Cake Pops: When 'Easy' Recipes Take Too Much Time

My adventures in baking are usually pretty successful. I grew up spending a lot of time making cakes, cookies and whatever other sweet treats would pass the time between the school bus dropping me off and my mom getting home from work.

Baking beat boredom.

In the last few years, I've significantly cut back on my baking and sweet making. It's been good for my health and good for me getting other things done. But this weekend I decided to spend a little bit of my free time jumping on the bandwagon of a trend that's a few years in the making ... Cake Pops. Even Starbucks has gotten on board with these little treats on a stick.

The woman who wrote the book (seriously, she wrote this book) on cake pops, is well-known food blogger Bakerella. She's made cake pops in simple form (reference what I did) and much more complicated and decorated.

After I watched a Bakerella video on tips and tricks, I went to work. I baked the cake, cooled it off and crumbled it up. I added the frosting, mixed it and rolled it into balls and popped it in the freezer. Just like she said.

Already, I was over this project. Even though I was making them for a co-worker's birthday, I thought about scrapping the whole thing right then and there. I was not even sure I was getting a dozen cake pops from the recipe, which is expected to create twice that many ... at least.

But I carried on and hours later, I was dipping the uncoated cake balls into melted white candy coating. Add some sprinkles, wrap them up and tie them in a bow and finally I finished.

Baking used to be a way I managed my stress. Cake pops, I now know, are not an appropriate project to relieve stress - even if they did turn out looking just right.