Why I Make Cake Pops

We need to talk about two VERY different delicacies for just a minute.

No Bake Cookies:

Photo by foodnetwork.com

These oaty, peanut buttery blobs taste like my childhood holidays. There was not a celebration that did not involve these insulin-shocking delights. There are exactly four steps to make them:

1. Cover every inch of available counter space with wax paper.
2. Heat sugar, milk, butter, cocoa until it boils for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat. Add oats, peanut butter, and vanilla.
4. Immediately drop spoonfuls of mixture onto wax paper to set.

Bonus step: Give yourself a stomachache by eating 89 cookies worth of bonus bites that crumbled onto wax paper.

That’s it! It only takes 10 minutes to make it a holiday!

Cake Pops:

Magical, bite-size desserts on a stick! There are about 932 steps to make ONE BITE.

1. Bake a cake.
2. Crumble your cake, and mix with frosting.
3. Roll into balls.
4. Chill.
5. Melt chocolate for dipping.
6. Dip sticks into chocolate and insert into cake balls to set.
7. Chill again.
8. Dip cake pop into chocolate, carefully letting excess drip off.
9. Garnish with sprinkles.
10. Stand cake pops into pre-punctured box or styrofoam to set upright.
11. Chill.
12. Cover with plastic, and add a ribbon just for fun (because… COVID).

I stopped eating sugar three years ago. Yet I keep making those dadgum No Bake Cookies every year as though they are the recipe for joy. The great news about 2020 is that we get a fresh start on EVERYTHING. We get to re-think how we do things and why because every.single.thing. is different.

Lifa has been looking forward to his Grade 7 activities for YEARS. It’s supposed to be a year full of special events to commemorate the passage from primary school to high school. Every single event was cancelled except his market day sales.

Understandably, he wanted to go big for this much-anticipated event. I jumped on board, helping him research products and brainstorm marketing. I signed us up to make EIGHTY CAKE POPS. (Note: I had never made a single one before.)

We started working through the steps an entire week before the sales began. There were many trips to the shops, and a few cake pop casualties. But you know what… Lifa felt like a king. We spent hours together planning, preparing, and popping. We both learned how to make something new, and I learned something about being a mom.

I don’t have to make No Bake Cookies ever again. Those delicious little sugar bombs are really just me feeling guilty for my kids not having the extended family-filled rituals and celebrations I had. It’s making an extra mess to hold onto something that just doesn’t fit anymore.

But Cake Pops. Those suckers make five days worth of extra messes, but they showed Lifa he was worth it. He is worth the extra mess. He is worth going the extra mile. Making cake pops in the kitchen is a great, “easy” way to show Lifa I’m on his team. His overly-efficient mama will be ridiculous about what’s important to him.

With every cake pop we stuck in a box, we put a stake in the ground. One day, when life happens and Lifa is dealing with bigger problems, greater sins, and bearing the weight of the world, he’s going to need to know his mom is on his team. Those tedious hours in the kitchen laid a foundation. He can always come home to my kitchen, and I’ll be ridiculous for him. I’ll clean up extra messes with him, and I’ll care about what he cares about.

Lifa won’t have the same family experience I had. His holidays won’t smell, taste or sound the same. I’m coming to terms with that. He will have his own experience of family, and that’s what he needs the most.

This holiday season, let’s be people and families who go the extra mile for the things that matter. Whether it’s in the kitchen, classroom, car, workplace, or backyard… Don’t do things just to do them. This is not the season to recreate what has already been done. This is season to do what matters.