Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Fake Cake Pops, FTW!

Sweet program idea, coming at you!

Cake pops.  

Adorable.  Tasty.  Sugary.  Not always the easiest to make. (and, let's be frank, finding time to make enough for a program can be...difficult, to say the least.  see also: ain't nobody got time for that)

Back in July, a post appeared on the Teen Services Underground group on Facebook, penned by Judith W. from Alabama in which she shared her brilliant idea of a cake pop decorating program using...

Image result for wait for it psych

DONUT HOLES.

This program is easy and fun, allowing the participants to be creative and--because of this--practically self-run.

I just had to try it!

In the original post, the library opted to hold a variety of creation challenges, including emojis and monsters.  Given that I was holding the program during October, I chose to embrace CREEPY Cake Pops.

                               

Supplies:
  • donut holes
  • treat sticks (can be found in the baking/craft area of Walmart, Target, your store of choice)
  • icing tubes
  • candy
  • sprinkles
  • candy melts
  • foam or some sort of stand to allow the pops to harden after decorating
  • bowls/napkins/spoons
Of course, the supplies list can be altered, depending on your theme, etc.  

The kids and parents who attended had a great time, but there was one hiccup.  We offered an assortment of candy melts but--as anyone who's used them before knows--those little melts can be rather finicky, depending on your microwave/heating apparatus.  After some trial and error, the participants figured out the magic number (both in terms of melts to include and time needed to melt without overcooking) but some of the kids decided instead to use the sparkly icing tubes as adhesive instead.  Both options ended up scary successes, but just something to keep in mind if you decide to do something like this at your library!

We had a blast with this program!  Thanks to Judith W. for so generously sharing her idea on Teen Services Underground!

I'll definitely be utilizing this sweet little program again in the future.





2 comments:

Adam said...

How did you go about determining how many each kid got to make? How long did the program last for each participant approximately?

Katherine Schoofs said...

Hi Adam!

Each participant made 2 pops...and, depending on the level of detail, most kids spent about 30ish minutes or so? Of course, some finished quite quickly--as they were primarily interested in eating them--but when you challenge them to create a specifically themed something, most of the participants took their time to create some really fun/silly works of edible art.