Cake Pops With Caleb

I'm always trying to think of activities to do with my nephew that he will actually 1) want to participate in and 2) not get bored with. You always want to build memorable times with your family, and sharing something new with Caleb has not only been fun, it has opened my eyes to how someone new can view something I have been familiar with for years. I have a ton of hobbies and I like to share those with him in case one of them catches his interest.

So when Caleb asked me to make him some cake pops, I took the opportunity to suggest to him that we make those cake pops together.

We made two different kinds of cake pops: chocolate cake with peanut butter candy coating, and s'mores pops with chocolate cake and marshmallow candy coating. I prepped for the activity making the cake crumbs and assembling all of the ingredients for decorating the pops: candy melts in peanut butter and marshmallow flavors, jumbo and mini marshmallows, chocolate sprinkles, chopped chocolate bars, chopped peanut buttercups, chopped pecans, graham cracker crumbs, and mini chocolate chips.

Caleb helped in shaping the cake pops. When he realized how quickly I was rolling them, he decided to make it competitive and see who could make more. By the time we finished, his round pieces of cake were more like crooked oblong shapes. He found this hilarious and good-naturedly fixed his pieces so they were more regularly looking.

While he washed his hands, I inserted the popsicle sticks, dipped them in candy coating, and chilled them so they would set. When Caleb came back, it was time to decorate. And boy did he. After showing him how to use the melted candy as a 'glue' to affix his decorations onto the pops, he went to town.

It was interesting to see how he choose which toppings to use. Unlike an adult, whose first question when faced with multiple choices is usually, "How do I start?", he dove right in, not bothered with keeping things neat or symmetrical, using every angle of the pop and not just the very top, and not caring what anyone else thinks about what he was making. He was also thoughtful of the people in his life: he made specific pops for his dad, mom, Papa (grandfather), Nana (grandmother), and even my boyfriend, RJ.

Half of the various toppings made it onto the pops, the other half he popped directly into his mouth. I swear his laughter got more frantic the longer we went on (probably in relation to his sugar hype). I certainly will remember this day for years to come, and hopefully he will too.

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