Balls Everywhere! Cake Balls That Is...

As promised, I do not have tiramisu! I knew I'd come through on that one. This week has been pretty crazy busy and the only way to make it through a week like that is to create a sugar induced coma for yourself and everyone around you. Chocolate should always be involved as well, everyone knows it's good for your heart (sort of) and makes you happy (by distracting you from all other thoughts but obtaining said chocolate). So really, I was doing everyone at work a favor this week by making Chocolate Cupcake Bites. Which in reality are just the same old cake balls I always make, but decorated all cute to look like cupcakes.

CUPCAKE BITES! (not to be confused with "cupcakes bite" - that's just blasphemy)



Yeah, that picture is awesome...I know. You want one, right?

Fine...here's another....


Alright, now that we got that out of the way....

Supplies:
- Cake Balls (go here: http://bit.ly/30J8EK to see how to make them) I used Chocolate Devil's Food Cake and Vanilla Frosting. And lemme tell you, these things were goooood.
- Candy Melts (I used blue and pink)
- Chocolate to melt (I prefer Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Blocks)
- Red Hots, sprinkles, etc. to decorate
- Peanut Butter Cup Candy Mold

This one is pretty simple....You want to fill the cups in the candy mold up with the melted chocolate about 1/3 of the way full. Then you'll place the cake balls into the chocolate so it pushes it up the sides of the candy cup (but not over the top, cuz it makes a mess...trust me, I know). Once you've filled a mold, throw it in the freezer for a few minutes and then take the cake balls out of the mold. The chocolate should have set by this point. Once you're done removing the cake balls you'll dip the tops into the candy melts (in other words, hold it by the chocolate end, turn it upside down and dip the exposed cake area into the melts). Shake it a little to get rid of the excess candy melts then place a red hot on the top of the cupcake and throw some sprinkles on. Let it dry on some wax paper and you're done. You've got adorable mini-cupcake bites. I get bored making the same thing through an entire cake ball process. The recipe makes like 50 - 60 balls, so I tried a few more things with them. I'll leave you with a few pictures and a promise of no tiramisu again next week. Look at me and my planning!



And just one more...


Seriously...I really love chocolate. These are sprinkled with vanilla sugar and cinnamon. Or dusted with gold sparkle sugar. Or just sprinkles. Regardless....there is CHOCOLATE CAKE on the inside.

Congratulations Babycakes!

Ummm, still no tiramisu. I really was going to make it this week. I even bought all of the ingredients. The problem is I left them at home in Jacksonville with my family before, you know, mixing them together and actually making the tiramisu. I didn't want to buy more ingredients (how often am I going to be using marscapone cheese??) so, luckily, I had a backup plan. This well thought out backup plan involved hoping that my coworker's wife would have her baby this week so I could make some congratulations cupcakes. Luckily, the baby was on the same wavelength as me and popped out right in time.



Supplies:

- Cupcakes (I used funfetti)

- Sugar Cookie Dough

- Alphabet Cookie Cutters

- Chocolate Frosting (I use homemade frosting - 1/2 cup whipping cream and 4 ounces chocolate chips)

- White frosting

- Blue Sanding Sugar

- Candy for decoration (the candy on the cupcakes that looks like pacifiers is actually from Walmart and called "Championship Rings." Why they would make candy pastel champion rings is beyond me, but I'm not complaining, it worked in my favor)

Frost your cupcakes with the white frosting before rolling the tops in the blue sanding sugar. Throw a few of those (championship!) pacifiers onto a couple of the cupcakes for decoration.

Cut out the letters to spell "Congrats!" in the sugar cookie dough after rolling it out about 1/4" thick. Make sure to dip the cookie cutters into flour first to make sure they don't stick. Bake for about 7-9 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Let them cool and then frost those babies with some chocolate icing. My recommendation is to spell out "Congratulations" and eat some of those letters after dipping them in chocolate. Yum.

Once you're done frosting, stick the letters onto the top of the cupcakes. And you're done. Easy. Peasy.

I'd tell you what I was going to bake next week but it would probably be a lie. So, not tiramisu. That's the best I can do. Now I need to go back to my dinner of pickle spears and sandwich bread. Yum. :)

Frosty's Going Down...

Ok, so originally my plan had been to make Tiramisu from scratch for the first time. But then... well, it's all bakerella's fault. She put the cutest snowmen on her website (http://www.bakerella.com/snowman-cake-pops/) and then on top of that I see a whole mess of cute snowman cupcakes and treats in Phyllis Hoffman's Celebrate Magazine. Not to mention the fact that St. Louis had just been covered in snow. It's obvious that some sort of divine intervention was taking place; I was meant to make cute snowpeople and save the tiramisu for next week.

So, because I couldn't decide between the cake pops on bakerella's site or the cupcakes in Celebrate Magazine, I made both.

Frosty's Melting Cupcakes

The cupcakes were super yummy and really easy to make (mostly because I used a cake mix.)

Supplies:

- Dark Chocolate Cake Mix

- Chocolate Chunks

- Cinnamon

- Melted white chocolate

- Pre-Rolled Ready to Use Fondant

- Lindt White Chocolate Balls

- Orange Rainbow Chip Sprinkles

- Black Confetti Sprinkles

Make the cupcakes according to the back of the box. Before baking I added a bag of chocolate chunks and 1 tsp of cinnamon to the mix so they wouldn't be so plain. While they're baking, go ahead and roll out the fondant and use a 4 inch round cookie cutter to cut out circles.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, place an unwrapped lindt chocolate on top of the cupake and then one of your fondant circles on top of that. Place the cupcake in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until the fondant takes on a melted look.

When the fondant has cooled, use the melted white chocolate to "glue" the confetti sprinkles and orange nose onto your cupcake. Done and done. I only made a couple cute cupcakes because I really don't like the taste of fondant. I covered the rest with a chocolate ganache topping (1/2 cup whipping cream and 4 ounces chocolate chips - bring whipping cream to a boil and then remove from heat, add chips wait a few minutes then stir til smooth. Wait about 15 minutes before you start icing).

SnowPeople Cake Balls (ha.)

Supplies:

- Cake Balls (you can find the recipe here: http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/)

- I used Funfetti cake mix and vanilla icing for this instead of red velvet and cream cheese.

- White Candy Melts

- Regular Oreos (bottom of top hat)

- Mini Oreos (top of top hat)

- Orange Rainbow Sprinkles (nose)

- Black Confetti Sprinkles (eyes and buttons)

- Black non-pareils

- Toothpicks

- Pretzel Sticks

After making the cake balls, you dip them in the white candy melts and leave them on wax paper to dry. (you can stack them with toothpicks at this stage or wait until they're dry - either way works)

Once they're dry you can start with the fun decorating part. Use the candy melts as glue to stick all of the snowman pieces on (you'll have to hold the pretzel arms on for awhile, it's not as much fun as the rest of it).

This guy is my favorite...

Maybe that's mean, but he looks so sad that he lost his head.

Next Week: Tiramisu (For real this time...probably)

My New Year's Anti-Diet Resolution

So, I'm doing something I never ever planned on doing, ever...writing a blog. I was considering New Year's resolutions a week or so ago and I've never been a fan of the diet resolution. I never really understood why the first day of the year was a good time to start dieting. Are people more successful making plans on the first of the year than say, June 16th? Or maybe it's just the guilt of over-eating during the holidays? Whatever the reason, I don't see the point and that's what got me thinking about baking as an anti-resolution. And that in turn got me thinking of blogging as a way to ensure that I keep my resolution.

My goal is to make a new dessert every week for the entire year. It's a little bit like bakerella (http://bakerella.com/) meets Julie & Julia. And because I don't want to gain 100 pounds over the course of the year, I plan on using my unsuspecting co-workers as dessert-eating guinea pigs.

To celebrate the beginning of my blog as well as the beginning of 2010, my first baking experiment is a combination of cupcakes and cute New Years party hats. A quick warning, I love making things cute. I so rarely get to do this in any other aspect of my life, so it comes out a lot in my baking.

(Bear with me this week, I can't find the cord for my camera so these pictures are courtesy of my blackberry)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, CUPCAKE!

The first part of this little project was baking the actual cupcakes themselves. You can find the recipe here: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/cupcakes/chocolate-cupcakes-with-a-kick/

(BHG is one of my favorite places to find new recipes)

For the assembly of the New Years Party Hats you will need the following:

- Sugar Cones

- Orchid Candy Melts

- Purple Sanding Sugar

- Twizzler Pull'N'Peels

- Decorating Gel (I used Wilton's Red Sparkle gel)

- Frosting

- Red and/or White Sanding Sugar

The first thing to do is cut some of the bottom of each cone off. The hole should be big enough to fit a few Twizzler pieces in it. Next you dip the cones in the Melted Orchid Candy Melts until they are completely covered. You'll want to sprinkle the purple sanding sugar on immediately afterwards. If you sprinkle it over a bowl it will make it easier to re-use any that miss the cone. Leave the cones on wax paper to dry.

At this point you can go ahead and ice your delicious cupcakes (I recommend trying one first, I love cupcakes without icing). Always make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled before icing them, otherwise you end up with a hot mess. After icing, dip the cupake (icing side down) into a bowl filled with red or white sanding sugar. Set aside.

Back to the cones! Once they are dry decorate them however you choose with the Decorating Gel. This is where you can get really show off if you're artistic. Or you can do what I did and just write the year and throw on some swirly shapes. Next, place a few strands of your Pull'n'Peel twizzler into the top of your "hat." Put the hat on your cupcake and press gently so it sinks into the icing. Then you're done! Cute, pretty and simple. Don't worry about making a mess when you're decorating. I always end up with icing and sugar all over the place, it just means you've done your job.

Next Week: Tiramisu (hopefully!)