Anyone who knows me knows that I go to Starbucks almost every day. And most of those days I have one or both of the girls. For some unknown reason I introduced Aria to the cake pops and she is now obsessed.

I have no shame in admitting it’s totally our bargaining chip most days! So, I thought it would be fun to make them at home with her and let her decorate them. Besides just doing the activity and letting her eat them, I also try and do as many baking/cooking project with her as possible.

I’ve always been a pretty good cook and baker and I want my girls to feel like they know their way around a kitchen. I just feel like it’s so important and more times than not I hear people my age talking about how they can’t cook…I mean not even able to follow a recipe and it turn out well. I just don’t get that, and I don’t want that to be one of my girls!

Plus, Aria is one of the pickiest eaters I know, so I’m hoping getting her involved in the kitchen will one day get her interested in foods other than pizza and cheese quesadillas.

Anyway, back to the cake pops. They are actually really easy to make. I mean you just make a cake from the box as directed, let it cool then crumble it and stir with icing just until they’re moist enough to form into a ball (I never measure anything but I used about 1/2 jar of icing to 3/4 of a 13×9 inch cake) THAT’S IT.

They aren’t easy to make look perfect, but they still taste great. A few tips/tricks I’ve learned are 1) chill the mixture before forming into balls 2) freeze the balls for at least a few hours-overnight and 3) dip the stick into the chocolate prior to putting into the cake ball and freeze again for another 30 minutes before starting to dip into the chocolate.