I succumbed...

The cake pops - and balls - that I've always made are delicious, but they are time consuming to make.  I usually spread the work out over a few days.  Day 1: bake cake and let it cool.  Day 2: crumble and mix with icing, let chill overnight in the fridge.  Day 3: roll cake-icing mixture into balls, allow to chill overnight.  Days 4&5: dip cake balls into chocolate, again allow to chill overnight.  Delicious?  Yes!  Pain in the ass to make?  Well, yeah, kinda.  But they are always so well received, so I continue to make them.  Plus, have I mentioned that they're delicious?

Then came all these new cake ball making contraptions.  Now I'll be honest with you (which I know is exactly what you want), and tell you that I think all of these cake pop baking things are just making baked donut holes, since there is no icing mixed in, but there is some appeal to their ease of use.

There's one that looks like a small George Forman-type grill with cavities for cake batter, and then there's this thing, which I impulsively purchased today at Bed, Bath, & Beyond when they didn't have the gift I went there looking for.

I'm planning on testing this out with boxed cake mix, but I'm also excited to try it with homemade cake batter, since I don't need to worry about the ratio of cake to icing when I use this.  Stay tuned!