set on cake pops. I was able to borrow my neighbor's cake pop maker - yes, these things exist. They turned out cute and so recently I decided it was time to get my own cake pop maker. Our "new" neighbors were very sweet and brought over a box of clothes and toys to pass along to Maddie. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give the new machine a go!

I actually purchased the Bella brand maker, but I do love the Babycakes one as well. One thing to note - if you are on the market for your own is to be sure to purchase one that has 12 holes. The one I borrowed for Madison's birthday only had 6 and it takes A LOT longer!

A few tips:
* Use the Babycake recipe for cake pops. I read a lot of reviews and it seems that some people have used boxed cake recipes, but they often have to alter the ingredients. I'd rather be safe than sorry!

* Fill each hole pretty much to the top. You don't want it to overflow, but if you are too cautious, your cake pops do not come out ball shaped!

These ended up being ugly cake pops and thus were not used!

* Freeze the cake pops for a bit (30+ minutes) before adding the sticks to them

* Dip the sticks in melted chocolate and then put them into the cake pop. Let the chocolate harden before dipping the balls into chocolate.

* I use a tall cup to melt the chocolate in and then dip the balls. I then I use a combination of tapping and twisting to get off excess chocolate. This is the trickiest part of the entire operation! It is easy to leave too much on and then it drips down the stick.

* For the cake pops to dry, a foam block works great! This is what we used for Madison's party. However, I don't happen to keep those lying around, so we had to improvise. Luckily Ryan's an engineer and was able to help me come up with a pretty logical solution! Coffee cups filled with dry rice or beans!