Chocolate Covered Coconut Almond Cake Ball

I totally know I could have come up with a shorter title than "Chocolate Covered Coconut Almond Cake Ball" but the candy bar name was already taken. I don't know maybe I can call it "My Nutty Paradise" . . . because you know, coconuts come from Paradise :) and chocolate is paradise :) :) and it has a nut in it. OK that's it, I call dibs on a second name being Nutty Paradise for this cake ball! Because the Almond Joy candy bar is one of my mom's favorites and with all the Facebook suggestions, I discovered a "candy bar" theme, I decided to start with this one.

Ingredients:
1 baked cake, cooled
1 can of icing, vanilla
Whole Almonds
Chocolate Almond Bark
2 Tablespoons Crisco (or some type of shortening)

It's a pretty simple ingredients list. On a previous blog, Cake Leftovers? Make Cakeballs, I break down the basic way I make cake balls. Today, I started with a vanilla cake mix. I actually ran out of oil, so I added another egg to my mix and I used 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water instead of just 1 cup of water. Follow your package directions or make one from scratch. Once it cools, I break it up and put it in my stand mixer. I added 1 can of vanilla frosting and 1 7oz package of coconut. I use my small cookie scoop and place small balls of my mixture on a foil lined cookie sheet. I freeze this for about 1 hour.

When I decided they were set up enough to cover in chocolate, I pulled them out of the freezer. You can definitely do this step in the refrigerator. I place a whole almond on top of my cake ball. Then I dipped it in chocolate, making sure I knew which side had the almond on it so I could place it on top. Quick tip for melting your almond bark. If you add a little bit of shortening as you are melting it, it really covers much better and smoother.

From my cake, I made approximately 5 dozen, but I only had enough to chocolate to cover about 4 dozen. I put what I had left in a freezer bag (without the almond) to coat another day. By having some in my freezer, these cake balls (or any of them for that matter) are the perfect thing to make for a WOW dessert when you are in a bind. I took these up to the school and the teachers really enjoyed them.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake Balls

Cake balls have become a little obsession of mine. Chocolate covered cherries have ALWAYS been an obsession of mine, so I just had to combine the two. It's the perfect way to use up leftover cake. . . or to just make a cake from a cake mix just for cake balls! One of the things I love about cake balls, is that even though they take a decent amount of time to complete, you can do it in about 30 minutes at a time, whenever you have time. How awesome is that?!

 From the time it takes you to make a cake from a cake mix until the time you take it out might be 30 minutes total. Let the cake cool. . . you can do it in about an hour or just let it sit overnight. Find your favorite flavor of icing (or one you think will go great with the cake you have made). Now you mix the two together. I generally put mine in my stand mixer and just let the two ingredients mix. I use my handy-dandy small "cookie" scoop (Pampered Chef is my favorite, but I left mine at my mom's house so I got another brand from the store). FYI--the other sizes work great too; cake balls are generally so rich the smaller pieces are better. Place it on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer to let them harden as these are a little mushy. It doesn't matter how long you leave them in the freezer either. If you do leave them in for longer than a day, it would be a good idea to put them in a freezer bag. Sometimes, I will make a batch and only coat a few with candy and leave the rest in the freezer until I'm ready for more. Other times, like today, I made the whole thing. I totally intend to share! ;) Coat them in your favorite candy coating. I like Wilton Candy Melts and Almond Bark. Today I used chocolate Almond Bark. See how easy it would be to break it down into smaller time commitments? Each "step" of actual works takes about 30 minutes.

Now on to the specifics as to what I did on this day.

(Step 1) I used a Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake mix. I baked it according to the package directions. (Step 2) After I let it cool, I combined a can of store bought cream cheese icing and my cake that I had broken up into my mixer. Since I didn't have a can of cherry icing, and I wanted a strong cherry flavor, I used about a half jar of maraschino cherries and juice. I mixed those right in there too. I lined a couple of cookies sheets with foil (parchment paper works really great here too, but I realized I was out), and I used my smallest scoop and got about 5-6 dozen from this. I really can't tell how many because I have eaten a few :)  Anyway, I popped these in the freezer for a couple of hours. I took a poll on Facebook as to what I should cover these with, vanilla or chocolate. Chocolate won. My plan was to do the chocolate until I ran out, and then finish up with vanilla, but my one and a half pounds of chocolate almond bark was more than enough to finish the job. One little trick that I know I have mentioned before, but it is most definitely worth repeating, add a little Crisco (about a couple of tablespoons) to your candy as your are melting it. It smooths out everything quite beautifully and makes for an easier dipping process. (Step 3) I melted this all together in a bowl in the microwave. I pulled my now frozen cake balls out of the freezer and I then kind of "reformed" them into the shape of a ball. I dropped it into my chocolate and swirled it around with a spoon. I placed it on waxed paper to set up. I found a few cherry flavored chips and melted those in a double boiler (ok so really it was a glass bowl on top of a saucepot filled with boiling water) and I "sprinkled" it on top.

The end result is quite tasty, at least it is to me. I am going to share these with the teachers at my kids' school and I hope they like cherry chocolate as much as I do. If not, I will just have to put the finished product in my freezer and pull a few out any time I need a pick-me-up, or a chocolate fix, or just because!

Crocking Cherry Chip Cake

It's another "Baking Monday" for me I suppose. . . it is Monday, right? With all of our bad weather (I know that is a relative term, but for us, the weather has been frightful) and the school cancellations, I am a bit confused on my days. I also decided since we were stuck at home, I would use my fabulous crock pot and make some lovely dinner. I have this amazing crock pot, we lovingly call it the "3-holer" because it is 3 smaller crock pots in one device. Anyway, I was looking on my favorite inspiration site, Pinterest, and found a fabulous new Chicken Chili recipe and then my old stand-by potato soup (I can't find the original link to it to give proper credit to its originator, but I will post a picture of my basic ingredients at the end).

Anyway, I was looking through Pinterest for a dessert to go in the crock pot. . . Logic told me I must put something in the final crock pot slot. . . upon my searching, I found this easy chocolate and fabulous dessert but I didn't have the ingredients. Since I was somewhat snowed in, and couldn't make it to the store, I took my cue from Rachael Ray who always says to look at a recipe for the "method." (I believe that the original person gave credit to Jello for the idea) I thought if it worked for chocolate pudding, chocolate cake and chocolate chips, surely, I can apply that method to what is in my pantry. I found a cherry chip cake mix, and some cherry chips, but I was struggling for the pudding. . . Cheesecake pudding mix, why not, it might be lovely! So I followed the directions on the page but I used my substitutions. You start by using a small box of instant pudding and 3 cups of milk (this is more than what you would use to make pudding). Whisk that up in the bottom of your crockpot. Then mix up your cake according to package directions. Poor the cake mix directly on top without stirring. Turn it on high and let cook. It will depend on the size of crockpot you put it in on the cook time. My crockpot was smaller and it took nearly 3 hours. (The original person posting said it took them about 2 hours) Then you put your "chips" (mine are cherry) on top, put the lid back on and turn the crock pot off. The heat will melt the chips nicely. I also didn't realize this is supposed to be a lava-type cake. I kept waiting for it to set up and it never did. . . Once I decided to test it, I realized the pudding didn't get mixed into the cake completely which makes for a liquidy goodness at the bottom. I am pretty certain that is how it's supposed to be. . . and if it isn't, it is quite a lovely mistake!

Now that this is a family approved recipe (all but my little guy, he's not a big dessert eater) I needed to blog about it. I realized the sky is the limit with the pudding, cake, and chip combos. Imagine putting on some mint chips on a chocolate cake, or using any number of different puddings. . . or maybe a banana pudding, and yellow cake and peanut butter chips (ok, so maybe that is just my own weird flavor combo). Anyway, I would love to know if you tried it and what flavors you used. I'm always looking for a new flavor combo.

Oh, and before I forget, here is the picture of the ingredients for my potato soup. Mix these ingredients and I put a little onion flake in it too. Cook it on low for several hours. Garnish with bacon, cheese, and green onions! Yummy!

Dessert Recipe Makeovers

With the weather potentially frightful weather later in the week, I had to get a few things done today. Write a blog post was not on my original agenda, but I thought hey, why not! While the weather was somewhat spring-like on this first day of December, I needed to get in a run. I wanted to spend the rest of my day baking. If I start a "baking day" with a run, I don't feel guilty at all about tasting my goodies!!!! This post is not my typical post. I am going to share three different "recipes" and my twist on them -- banana bread, peanut butter cookie yumminess (I really have no idea what they're called, they're just yumminess!!!) and another take on a butterfinger cupcake.

I have a go to banana bread recipe. It's pretty much the only one I use. I feel so much better about myself when I eat the whole loaf, er, uh, I mean when I have a slice :) because I use more whole wheat flour than white flour. I would love to take credit for its awesomeness, but I cannot. I found the original recipe here on the Betty Crocker website. I follow the recipe exactly. . . well, actually I never add the salt (I generally can't find it, but I normally don't add salt to my sweet things, even though I know the salt is supposed to bring out the flavor even more) and instead of nuts I add about a cup of mini-chocolate chips--depending on how many I have. (So I guess I don't really follow it exactly) I use the mini instead of the full sized because I like the bread's texture better when I do it that way. I don't know if it's actually the case, but it seems to give it a bit more moisture using the chocolate chips. I truly find the banana bread a little dull without that pop of flavor the chocolate brings. I also love to eat a slice warm with a little butter on it, but I find this recipe just as enjoyable really, really cold. The other incredible thing about this recipe is that it makes two full sized loaves.

I had to use the word "recipe" loosely earlier. My next tasty confection is what I lovingly refer to as peanut butter cookie yumminess. It takes 2 ingredients. Store bought peanut butter cookie dough and mini-Reese's peanut butter cups. Personally I think it works better if you use the mini-cupcake liners in your mini-muffin tin (I even spray my liners with Pam). If you are out of the liners, it will work but I think it's too difficult to get the cookie out without the liner even spraying it with Pam. Anyway, place the liner in the mini-muffin tin. Place a ball of peanut butter cookie dough in the lined muffin tin. Bake for about 10 minutes. While the cookies are still hot, place a mini-peanut butter cup into the center. Now let them cool before you eat them, uh, I mean, remove them from the muffin tin. You actually could remove the cookies first before you put in the peanut butter cup, but this blog is about how I do it and what works for me. Just because something works for me, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Recipes are just guidelines anyway. :)

My last baking item for the day will be a take on a butterfinger cupcake recipe I tried earlier this year. You can find it's blog post here. It was very tasty, but I honestly thought the cake itself was a little too crumbly for my preferences. I thought I would see what I could do with a yellow cake mix and store bought chocolate icing. Duncan Hines really has a very flavorful "whipped" chocolate icing that is a good texture to make the cute little cupcake swirl. I actually used it for cupcakes for a friend's wedding. Anyway for a different take on the butterfingery cupcakes, I made my yellow cake mix just like the box said. Then I added about a cup of peanut butter and half a small package of butterscotch pudding mix. Adding a pudding mix really punches up the flavor of a boxed cake mix. With the cake mix I used, I got about 21 cupcakes. After baking and letting cool, I topped with the chocolate store bought icing.

With time later tonight, I might just make some pumpkin muffins. Another two ingredient "recipe." Any flavor of cake mix, I will be using one of the kids' favorites if I do it. . . cherry chip and 1 can of pumpkin. I bake in my mini muffin tin for 12-15 minutes. The fabulous thing about this recipe is the options are boundless. Play up the pumpkin flavor with a yellow and add cinnamon chips or pumpkin pie spice.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Balls

The other day, my friend Sara posted that she finally found a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that she enjoyed. As our church Thanksgiving dinner was approaching, I wanted to make something amazing. I decided I would try this Paula Deen Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe. I thought I would make it twice, once to try it out and make sure it was a good recipe and once for our Thanksgiving dinner at church. Let me tell you that the recipe was delicious! Well, I decided that I would repeat that for last night.

So I decided to make this pumpkin cheesecake on Saturday evening to give it time to chill and set up for Sunday evening. I made this at my mom's house and she was kind enough to bring it to church for me, she cut it for me and even brought be a little cool whip for the top. I, being a good girl, decided I would get my dessert and let others get in line for the food ;) I am so thankful that I picked my pumpkin cheesecake, because it tasted absolutely hideous! My face puckered up like it was the most bitter thing that had been placed in my mouth. I promptly pulled that off the dessert table and hid it from everyone else. Oh, my goodness this was bad! I forgot to put the sugar in the cheesecake. Funny thing is, this isn't the first time I forgot to put sugar in something pumpkin. When I was a teenager, I decided I would make pumpkin pie. My brother tasted one bite of it, discreetly made a funny face, and then continued to eat the entire slice. I didn't realize the problem until I took a bite. I left out all the sugar. We tried to rectify this by putting sugar in it later, but that's how I knew my brother really did love me. . . he ate my sugarless pie and acted like it was tasty! Anyway, I decided I would bring it home and see if I could salvage something out of this.

I put all of my cheesecake into a large bowl, graham cracker crust and all. I added powdered sugar, probably about 1 1/2 to 2 cups. I thought the powdered sugar would be better than granulated sugar (or plain sugar as we call it in our house). I was afraid the granulated sugar would be too grainy and not dissolve all the way. It might have been fine; that was just my thought process. I pretty much added powdered sugar--to taste. After this was all blended, I chilled it for a bit; it was pretty sticky. Once it firmed up a bit, I used my medium sized pampered chef scoop and made some "cheesecake balls" and placed them on parchment paper on a sheet pan. I placed them in the freezer to firm up some more. I left them there overnight, but probably an hour is all it needed.

After removing it from the freezer

Once I pulled them out of the freezer, I coated them in some white Wilton Candy Melts. I used my trick of putting about a tablespoon of Crisco in the candy melts to make them coat a little better. I also found some "pumpkin spice" candy melts at the store. I melted a little of that as a little decoration on top of them.

Covered in white candy melts

What I learned in all of this. . . sometimes mistakes are just absolutely horrible mistakes and you just have to throw it all away and start over. Sometimes mistakes can be fixed, and it turns in to something beautifully delicious!

Drizzled with "pumpkin spice" candy melts

******I need to add something here to my original post. Just because you don't royally mess up your cheesecake, doesn't mean you can't make cheesecake balls. Just the same with cake balls, just use your leftover cheesecake of whatever flavor, or use a store bought one or make one just to use as cheesecake balls. The consistency will be slightly different from a cake ball, but your end results will be AMAZE-BALLS!!!!! Use the method, you don't necessarily have to use the recipe, but the Paula Deen recipe that I have posted the link to is quite amazing.**********************

Homemade Butterfingers, Fake-Out

Our soccer got rained out, so I thought I would pull this one out of my personal archives and blog about this one. It's a favorite fall treat using up some of that fabulous candy corn. I first found this recipe through Plain Chicken (someone I follow on Facebook), and they got it from a Taste of Home blog. I am trying to give everyone the proper credit here because this so isn't my original recipe. I make it a lot during the fall and I give it away as much as I eat it. :)

They are not quite exactly Butterfingers in taste and texture, but they remind you so much of them, you can't believe it is only 3 ingredients.

Candy Corn (about 1 pound)
Peanut Butter (about 16 oz jar)
Chocolate Candy Coating, such as Almond Bark or Wilton Candy Melts

You pretty much use equal parts of candy corn and peanut butter, but honestly if it isn't exact, it really isn't a big deal. . . It's just downright tasty however you do it. Someone once suggested using a "honey roasted" Peanut Butter. . . Skippy had one at one time. . . I honestly didn't think it did anything to it, but you can definitely use what you want. I'm not certain about other types of butters (Almond butter, sunflower butter, etc) because we don't have peanut allergies at our house, so I have never had to try them. I am not certain how they would turn out on either taste or texture.

Here is what I do:

I get one large glass bowl and dump my candy corn in it. I microwave for 1 minute. . .then I stir as best as I can. I place it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds and stir again, at this stage it is still a little tough to do. I place it back in for an additional 30 seconds. Most often by this time it is pretty good to go. Each microwave is different, so you might just have to play around a bit with your times. Once that is melted completely, I stir in my peanut butter. Again, this takes a little effort, but it is definitely worth it. I will line my pan with foil or parchment paper. Depending on how thick I want to make them and how many I want to serve, depends on what pan I put it in. Most frequently, I put it in a 11 x 7 pan, I think I get 24 when I do that. Honestly, whatever you have will work fine. I let this set up for a while. You could probably finish these up in an hour, but I generally let this sit overnight and finish in the morning. (I personally like the texture a little better, but it is totally a personal preference. It works fine either way.) I cut this into little rectangle shapes. Then I melt my candy coating according to the package directions and I dip my little bars in the candy. I place them on waxed paper to let set up. And then you are ready to eat some yummy goodness!

I hope you are enjoying my little break from cupcake blogs! It's fun to do something a little different from time to time.

Cake Leftovers?! Make Cakeballs!

I am slowly trying to get back into the "blog-o-sphere."  When the kids take the summer off, I have to take the summer off. Now that school is back in full swing. . . as well as soccer. . . I get to play in the kitchen. I have been making a few more cakes lately. When I make a cake I will level it off or cut it into a shape. I really need to do something with all those leftovers that have been removed. On a white cake once, my mom used some of the leftovers for a strawberry shortcake. I decided that I needed to make some cake balls. I've made an entire cake before with the sole purpose being to make cake balls, why can't I just use my leftover cake.

To make cake balls you need very few ingredients.

• Cake--one you make at home from scratch, a mix, store bought, or leftover cake
• Icing--your choice of homemade or store bought
• Candy Coating--Wilton Candy melts or Almond Bark are excellent options

I take my cooled cake and throw it in my mixer. Then I add my icing and mix together. Once this is finished, I shape it into balls (or whatever shape you really want. .  I did a strawberry flavor and shaped them into that shape), and then I place them into the freezer. Once they have solidified a bit, I follow my package directions on the candy coating, and I dip my cake balls into the candy and place on wax paper to set up. These will refrigerate for a while. I have even had some friends freeze the finished product. If I don't have time to complete all of them, I keep my cake balls, frozen in a ziploc baggie, and I can pull them out to finish them whenever I want. Great for a quick fun dessert.

You can do this with white, chocolate, or other fabulously flavored cake, and combine it with an amazing icing. I made some Cookies and Cream Cake balls (Pictured below). Those came about because I didn't have enough white cake, and so I threw in some crushed Oreos (which was reminding me of the Oreo balls I love to make). I didn't add my full container of icing because of the filling in the Oreos, and I followed my same procedures

Cookies and Cream Cake Balls

The other ones I made, I used leftover chocolate cake (I had made a moose shaped cake) and I found this delicious chocolate caramel icing made by Hershey's that I combined with it.

Chocolate Caramel cake balls

Hopefully I can the the time to blog about some of my other fun foods. . . not just cupcakes! :)