Tuesday Tutorial (On A Monday) - Popcorn Cakepops

I'm a crafty person.  I've a few skills that don't involve sewing or power tools.  I often see things in my head and I'm all YES! That is going to be so awesome when I make that.  And then sometimes, not so much.

A few weeks ago we had a movie viewing party for the boy, (more on that Friday).  A glorified playdate, really.  Now, I've had in my head for awhile to make cake pops that looked like popcorn.  Oh wait, you say, why don't you make the Bakerella ones?

Like I said, in my head I saw something cooler. Let me preface that this is actually two attempts, before my Babycakes Cake Pop maker and after. The actual ones served at the party were B.C.  Once again, let me preface they looked way better in my head.  As the boy would say, 'epic fail'. But I'm all about sharing the crafting highs and lows.

Now, I'm over using cake for pops because, honestly, I can never get the texture right, and they taste too doughy.  So I use brownies because they are wonderfully dense and easily roll into whatever shape you like just like the standard cake-and-frosting formula.  Except it's always chocolate, but what's the problem with that?

OK, so already, things are going sideways...I can't get them perfectly round (which is what I see in my head) and that's always my problem...and yes, they look like little balls of poo...

So then, I dabbed half mini marshmallows in candy melts to 'glue' them on after I inserted the candy sticks...OK...back on track...we can do this.

The moment I stuck the ball into the candy melts, the weight dragged the marshmallows off. Oh, and the bumpy texture glares right through.  The vision in my head went poof. Seriously, poof.

Alrighty, Plan B. We can combat the sliding marshmallows by dipping the ball in first, then adding the marshmallows.  Now it will really look more like popcorn.

No.  This is the devastation from the bottom.

OK, let's revist Plan A with Plan B. Dip in chocolate, add marshmallows and dip again. Maybe if I sprinkle yellow sugar on them to make them look like butter on popcorn?

Wow.  Seriously, poof. I think that spot there is either my tears or brownie grease.

I was hellbent on making them look like they do in my head.  I already told everyone I knew I was making them. After several even more embarrassing variations, I let it go.  The boy said they were fine, so I rolled with it.  I put them out there like I totally meant for them to look like that.  The kids knew instantly what they were, so points on that mark.

The moral to my story...I wish I had a kitchen full of test cooks who could do all the embarrassing legwork and send me a memo in black Sharpie,  'EPIC FAIL'.

Now, let's see what happens with the cake pop maker.

Hmm...round.  Already starting off great.

Then I dipped half the cake pop into the white candy melt, then set on a little bed of mini marshmallows.

This time, when I dipped the whole thing, the marshmallows were well secured and didn't move. Still not the vision in my head, but way better looking than my first run.

Moral of the story, buy a cake pop maker! Oh, and if your project does not succeed, try and try again!