Cake Balls 101

Have you ever made cake balls? My sister-in-law made some probably 3 or 4 Christmases ago, and they've been a holiday staple ever since. Here's the how-to for an easy but impressive treat.

Bake a boxed cake according to package directions. You can use any flavor you like. I wanted something seasonal, so I made a carrot cake this time. Don't worry about making it look good because you will be crumbling the entire thing when it comes out of the oven.
While it's still warm, crumble the entire cake into a bowl.
Dump in a container of store-bought icing, and stir to combine. To go with the carrot cake, I added cream cheese icing.
Now refrigerate this mixture until it is firm enough to form into balls when rolled. They'll need to hold their shape well. I typically bake the cake in the evening before I need them, mix it with the icing, then refrigerate overnight.

When the mixture is firm, use a tablespoon to measure out enough dough for each ball, then form it into balls using your hands.Place the balls on a parchment-lined tray, and refrigerate again for an hour or so.Once they come out of the refrigerator, you'll be coating them with chocolate or with candy melts. I chose these candy melts to combine to make orange. You can find these in the cake decorating section at most craft stores. I've even seen them at WalMart. One word of caution - these sometimes come flavored. Double-check that they're vanilla. The orange ones I saw were orange-flavored. Yuck!While you're melting these according to package directions, get your workspace ready. You'll need everything within reach. Get another parchment-lined tray ready to hold your cake balls while they harden.There are many techniques for coating them. The easiest way for me is to melt the candy melts into a medium bowl. I use a fork, a spoon, and a toothpick for this process. I drop one of the cake balls into the melted mixture, spoon the mixture over the top to cover, then scoop it out on the tongs of the fork. I tap the fork on the bowl to remove any excess coating. Then I use a toothpick to carefully slide the ball off the fork and onto the parchment. Immediately sprinkle the top with your topping of choice before the coating has a chance to harden. I used sprinkles this time, but you could decorate these to look like mini pumpkins.When they harden (shouldn't take more than 15 minutes or so) transfer the batch to a tupperware container to store in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat them.
There are many more skilled cake ball artists than I. Check out Bakerella's blog for some amazing how-to's!

The combinations are endless for these. You could do red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting, white chocolate coating, and crumbled candy canes on top. Or chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, milk chocolate coating, and crushed oreos on top. Try your favorite combo.

One last tip - these travel and ship very well. When my brother-in-law was deployed over his birthday, we made a batch of his favorite cake and icing combo, froze them overnight, and shipped them to Afghanistan. He said they arrived in one piece and gave him a taste of birthday cake on his special day.

Please share your flavor combination ideas in the comments! I'm always looking for new ones to try.

Family Cookbook Lemon Blossoms

Ingredients:

1 18.5 oz pkg yellow cake mix
1 3.5-oz pkg instant lemon pudding mix
¾ cup veg. oil
4 large eggs

For glaze:
½ cup fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp veg. oil
3Tbsp water
4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350o. Spray mini muffin tin with cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, and oil and blend with a mixer until smooth. Pour one tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Bake for 10-12 minutes (tops should not brown). Turn out onto a towel or wax paper. To make the glaze, sift the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, vegetable oil, and water. Mix until smooth. Dip the muffins into the glaze while still warm covering as much of the muffin as possible. Place on wire rack with wax paper underneath to catch excess glaze. Let the glaze set (about an hour) before serving or storing.

Pumpkin Head Fun

Here's a cute, free download appropriate for this week. Just print, color, cut, and glue. Enjoy!

Candy Corn Bags

This is cute, cute, cute. We always try to make special treats for our neighbors at holiday times, and this will be the perfect way to package them. If you don't know how to use the sewing machine, you can easily hand-stitch these.

Family Cookbook Cinnamon Bread Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

1 loaf cinnamon swirl bread, cubed
8 eggs
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, cubed
2 cups milk
1 stick butter, melted
½ cup maple syrup

Directions:

Layer a 9x13-inch pan with half of the cubed bread. Sprinkle with cream cheese cubes, then layer the rest of the bread on top. Mix eggs, milk, butter, and maple syrup in a bowl. Pour mixture over the bread and mash down with a spatula. Refrigerate overnight, covered. Uncover and bake at 350 o for 30 minutes.

Notes: Freezes well. Top with more maple syrup if desired!

Family Cookbook Reuben Casserole

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 loaf dry rye bread
1 12-oz can corned beef, chopped
1 16-oz can sauerkraut, drained
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
8 oz shredded Swiss cheese
¼ cup butter

Directions:

Mix sour cream, onion, sauerkraut, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Spoon the mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the corned beef over the sauerkraut mixture. Crumble bread in a food processor (or by hand), and spread the crumbs over the top of the casserole. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese. Melt the butter and drizzle over the casserole. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until top is browned and casserole is bubbling.

Personalized Money

This is a really fun website for creating personalized money. This can be used for birthday gifts, party favors, or even allowance for little ones. Have fun!

Family Cookbook Mushroom Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 loaf French bread, cubed
1 Tbsp garlic salt
4 stalks celery
1 Tbsp curry powder
3 sticks butter
2 tsp black pepper
1 (10 oz) pkg sliced white mushrooms
2 large eggs, beaten with 2 Tbsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250o. Scatter the bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake until dried out, but not browned (approx. 40 minutes). Let cool. Increase oven temperature to 350 o. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, and mushrooms, cooking until softened. Stir in garlic salt, curry powder and pepper until combined. In a large bowl, toss the bread cubes with the beaten egg mixture. Add the vegetable mixture and toss until well combined. Spoon the stuffing into a buttered casserole dish. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes.

X Marks the Spot

If you're looking for a great family hobby, I would highly suggest geocaching. It's a modern-day, high-tech treasure hunting activity designed for all ages and skill levels. And, with almost a million caches around the world, it's a hobby that will travel with you wherever you go. I joined the program and searched for local caches today and was shocked at how many are within walking distance of my house.
The basics of geocaching require a hand-held GPS device and Internet access. Visiting and joining (for free!) http://www.geocaching.com/ will give you detailed descriptions and locations. Find a cache you'd like to hunt for, enter it into your GPS, then have fun searching. Each cache is different. Some contain a trinket you can take and ask you to leave one in its place. Some have a log to record the date you found it and your name and hometown. At any rate, geocaching looks to be a really fun and inexpensive adventure for your family. I can't wait until my growing family is all old enough to understand and enjoy the hunt!

If you've already begun your geocaching adventures, I'd love to hear your stories in the comments!

Family Cookbook Pumpkin Pie Spread

Here's a recipe perfect for this time of year. I've heard there's a canned pumpkin shortage this year. You can easily substitute fresh roasted pumpkin. Just cut a pumpkin pie pumpkin in half, and remove the seeds. Place cut-side down into a casserole dish filled with 1 inch of water, and bake at 400 degrees until soft. Fork mash.

Ingredients:

1 pk cream cheese, softened

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 ½ Tbsp orange juice
2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:

Whip ingredients together until fully combined and smooth. Serve with gingersnaps.

Good-smelling vacuum

I've always had a problem with the vacuum exhaust stinking - probably because I've always had a dog. Our dog is an indoor dog who is very clean and gets regular baths and grooming, but it doesn't seem to keep my vacuum from stinking up the house when I use it. I've resorted to using a very inexpensive vacuum cleaner because replacing the filters is so expensive. Anyway, I heard a trick and tried it without much hope, but it's completely solved my stinky vacuum problem. Just stick a scented drier sheet in the bag (if it's bagless, you can throw it in the canister), and the exhaust will smell fresh and clean. It works tremendously. I am almost at the point of having to replace the bag again, and it still smells as fresh as it did the first time I used it. Nice!

Family Rules

I will definitely be doing this soon. Love it!

Basil Oil

We are a big bread-eating family around here. To accompany pasta dishes, soups, etc., I often make a loaf of foccacia bread or buy some crusty bread to break and dip in marinara sauce or olive oil. I recently saw an idea for infusing olive oil with basil to use as a dipping oil. Since I'm still bursting at the seams with my basil bounty, I thought I'd share.

Basil-infused Olive Oil

1 cup olive oil

3 stems of basil (no need to use the leaves even, just stems)

In a saucepan, warm the olive oil over low heat. Add the stems and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Serving suggestion: In a shallow plate, drizzle enough olive oil to cover the surface. Top with fresh cracked pepper and Italian seasoning. Use it to dip crusty bread. Yum!

I'm back!

Late summer was a doozy for us, and I appreciated the time away from this blog. I did, however, write down tons of ideas in my time off to add when I got back. In the interest of the reason I took a break in the first place (I'm pregnant!), I thought I'd start with a precious keepsake idea that I recently heard about to record your baby's first sounds.

Build-a-bear allows you to record your own sounds to a sound box they will stuff into the animal for you. Choose two of the recorders. Take one with you to one of your prenatal appointments where you will hear the heartbeat, and record the sound. Take the second to the delivery room to record your baby's first cries. Then you can put one into each hand of the bear you pick out. Precious!