I had trouble with the first one, so after getting a Replacement it worked! After reading the reviews I also got a cupcake dispenser called "Tovolo Cupcake Pen." Then cake batter in the fridge for about ten mins. I gave it about four to six mins to bake. And dang what a difference. I unplugged the Machine every time I take out cake pops and poor in the cake batter.

Cake pops are a hit in our house but they are so expensive to buy already made, so I was excited to get a bunch of tools to make our own at home. My family was excited too since that now meant we could make whichever flavor combo we want at any time! The first couple times we started by picking out a couple cake box batters to test. It worked so well, we followed the box recipe but just added the water based on consistency and didn't add it all into the batter. The cake pop maker is similar to a waffle maker and how it works so it's super easy. The plates are non-stick and we just filled them almost to the top with batter and closed/locked it. The light indicates when it's heated, ready and done, so it really is a no brainer and takes no time at all. The pops turn out perfect every time and when accidentally filled too much, it's still easy to remove from the plates and pick off the excess. The unit itself is very compact which is great if you use it so much that it stays out on your counter (like my house). Easy to clean, I just take a damp paper towel and wipe the plates down. Nothing sticks to it! We now have cake pops for any, all and no specific occasion!

I ordered this to make cake pops for my son's birthday. I am glad I tried it well before so I knew what would actually happen. The holes don't line up, so every cake pop was slightly off. The righting on the top near the lights where it says "heating" (I think) and "Ready" rubbed almost completely off in the first try. I guess due to the heat. The top of the cooker got so hot, I had to use an oven mit to try to clasp it. This made it very hard to put the lock in place and open it. Also, I had to move extremely fast to get all the holes filled, since it starts cooking immediately, so the last ones that I filled would be more round then the first ones I filled, which seemed to be flatter.

I used my own cake recipe for the cake pops, and I not sure that if I had used the recipes from the cook book if that would have made a difference, but the instructions did not say anything about this and I was making gluten free cake pops.

The last thing I want to mention, is that in all the YouTube videos that I watched on making cake pops, they made a cake, crumbled it and mixed it with frosting before making the balls. This makes a very dense cake that actually sticks to the sticks without falling through. We had a few, where the stick went straight through the cake because once we put the chocolate on it, it was too heavy.

Unfortunately, I will probably only use this to mold the the circles now.

First off, this mini cake pop maker is a life saver! I used to make cake pops the traditional way with crumbled cake and frosting, then followed by rolling them into balls but that whole process took far too much time so I decided to invest in this machine. With this machine I don't have to worry about the consistency of the cake pop and the frosting (when it's too moist the cake pop will break through the lollipop stick or it can sometimes break when you coat your chocolate due to the weight- very frustrating!).

The first time I used this machine, I used brownie mix and it turned out to be a disaster. The brownies would stick on the non sticking plate even though I rubbed/sprayed cooking spray on it every single time. The second time I used the cake mix box sold in stores and they came out to be perfect! Greasing the plates were not required because they popped right out and in perfect shape! When I poured too much cake batter into the maker, it'd overflow and leave extra cake scraps but it's easy to remove. Some of the balls had "Saturn" rings around it and I kept it that way without trimming the edges because it wasn't too visible and it kind of gave the cake pop a natural lollipop look to it. In the end I coated my cake balls with Wilton Candy Melts which can be purchased in Walmart, Michaels, or Joanns.

Pros:
Easy to use
Easy to clean
Makes the cake pops extremely fast! (3-5 minutes for a batch)

Cons:
Machine gets extremely hot so make sure to touch the handle for open and close access

Overall my experience with this machine was good. I wasn't too happy with this machine at first because my pops failed (with the brownie mix).. but practice makes perfect right? They came out perfect the second time (as shown in my pictures when I used cake mix) so don't be discourage if you fail the first few times because you need to get the hang of it first. It is recommended that you do test the machine to make sure it works properly and test your cake balls before you decide to make cake pops for any occasions.

Once you get the hang of it, you will love it. I usually put the cake mix in a zip lock bag to pour it in babycakes :) So many cake pops in so little time !!!