Cake Balls

Haha, balls.

A former coworker of mine used to make cake balls for special occasions and every time she brought them in, it was like Christmas came early. They were so good, I even hired her to make a bunch for my sister's baby shower because the world had to know about the cake balls!

Every Christmas I make a gift basket for my in-laws that includes tasty treats and usually an ornament or two. [Here's a shameless plug for my craft blog where I show how to make my ornaments. Go to it!] Two years ago or so, my mother-in-law got me one of those cake pop pans you see on infomercials that are supposed to bake the cake in the ball shape to make cake pops super quick and easy. I thought I'd include some cake pops in their basket that year as a thank you. Well, those pans don't work. Even after following the suggested recipe changes to make denser cake pops, they're nearly impossible to dip in the candy coating, and you get a lot of melted candy with cake pieces in it, but very few cake pops. Even some that survived the dipping process didn't survive the hardening and fell off their sticks onto my counter. However, after starting with about 48 cake pops, I managed to salvage about 8 and included them in the gift basket. I never should have done that. They really enjoyed the cake pops that had survived, and were devastated to hear what a hassle it had been and that I would never bother with it again.

My mother-in-law even lent the pans to a friend who wanted to try (and I guess just assumed I was doing it wrong), and she had the same result. So, unfortunately for anyone who wanted really easy cake pops, those don't work, but the good news is I'm not as incompetent as people seem to think.

Since the cake pops were so popular, I decided this year to finally attempt to tackle the delicious cake balls that my coworker had made. I'd discussed it with her several times and had gotten a pretty good idea of the process, I just hadn't done it yet. So after much mental preparation, I finally dove in and made them this year. And they worked! I was so excited! Using one cake and one tub of frosting, I got about 63 cake balls, and I managed to dip and coat every single one! They were all keepers! I don't know if I've yet fully expressed my excitement. Seriously, it was like a Christmas miracle.

I would definitely recommend trying to bring out as few cake balls as possible at a time and not letting them sit too long before dipping, because there was an obvious difference in difficulty for coating cake balls that were still chilled versus cake balls that had begun to really thaw. Also, you can make these in just about every cake and frosting combination you can think of. I did double chocolate because those were always my favorite from my coworker and I knew it would be agreeable for the people I was giving them to, but she's also done strawberry cake and frosting, and even spice cake and cream cheese frosting; the possibilities are endless. I think next I'd like to do a combination of chocolate peanut butter, because that is delicious 100% of the time.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 box cake mix of choice (I did Pillsbury chocolate)
Ingredients required by cake mix
1 tub frosting of choice (I used Pillsbury milk chocolate)
2 bags candy melts in color of choice (I used "Bright White)
Sprinkles or embellishments of choice

Directions:
-Bake the cake according to the box instructions in a 9x13" pan (or however. You just need cake and the shape doesn't matter). Let the cake cool completely.
-In a large bowl, combine the cake and the entire tub of frosting. Mix together until well combined. I used my hand mixer and it worked well.
-Take small scoops of the cake/frosting mixture and roll it into small balls, about 1" around, maybe a smidge bigger. Place these on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Possibly multiple cookies sheets (again, I ended up with about 63 of them)
-Chill the cake balls in the freezer for at least an hour.
-Melt the two bags of candy melts according to package directions. Mine felt like they were taking forever to melt, but don't be tempted to turn the heat too high because if you overheat the candy melts, they'll lose their coating consistency and you can't get it back. I really can't stress how much better this process works with a double boiler than by the microwave method. I bought a double boiler just for the occasion.
-Sticking a toothpick into a cake ball, dip it into the coating and swirl it around to cover it completely. I also used a wooden spoon to help spread the coating, and to help remove excess so I didn't run out of coating.
-Quickly transfer your coated cake ball back to a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and add any sprinkles or embellishments before the coating cools too much for it to stick. I tended to use my wooden spoon to cover the hole left in the top from where the toothpick had been. I also sometimes used a plastic fork with the center two tines removed to help get cake balls off of the toothpick.
-Let the coating harden completely (only a few minutes). It compresses when it hardens, so some of them cracked, but not so much that they were unpresentable, and some of mine started compressing cake out of little holes in the coating, which looked weird. I just removed the squirted cake and they were fine.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

My mom asked me this year what I'd bring to Thanksgiving. My response was "I don't know, what do you need that I can make?"
My family's Thanksgiving spread is pretty traditional year to year (as I imagine many families are) so this question was necessary because I have never made any of the dishes that go with our dinner. I've helped my mom for years, but never to a degree that I felt I could wholly take on any of them with confidence.
We decided that I should bring a dessert, because our dessert table is much more flexible that day than the dinner table.

I decided to make these caramel apple cheesecake bars that I'd made once before and thought I remembered enjoying.

I hate me sometimes.

Yes, these bars are delicious beyond all reason or explanation, HOWEVER, I felt like I was in the kitchen for freaking ever. It might have just been that I was getting anxious about how long they were taking that made them seem to take even longer, but whatever the reason, these really felt like they took too long. Luckily, they were amazing, so it was worth it. Seriously, both my brother and my brother-in-law stopped me separately to make sure I knew how good they were.

Before you get into the ingredients and think I'm crazy, I should tell you that this is originally a Paula Dean recipe, so that's why there's so much butter. Also, I hated chopping all of the apples into tiny bits because it was just so tedious, but once I mixed the cinnamon mixture into the bowl of cut up apples, I forgave them for being obnoxious to cut because they smelled soooooo good.

Oh, and thank you to whatever recipe I'd made since we moved to the new house that required oats, because I forgot to get them when I was getting these ingredients, and I was SO thankful that I didn't have to go to the grocery store that day for them.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
2 sticks Butter, softened
2 8oz packages of Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Cup sugar + 2 Tbsp Sugar, divided
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
3 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 Cup Caramel Topping

Streusel Topping:
1 Cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Quick Cooking Oats
1 stick butter, softened

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350
-In medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with forks until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into 13" x 9" pan lined with aluminum foil. Bake 15 min or until lightly browned.
-In large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.
-In small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 Tbsp sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture.
-In small bowl, combine streusel ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle evenly over apple mixture in pan. Bake 30 minutes until filling is set. Drizzle with warm caramel topping.

I chilled mine in the fridge for a bit once we got to my mom's because it felt like they were going to ooze everywhere if we'd cut into them without it. It might be that they needed more time in the oven, but that wasn't happening.

Cream Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes

I've made these for my team at work for the past two years and they're becoming both famous and infamous. Everyone is excited to see them, but then they are mad at me because they smell and taste so good that they are tempted all day to eat nothing but cupcakes.

I had originally planned to make them in one night, but I was ahead of schedule on my to-do list for the week (Jeff and I are hosting a Halloween Party tomorrow so my to-do list was quite involved), so I made the cupcakes themselves one night and did the filling the next day. I would recommend doing it this way every time because I had forgotten how long the filling takes.

For the filling, you have to bring the milk and cornstarch to a boil, then remove them from the heat and let them come to room temperature. If you're making them all at once, I would definitely recommend doing this step while the cupcakes are baking, because you can use the rest of the bake time along with cupcake cooling time to wait for this stuff to come back down to room temp. I passed the time by practicing doing my hair for my Halloween costume this year (Rosie the Riveter). The hair didn't go so well, but by the time I gave up, the mixture had cooled, so I suppose it all worked out.

After having made the pumpkin whoopie pies this year and having loved that filling so much, I might go nuts next year and use that filling instead of this one. It would definitely make the cupcakes a heavier treat, but that spiced filling was just SO good. Also, the smell of boiled milk and cornstarch is gross, so I've always personally struggled a little with these cupcakes since I started making them myself because that's all I think of when I try to eat them.

Also, this year instead of spooning the filling into the cupcakes, I put it in a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and piped it in, and this is definitely the way to go. I didn't even use a fancy pastry bag tip, but the speed and precision from the bag just blows the spoon method out of the water.

The original recipe suggests putting a clove stem in the top of the little "hats" (as I call them) once you place them back on top, but I have never done this because while it is cute, it means I have to buy clove stems so everyone can take them off their cupcakes and throw them away.

Recipe (Originally from Taste of Home)

Cupcakes

2 Cups Sugar

3/4 Cup Canola Oil

1 15oz Can Solid-Pack Pumpkin

4 Eggs

2 Cups Flour

2 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Filling:

1 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Shortening

1/4 Cup Butter, softened

2 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs until well blended. In a separate bowl, combine Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, Baking Powder, and Cinnamon. Gradually add to Pumpkin mixture until well blended.

-Fill paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool.

-For Filling, combine cornstarch and milk in a small saucepan until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.

-In a large bowl, cream Shortening, Butter, and Confectioner's Sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in Vanilla. Gradually add cornstarch mixture, beating until smooth.

-Using a sharp knife, cut a 1 inch circle 1 inch deep in the top of each cupcake (I tend to cut a cone shape). Carefully remove tops and set aside. Spoon or pipe filling into cupcakes. Replace tops.

Taco Salad

For the first several years of my life (well into high school) I was not able to eat lettuce.
No, wait, let me be more specific: I was physically capable of eating lettuce, but the act of doing so filled me with an unmatchable disgust. I was able to detect the tiniest speck of lettuce in my food, and I had the immediate reaction of spitting out the entire bite onto my plate. My parents thought this was gross and awful, but it was how it was.

Sometime during my senior year of high school, I decided to try to lose weight and eat healthier. I knew that my meal choices were limited unless I decided to get over this thing with lettuce, because it's super easy to make or order a salad (though I know several restaurants have managed to make them unhealthy, but that's a different matter). Right around when I first made this decision, my sister brought this taco salad to a family gathering. I tried it, and I loved it immediately. It was my gateway salad and thanks to it, I am able to eat some green leafy things (though not many... let's not go nuts here).

Sometimes at restaurants I will see salads on the menu that are similar to this one, and every time I order one, I am stunned when the server asks me what kind of dressing I'd like. There is a solid moment every time in which I stare at them with a completely confused look on my face and don't say anything, then ask them what they have, and choose something that sounds vinaigrette-y, but request it on the side. When the salad comes, I just remove the dressing cup and ignore it completely.
With the salsa and sour cream mixing together in this salad, you really don't need a dressing. It's delicious just how it is.

You can make this salad in varying levels of "completeness" depending on where you are eating it and how much you think will be gone in a sitting. If you are taking it to an event and expect it all to be eaten, mix everything together really well in a bowl and leave it for guests to help themselves.
However, if you're making it at home or expect there will be leftovers, only mix the romaine, beans, and corn into the salad bowl. After that, serve the other mix ins separately and allow each person to make their own. The salad can't be kept once the salsa is mixed in with it, and the chips just get pretty gross after sitting in it for a while.


Ingredients: (they're approximate because I usually just make my own personal bowl, so feel free to play around with it until you like what you have)
-Head of Romaine Lettuce (or bag if you don't feel like cutting it up)
-Can of Black Beans
-Can of Corn
-Tortilla Chips
-1/2 jar Salsa
-8 oz Sour Cream
-Shredded Mexican Cheese
-Optional: Cook some chicken or steak with taco seasoning to put on top

Directions:
1) If adding meat, prepare as desired. I usually cut up chicken breasts into cubes then cook them with taco seasoning.
2) Rinse and chop romaine and put in salad bowl
3) Drain cans of beans and corn, then add to salad bowl and mix well
 - here's where you stop and put everything on the table buffet style if you want to keep any -
4) Crumble tortilla chips into bowl
5) Add salsa and sour cream, then top with cheese
6) Mix well and enjoy

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I have a difficult relationship with Fall related foods. I like them, but I get furious that I start hearing about them so early in the year; if it's still an average of 80 degrees or more, Starbucks should hold off on the Pumpkin Spice Lattes. However, once the temperatures drop a little, I'm excited to partake of seasonal delicacies with gusto.

Typically to celebrate the season I will bake my cream filled pumpkin cupcakes (which I still expect to do this year, so there's an entry to look forward to), but for my sister's Halloween party she requested that I make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.
Last Christmas I received a whoopie pie pan, so I thought I'd test that while I made them. Unfortunately, I've never made any other whoopie pies, so I have no point of comparison. But let's not let that stop me from talking about the pan method anyway:

1) The instructions on the pan say  to "fill the cavities 2/3 full." Have you seen a whoopie pie pan? Those cavities are about 1/8" deep. I challenge anyone here to pour in just enough batter to reach 2/3 full.

2) They're not kidding about the 2/3 full thing.

The recipe was supposed to make 15 whoopie pies, but apparently I overfilled my pan, so I only ended up with 12. Actually, that was kind of convenient for me because the pan makes 12 at a time, so I just filled it twice.

I tried not to put too much of the Marshmallow Spice Filling on the pies because I remember it going EVERYWHERE the last time I ate one, but I definitely didn't put enough. I did, however, have a giant bowl of the filling left over, so Jeff and I just starting eating it with spoons. It's astoundingly delicious and I need to find something else to do with it. Maybe just a fruit dip.

I'll let you know how that turns out if I ever try it.

Recipe here

Sweet & Sour Chicken

As previously mentioned, a lot of my renewed inspiration to start this blog back up was from Jessica of Crash Bang Kitchen. This recipe is one that I got from her blog (though it's originally from the food blog Made it, Ate it, Loved it). She brought it in to work one day and after sampling just a little bit of the sauce, I knew I wanted the recipe.

For authenticity, I referenced the original recipe while I made this. I will admit, it felt like it skipped a few important notes. For example, it never told me to preheat the oven. Obviously, if I read the recipe before diving in, I should be able to figure that out, but I just prefer a recipe that really lays it all out for you and makes it plain as day. This is also how I ended up with little chicken nubbins covered in cornstarch and egg goop waiting for the oil in my skillet to get hot. However, despite these little hiccups, it all still turned out.

Jessica had mentioned earlier that if I happened to have extra leftovers of this recipe and wanted to bring them in to work to share, she would be happy to help me prevent them from going to waste. So, with that in mind, I made a little more chicken than the recipe called for. I also used chicken breast tenderloins rather than chicken breasts, so the amount was difficult to judge, but the meat was pretty much the same once it was cut into pieces. Since I had more chicken, I also doubled the sauce recipe because Jeff and I agreed that we'd both rather have more sauce than not enough.

While I was making the chicken bits, Jeff set our new fancy steamer to work on some rice and broccoli. I definitely liked having the rice with this meal because it feels more like I ordered Chinese delivery. The broccoli will be a work in progress in the steamer. It was... less than desirable (unless you like broccoli that you don't have to chew).

Overall, I think this recipe was a big success and I would definitely make it again. Perhaps next time, to really seal that Chinese takeout feeling, I'll sprinkle it with sesame seeds when I flip the chicken.

Original recipe here

New Life

So, this blog got off track and was generally left to wither and die because we got lazy and stopped making new meals, and therefore ran out of entry material.
However, several things have changed since the last entry that lead up to a perfect time to resurrect this poor old thing. Some of these things include:

1) Jeff and I have moved into our first house and it is closer to our jobs, so we have more time in the evenings and are therefore trying new meals again rather than coming home and being so exhausted that we cook eggs and go to bed immediately every night.

2) Jeff's brother has moved in with us and we feel obligated to make food that isn't so lame or repetitive as we let ourselves get away with when it's just the two of us.

3) My friend Jessica from the blog "Crash Bang Kitchen" (see new link at right of page) has been inspiring me and making me want to get back into this food... blog... thing.

The major change from here is that Jeff will probably participate less in the entries if he participates at all. I may cover some meals he makes (by hovering obnoxiously over him taking pictures and asking him how it's going) and post in his place. Therefore, the baking entries will probably become more regular, because that's most of what I do.

Happy relaunch!