Cake Pops "Take 1" & a "Growth Mindset"

I can't remember when I first saw cake pops or wanted to make them -- I think it was on the cover of a groovy baking book I passed in a store or perhaps on a baking blog -- but for a long time I wanted to try. One day, my awesome sister-in-law (SIL) and I decided to give it a go. We bought a book and some supplies at Michaels, did some googling for tips, and dove in. And the result was....that we had fun and learned a lot, but the cake pops were far from those you'd see on the cover of a book. This is where the "growth mindset" comes in. We didn't give up -- my next blog will be "Cake Pops - Take 2" -- we've gotten good, it just took a few rounds of practice and learning from experience.

This is such an important lesson for me to remember; so often I try something new, especially when "crafting," and expect to do perfectly the first time -- I'm facing this struggle right now with both my attempts to paint and sew; I'm a total novice and need to just try things, practice and not care if they're "bad," but that's hard for me to do.

However, like anything in life, most new skills take learning/lessons and practice. So I am trying to remember that and adopt a "growth mindset" that I can learn and get better at anything new if I'm willing to try, mess up a few times, and keep at it! Must remember and re-read this when my next painting and sewing projects turn out less beautifully in real life than the visions I have in my mind's eye. And I'm hoping to chronicle more of my crafting attempts and successes on this blog -- and I'm sure I'll get better at blogging along the way too :)

So, on to cake pops...

Here is our very first every batch of cake pops -- they are the size of caramel apples -- too big to eat off a stick and very hard to coat as well because they get heavy!

Now a bit about how we *used* to make cake pops (before we'd learned from experience and tried a few methods a few different times)...

Everything I read initially said to make a cake, then let it cool, mush it up into a million crumbs, add some frosting to "glue" it back together, roll into balls, insert lollypop sticks with a bit of melted chocolate, refrigerate then coat with melted chocolate or other candy melts and decorate, and then refrigerate AGAIN one last time for good measure (and to be sure the shell and decorations firm up enough). In case it's not obvious, that is LABOR INTENSIVE, my friends!

Here's how it all went the first time:

Bake yellow and chocolate cakes. Check.

Cut up and let cool. Check.

Crumble into a million pieces and add frosting. Check.

Roll into cake balls. Check.

Insert sticks with a dab of melted chocolate, refrigerate. Check.

Decorate and refrigerate again. Check.

And voila, cake pops!

Pretty cute, right?! We were certainly proud of ourselves at the end -- though they took HOURS to make and they were... fragile! Again, the balls being the size of apples (and from reconsituted cake) made for all sorts of problems in making (and eating) them. But, even though they weren't book-cover-good yet, we had a blast, still loved the outcome and were determined to learn how to make them better/cuter/faster. Plus, when people saw these, they started asking us to make them for parties -- so we knew had to get both better and more efficient at it. Stay tuned for our progress in Cake Pops - Take 2!