Cake Pop Maker: A Review

You may recall that Sammy LOVES to bake...at school, at home, anywhere, anytime. (If you knew his mommy in college, then you'd know exactly where Sammy gets his penchant for baking!) So Gammy thought of a very clever birthday gift for him: a Cake Pop maker! Do you know Cake Pops?

You can find them all over lately...with a variety of names, including "Bake Pops." The ones above are from Starburcks where they cost $1.50 each (two for $2.50 and six for $7.50). But Sammy's new gift begs the question, "Is making them yourself more fun than buying them...and cheaper, too??"

Well, against my better judgment for the task at hand (but totally in line with how we try to feed Sammy and Brie healthy food!), I bought this organic cake mix for our culinary adventure (the instructions say to use a mix):

It looked promising at first...

But the end result was a total flop. The pops burned and broke apart. 

Well, that was yesterday and today is a new day, right? We resolved to try out our Cake Pops again, but with a more conventional gameplan: Good ol' Betty Crocker with a significant amount of Pam. Oh, and we cut the baking time down from the recommended 25 minutes to 22 minutes.

And whaddya know? It worked like a charm! (The dark halves were facing down and the lighter halves were facing up. Not sure why they baked like that.)

Our taste-testers gave our homemade Cake Pops two thumbs up! (We did not put the Cake Pops on sticks for fear that they would become mini weapons or choking hazards.) The lack of stick (and chocolate icing) did not seem to affect the reviews. (Though we may need to start calling them "Cake Balls"...)

In conclusion, we would recommend this fun contraption, but advise that one uses lots of Pam and the "less nutritious" cake mix! (We did still use organic eggs and milk, though!) As for cost-effectiveness, I did have to buy two cake mixes and extra eggs (a total of $7.02), but today's 18 pops came to just $.14 a piece! (Both times there was enough batter left over to make a mini-cake loaf, so this was a perk! If I had made more pops with the extra batter, then they would have been even cheaper!) A worthwhile baking venture, indeed!

P.S. "How did you all celebrate your baking success AND channel your subsequent sugar high?" you ask? We played "tent" in the living room...something the kids get a huge kick out of lately. ;-)