So I picked up some popsicle sticks at Wal-Mart in hopes of giving this a try. Ever since then, my oldest daughter – who had never heard of them, either, but who was enthralled with the sound of the phrase – has been begging me to make them.

“Mom, can we make cake pops now? Cake pops, please? Cake pops?! CAKE POPS!”

It is fun to say! Try it five times fast.

My husband and I are hosting a party this weekend (more about that tomorrow). I’m very nervous about it. There will be kids there, so I decided that now might the time to give the cake pops a trial run. I had visions of posting beautiful rows of white candy-coated popsicles with Easter-colored sprinkles on them.

So, to begin:

I baked the cakes, one white with sprinkles, the other chocolate. I’m baking at 7250 feet, so cupcakes are the best way to go for me. (I learned this the hard way shortly after we moved here, when I tried three batches of brownies on the day I was supposed to bring a dessert to a party. I ended up taking the version that was least deflated in the middle, after smothering it with thick frosting.)

The kids had a lot of fun crumbling the cupcakes into a bowl.

This is where things started to take a downhill turn. I had hoped to make white sprinkly cake pops, but the Funfetti frosting I bought actually was chocolate, not white. I also added too much of the frosting at first.

They don’t call me Calamitous Cook for nothing. Actually, no one calls me Calamitous Cook, but if they did, it would be justified.

Oh well. I just added more chocolate cupcakes to the mix and changed the plan: Chocolate cake pops! Yum!

Then the kids helped me roll the mixture into cake pop sized balls.

I did some adjusting before we continued to the next step:

Ah, order. Uniformity.

As evidence of the motivational powers of chocolate, it was at about this point in the process when my 10 month old learned to climb onto the table for the first time. I’ve never seen him so determined. He repeated the feat for the popsicle sticks, the melted chocolate, and everything else on the table.

I melted the baking chocolate in the microwave. Bakerella uses candy melts, and if I do this again, I’ll try those instead.

Then I set out the very small amount of Funfetti sprinkles that came with the frosting, making another mental note to buy extra sprinkles next time.

The light was dwindling outside, and since my food pictures look ghastly after dark, I started working quickly… taking risks… leaving my camera strap dangling off the edge of the table…

I dipped the end of each popsicle stick in the chocolate, then stuck it into the cake ball.

Then I dipped the cake ball into the chocolate. As instructed, I tried not to wiggle it around too much so as not to loosen the popsicle stick. After letting the excess chocolate drip off the cake ball, I stuck the popsicle stick into the florist’s foam I had purchased.

A few seconds later…

Seriously??! Do I need to sand these popsicle sticks to get the cake pops to stick to the top?

I tried adjusting the mixture by adding more cake, then trying more frosting… both of which yielded even worse results.

It was right about at this point that the 10 month old pulled my camera off the table and crashed it onto the tile.

And it was right about at that point that I was ready to burst into tears.

This is precisely why I can’t understand why people love cooking (or baking, which usually isn’t this bad for me).

So then I decided to make cake balls instead of cake pops.

I only had the mental fortitude to make nine of these – just enough for a few photos.

I had half of the batter left, so I decided to make up the rest of it into frosted cupcakes. Meanwhile, I mentally was berating myself for not being able to do anything right, for not being a normal mom who loves to bake treats, and for thinking I could handle staying home with kids. What good am I in the world if I can’t even successfully make cake pops for my kids?!

Not that I am ever overly dramatic about anything.

It wasn’t until I had gone through all of this that I remembered one key step:

Put the rolled cake balls into the freezer for 15 minutes; then move them to the refrigerator while preparing the candy coating.

Oh.

It’s amazing what one small piece of information can sometimes do for a person’s outlook on life.

Yes, I’ve picked you to adopt my baby.

Yes, I’ll come clean your kitchen after you make cake pops.

After the second batch of cupcakes came out of the oven, I gave it another go:

Bingo!

I got sixteen successful cake pops out of that experience.

Whew! I’m not sure I want to attempt this again for the party, but I’m back in business as far as conquering the kitchen goes.

I promise that cake pops would be very easy for people with normal cooking ability. Bakerella has a how-to video on her Amazon site. While you’re there, if you’re extra crafty, you can buy her book and learn all kinds of ways to turn cake pops into fun, impressive creations!

For the next post I am going to attempt I Am Baker’s hydrangea sculpted cake! Just kidding!!!