Easter Cake Pop Recipe

March is coming and with it the bakery's fifth anniversary and the growing noise of a virus that I am trying very hard to believe will not come to El Paso. The news says it is in Washington State now. Cases in California. The word "lockdown" appearing in sentences about other cities, other states, other lives. Not ours. Not here. The desert is a moat and the conchas are a shield and I am building a wall of denial because denial is the only material I have and the wall is the only thing between my bakery and the thing I cannot yet imagine.

Sofia is planning the fifth-anniversary celebration. She has ideas — bigger than last year, more ambitious, a block party instead of just the bakery. She wants a DJ. She wants a taco truck parked outside (a collaboration, not competition, she insists — "synergy," she calls it, a word I did not teach her and YouTube did). She wants the farmers' market vendors to participate. She is fourteen and she is planning a block party and the party will happen on March 15 and nothing will stop it. (Something will stop it. I don't know this yet.)

Luis Jr. is three months from coming home. The countdown has reversed — no longer counting down to departure but counting down to return, and the counting-down-to-return is the best kind of counting, the kind where each number is smaller than the last and smaller is closer and closer is the whole prayer. He called on Sunday: "Three months, Mom." I said: "I'm making tamales." He said: "Start now." He was joking. I was not. The tamale production for his homecoming has already begun in my head, and the mental tamales are perfect, and the real ones will be too.

I made the bakery's five-year anniversary conchas early — a special design, with a "5" pressed into the sugar topping, in every color. Pink, chocolate, vanilla, the ube that Sofia tried years ago (it sells now — the customers caught up, just as Sofia predicted). Five colors. Five years. One recipe. Rosa's recipe. The same recipe that was in the first batch and will be in the last batch and every batch in between, because the recipe is the backbone and the backbone does not bend.

Camila's spring concert with the chorus is scheduled for April 5. She is rehearsing four songs: a Handel aria, a folk medley, a modern choral piece, and "De Colores" — which Ms. Torres added to the program because Camila requested it and because the request was made with the particular Camila intensity that is more effective than any formal petition. Ms. Torres said: "She asked me with her voice, not her words. She sang the first line and I couldn't say no." That is Camila's power. Not persuasion. Demonstration. She doesn't ask for things. She sings them into existence.

The conchas were already done — the "5" pressed into every sugar shell, five colors lined up on the rack like a crown — but I still had Sofia’s block party in my head, the taco truck, the DJ, the vendors, all that color and noise she had planned so carefully. I wanted something for the celebration table that matched that energy: individual, festive, impossible to ignore. These cake pops are what I landed on. One for every year, one for every color, one for everyone who has walked through the bakery door and become part of this story.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min (includes chilling) | Servings: 24 cake pops

Ingredients

1 box (15.25 oz) vanilla or white cake mix, plus ingredients listed on box (eggs, oil, water)
1/2 cup store-bought vanilla frosting (about half a 16 oz can)
24 lollipop sticks
16 oz white candy melts, divided into portions
Gel food coloring in pink, lavender, yellow, sky blue, and white
Assorted pastel sprinkles or sanding sugar for decorating
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening (to thin the candy coating if needed)

Instructions

Bake the cake. Prepare and bake the cake according to package directions in a 9x13-inch pan. Let cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
Crumble and mix. Break the cooled cake into fine crumbles in a large bowl. Add the frosting and mix with your hands or a fork until the mixture holds together when pressed — it should feel like dense cookie dough. Do not add too much frosting or the pops will be heavy.
Roll and chill. Scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into smooth balls. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, or freeze for 10 minutes, until firm.
Set the sticks. Melt a small amount of candy melts. Dip the tip of each lollipop stick about 1/2 inch into the melted coating, then insert it halfway into a chilled cake ball. Return to the lined sheet and refrigerate 10 more minutes to set.
Melt and tint the coating. Divide the remaining white candy melts into five microwave-safe bowls. Melt each in 30-second intervals, stirring between bursts, until smooth. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon shortening per bowl if the coating seems thick. Tint each bowl a different pastel color with gel food coloring.
Dip the pops. Hold each cake pop by the stick and dip straight down into the colored coating, submerging fully. Lift out and let excess drip off by gently tapping your wrist — do not shake. Add sprinkles immediately before the coating sets.
Stand and dry. Place finished pops upright in a foam block, a tall glass filled with rice, or a cake pop stand. Let set at room temperature for 15 minutes until the coating is firm and glossy.
Arrange and serve. Display in color groups or mix them together. Store loosely covered at room temperature up to 2 days, or refrigerate up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easter Cake Pop Recipe — Five Colors, Five Years, One Sweet Celebration