Is it just me, or are cake pops everywhere? I seem to think I see them a little more frequently these days. Maybe its because I work at Starbucks, where last year they came out with three unique flavors; then added a new peppermint brownie pop over Christmas that became my vice…and then now they have a new Raspberry Truffle cake pop that is quite indulgent…(by the way, Starbucks did not hire me to endorse their new cake pops…I just happen to think they are special!)

Moving on…Who can go to Kohl’s lately and not notice their line of Babycakes treat makers? Cake Pops, cupcakes, mini donuts, waffles sticks…you name it! And they come in such inviting pastel colored boxes that lure me to them and make me feel like I absolutely cannot leave that store without one under my arm. Ok, well, that happened one time-the time time I came home with this cake pop maker. I am already the proud owner of a mini donut maker that I received as a Christmas gift (review post to come…!)

Yesterday was our first time pulling our new appliance out of the box since we brought it home three weeks ago!

Why did it take three weeks? Good question. Time, maybe. Lack of confidence…probably. But how hard could it possibly be? It’s a cake-pop-MAKER. Makes it for me.

Out of the little booklet of recipes and tips, I chose this lemon flavored one.

Here is the cake pop maker out of the box. See? Pretty purple. My favorite color, even! The “ready” light is on. Green means go!

After preparing the batter, I was told in the instruction manual to spoon it into a large zip lock bag and cut the corner off. Then I squeezed a tablespoon of the contents into each little pop mold on the maker.

So nice…just like this!

Lower the lid of the maker and wait  4 to 5 minutes.

Then they look like this when you take them out with the little 2-pronged fork that is provided. Cute right? (Spoiler…but I’m beginning to think that next time I will just leave them like this because the rest of the process is not all rainbows and butterflies like it has been so far…)

I decided to modify the glaze recipe that I found in the booklet by making it a lemon flavor. I simply used lemon extract instead of vanilla.

So, I started with these white chocolate chips.

With heavy whipping cream and butter.

Did I mention it’s really healthy? 😉

Then I added powdered sugar to the mix…

 …and melted it all together in a homemade double boiler.

Do you like my effort to take artistic liberties with the cake pop sticks?

First I was instructed to coat about an inch or two of the end of the stick in the glaze and then, after freezing the cooled cake balls for 15 minutes, insert it into the ball.

That up there is what happened. They slid right down.

Ooops. Then this happened. It fell right off the stick!

Ew. Then this happened. I don’t think the glaze was supposed to be so thick.

This was when we (I’ve solicited Chris’s help by now…) realized that maybe the bowl that we were dipping the cake pops in was too shallow.

So, the only deeper and narrower vessel that I could find on the fly was this insulated Starbucks cup.

But guess what? It worked better!

I was quite over the whole thing when I remembered that the Nutella Bandwagan recently stopped by and I jumped on it! I figured I didn’t actually need a stick, I could just dip the cake ball into the Nutella and…viola! Delicious!

Once we figured out the kinks, like dipping it deeper and quickly moving each one into the freezer right away, they turned out pretty good.

Just do me a favor and try and imagine how I originally imagined them finished: pure white coating with fresh lemon zest sprinkled whimsically all on top.

Can you imagine that?

So pretty, right? Thank you. I worked really hard on them. I think the zest is a lovely touch! (wink wink!)

My final comment is this: It’s too hard. I will try it again, however, but I really believed that when I got a cake pop MAKER, the trickiness would have been eliminated. That’s why it deserves at least one more chance. Otherwise, I’ll be making donut holes from now on I guess!