The six of us remaining on Bennett Place are standing in solidarity with Jake as he endures six weeks of physical and mental trials during Basic Cadet Training by 1. giving up electronics, and 2. giving up sweets. Number one has been pretty easy.

Giving up dessert on the other hand… It has revealed to me just how addicted to sugar I am. When we get to the end of dinner, you can often find me bellyaching (literally) about how much I want dessert. I like to keep it real for the kids, after all.

In the midst of this sugar ban, Corner Mouse Catering had a couple jobs last week. One entailed baking 150 chocolate chip cookies. The second was making 60 cake pops for a baby shower. Corner Mouse is accustomed to taste testing the products to be sure they are fit for selling (their name is built upon this tradition); however, there could be no taste testing this time for Johanik employees. They overcame and still very much enjoyed the process.

Peter and Jeremy began in the morning by forming the cake balls.

They lined them up in “squadrons” with a “cadre” leading each one. (We are finding that the Long Blue Line extends all the way to Aurora, IL these days!)

Later in the day they were joined by another employee for the dipping, decorating and wrapping. They rather enjoyed themselves.

After being wrapped up and arranged on a platter, the pops were ready to be delivered the next day.

And since there was no taste testing, we hope they tasted as good as they looked!