Cake Balls

I went to a friend’s party the other day, and she had made cake balls. They looked interesting, so I tried them. Boy, were they delicious!

I was very pleased, and, when we had leftover cake, I decided to make cake balls.

Beware, though, this takes a while, especially if you make around 80 of them, as I did. It’s best to make the cake mixture before hand, or use leftover cake.

Also, buy chocolate bark, not morsels. It takes a lot longer to melt the morsels.

Another tip: if you have yellow or white cake and use chocolate icing, you will get chocolate cake balls. Again, if you have chocolate cake and use vanilla icing, you will get chocolate cake balls. So, if you want vanilla cake balls, you have to use vanilla icing and vanilla cake. Just a tip! 🙂

Lastly, melt the chocolate in a narrow bowl because then the chocolate is deeper in which you can dip it in.

This makes a great Christmas treat to give to your neighbors and friends or to bring a party. Enjoy!

Cake Balls Recipe:

Makes 20-40 cake balls, depending on how big you make them

Time: 1 1/2 to 2 hrs

Ingredients:

1 box cooked cake mix, unfrosted

1 (16 oz) can chocolate or vanilla frosting

Dark and/or white chocolate bark

Candy canes (not the sweet kind, only the real peppermint kind)

Other toppings such as sprinkles, etc.

Directions:

1. Crumble cake into as small pieces as possible.
2. Mix in frosting by hand heaping tablespoon by heaping tablespoon. The cake should be not too crumbly, and holds together easily, a bit dryer than cookie dough.
3. Form cake into balls, as big or as small as you want it and place on cookie sheets lined with wax paper or parchment paper. My cake balls were around a teaspoon to a tablespoon big.
4. Chill balls in fridge for about 30 mins or until firm.
5. After balls have been in the fridge around 25-30 mins, melt bark in the microwave or on stove top. If you’re using both barks melt them both separately.  Try to use a narrow tall bowl so that the bark that you melt is deeper, which will make dipping the balls easier. You should melt around 3-4 barks in the microwave in a rice bowl for 20 secs at a time. If you melt it on the stove top, just put 6-7 barks in a bowl inside a pot of water on simmer.
6. While you’re waiting for the chocolate to melt and the balls to firm up, crush up the candy canes until big chunks and set out the sprinkles.
7. When the chocolate has melted and the balls are firm, take the balls out of the fridge.
8. Take a ball, and using your hands, a toothpick, or the tines of a fork, dip the ball in the melted chocolate then place back on the cookie sheet. Quickly top it by either drizzling other chocolate (like if you’re using dark to coat it, then drizzle with white) on top, or sprinkle with candy canes, or sprinkles, or even leave it as it is.
9. Experiment with how you dip your balls in the chocolate. Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to get it off the fork or toothpick.
10. Do the rest of your balls and let sit until chocolate is hardened. Then enjoy the delicious treat!

Strawberry Kefir Shakes

If you’ve ever had real, homemade kefir, it’s a bit sour. Maybe that’s an under-analysis of the sourness. It’s sometimes hard to just down. No offense, kefir lovers, but this tastes MUCH better in a shake.

Notes:

• You can substitute really any fruit but you may need to add more sugar or take away some. With strawberries, I suggest little to no sugar.
• With blackberries and less sweet berries I suggest more sugar, about two teaspoons maybe.
• If you make banana shake, just add double or a bit less than double bananas.
• The ripeness of the bananas are important. Get the ripest bananas for the best taste.
• You can easily double this recipe. Just make two batches.
• If you like it a thinner consistency, you can add milk.

Strawberry Kefir Shake

Makes 4 1/2 to 5 cups of Kefir Shake

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, the riper the better

1/2 (1 lb) box of strawberries

3 cups homemade kefir

1/2 cup milk (optional, depending on how strong you like the kefir in the shake to be)

Sugar, to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Peel bananas and place in blender.

2. De-stem strawberries and place in blender.

3. Pour kefir over fruit in blender.

4. Pour milk and/or sugar on top (optional).
5. Plug blender in and blend on setting “puree” for about 35 sec or until fruit is blended.

Blackberry and Cranberry Syrup

This syrup is so, so, so great on waffles or pancakes! I love it, and it keeps for around 1-2 weeks. It’s a delicious homemade syrup…..not like the syrup at the store with all the chemicals and what not in it.

Blackberry and Cranberry Syrup recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup blackberries

1 cup cranberries, uncooked

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in water on high high heat.

2. Add fruit and bring to a boil.

3. Boil until cranberries and blackberries burst and change color.

4. Simmer until desired consistency is reached, 12-14 mins. Keep in mind that the syrup gets thicker when it cools.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Snickers Cookies

After Halloween, with our six kids, we have a MOUND of candy. I mean, a MOUND. It’s crazy. This year, we had a ton of chocolates. Snickers, Kit Kat, Twix, Milky Way, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, you name it. I can’t even name it all! So, with all the Snickers bars, I figured I had to do something. So, I decided to make Snickers Cookies. I searched on the internet and found this recipe. The cookies were probably THE best cookies I’ve ever made (or tasted, for that matter). I gave some away (that way, I couldn’t eat them all :)) and everyone really liked it. I thought it was a hit.

                                

Notes:

• DON’T skip the brown butter part. It makes the cookies better than the normal chocolate chip recipes. It also gives a toffee flavor to the cookies.
• Definitely wait and do the 3-min wait parts in the recipe. I didn’t and skipped it. It made the dough really hard to wrap the candy in it.
• If you do skip the waiting parts, just make it like a sandwich. Put a little dough on the pan, put a couple candy pieces on top, then put more dough on top. Make sure to “close” the sides.
• I used about 11 fun sized Snickers bars. I cut them width-wise and put a couple in each cookie (I made the cookies a bit too big).
• Instead of chocolate chips, I used Hershey’s bars. It worked fine and I used maybe 15 bars (the bars with 4 sections in them). I made each section into quarters, so they were about chocolate chip size.
• Be careful, they spread out a lot. When you put them on the cookie sheet, make them small, so they don’t mould together.
• The recipe calls for parchment paper, but I don’t believe in that, so I skipped it. It was totally fine coming off the pan, so I wouldn’t worry about that.
• I cut the sugar to 3/4 cup of brown sugar, as my sweet tooth is not as strong (believe it or not). It was even a little too sweet for me!

                       

                       

Chewy Chocolate Chip Snickers Cookies

Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated |Makes 24-30 3inch cookies      

Preparation: Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line bake sheet with parchment paper.      

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½  cup sliced Snickers, (approximately 4 king size candy bars or one bag of mini size Snickers)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:      

1. Place flour and baking soda together in a bowl and whisk to combine; set aside.
2. Place 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking and using the handle of pan to swirl the butter around in the skillet. Swirl butter constantly until it becomes a dark golden brown in color and gives off a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 6 tablespoons of butter into hot butter until completely melted.
3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to brown butter mixture and whisk until fully incorporated. Add eggs and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Rest mixture for 3 minutes, then whisk for another 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using sturdy rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
4. Using a #24 cookie scoop (basically a small ice cream scoop) or using a spoon scoop out approximately two heaping tablespoons of dough and flatten it into a round disc and place a Snickers slice on top. Fold edges over Snickers to seal it in. (*Optional: For added richness press in chopped Snickers on top). Place cookies 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
5. Bake cookies 1 sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 10 to 14 minutes. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack to cool cookies.

Enjoy!!

Recipes Galore!!!

Welcome to my recipe site. I’m a baking fiend. I love to bake breads, cookies, you name it. Well, you’ll be able to find lots of baking recipes, tips, and all else here! Enjoy!!!!!!

Rolled Oat Pancakes

Here’s another pancake recipe. Like usual, I forgot to take pics. Oh, gosh!!

My mom’s friend recently went camping and gave me this recipe. She made it at home, then fried it up when she was out camping.

The pancakes actually turned out pretty good. To my dad, they were a bit mushy. That probably was my fault. 🙂

I would do them again.

Oatmeal pancakes:

2 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup flour

1/8 cup (2 TBsp) sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs beaten

1/4 cup melted butter & cooled

1 tsp. vanilla

combine oats, flour, sugar, baking soda & baking powder in a large bowl.  Blend in buttermilk, eggs, melted butter & vanilla.  Mix well.  Let it stand for 45 minutes/overnight, keep in fridge.

Acorn Squash Bread

Ok. I’m horrible. I forgot to take pics again. argh!!!

Winter squash gives me a wintry feeling. Especially with the nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves mixed in. What I had was about 5 acorn squashes. I decided that since I had a ton of time on my hands, I may as well make a winter squash bread.

Believe it or not, the bread lasted 3 or 4 days. Only because my mom limited us. 🙂

Here are my notes:

• I doubled the recipe and just made two loaves. It was great.
• The bread was a bit sweet for my mom, even though I lowered the sugar.
• In my oven, there’s a convection oven, which is really great for the tops of the bread to make it almost crunchy.
• Any winter squash works in this recipe. I just used acorn.

The recipe is as follows from here (you may want to look at the pics from there):

For the Bread

1 small-medium acorn squash

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup mild olive oil or vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground clove

½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup chopped pecans or hazelnuts (optional)

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Place the squash halves cut side down on a baking tray and fill the tray with ½ an inch of water.  Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the squash is very tender.  Remove from the oven a cool.  Once cool, scoop the squash from its skin and puree in a food processor until smooth.  Reserve 1 cup squash puree for the recipe and save any leftover for another use – you can eat it simply for dinner warmed with a little butter, salt, and pepper.  (My medium sized acorn squash yielded about 1 ½ cups puree.) 

In a medium size bowl, combine the 1 cup squash puree, the sugar, the oil, and the eggs.  Mix well.  Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add this to the squash mixture and mix until no lumps are visible.  Fold in the nuts if using. 

Butter and flour a loaf tin, and scoop the batter into the prepared tin.  Sprinkle the top of the loaf generously with coarse sugar.  Bake for 45-55 minutes until set.  A toothpick inserted into the center of the bread should come out clean.  Cool, slice, and munch! 

Recipe Note:  If you want to go a little more American here, this recipe is pretty killer topped with cream cheese frosting.  Omit the coarse sugar sprinkle, and instead whip together: 5 oz softened cream cheese and 3 tbsp softened unsalted butter.  Add 1 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tbsp maple syrup and whip smooth.  Let the loaf cool completely and then frost it.

Steel-cut Oat Pancakes

First things first.

I forgot to take pics. Sometimes, I really need to think. My excuse is that it was early in the morning. Like 7:00……….well, I guess it’s not that early…….

The recipe is for steel-cut oat pancakes. Recently, we’ve gone organic and now we have less processed foods. Steel-cut oats is one of them.

On Fridays, we need to leave early. So I usually make pancakes or something DIFFERENT from oatmeal. Oatmeal gets boring. 🙂

Anyways, two weeks ago, I made steel-cut oat pancakes. I searched on the Net for a while until I finally found the one! It comes from here.

Well, here’s the recipe:

Steel-cut oatcakes with the quickest strawberry sauce

Ingredients for the oatcakes
1 cup of all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup of prepared steel-cut oats
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup yogurt (I use nonfat)
1/2 cup milk (I use 1%)
3 tablespoons melted clarified butter or neutral oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingrediens for the sauce
strawberries, frozen in my case, fresh if you are lucky
freshly-squeezed lemon juice
granulated sugar
salt

melted butter, optional for cooking
maple syrup, optional for serving

In a large bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, egg, yogurt, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir these wet ingredients into the dry, mixing until incorporated but not completely smooth. Allow to rest while you make the strawberry sauce.

For the sauce, take a few handfuls of strawberries, and put them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of sugar. Cook, until the berries begin to soften and release their juices, about 5 minutes. Crush the berries using a potato masher or the back of a fork, until you have a coarse, chunky sauce. Taste, adding sugar accordingly and a pinch of salt if desired. Bring to a simmer and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the juices have reduced to your liking. Take the sauce off the heat and allow it to cool slightly while you prepare the oatcakes.

To cook the oatcakes, preheat a non-stick or cast iron griddle over medium high heat. Lightly brush with melted clarified butter if desired. Ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the pan. Cook until the edges become dry and bubbles begin to form in the centre, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook on the other side until golden and puffed, about another 2 minutes. Remove to a platter and keep warm in a low oven if needed. Continue until all batter is used. Serve the oatcakes with the strawberry sauce and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Makes 20 small pancakes, serving about 4-6.

For me, I didn’t have strawberries on hand, nor did I have the time or ability to go and get them. So I had to skip it. We did make Applesauce Syrup from here.

I thought it was quite delicious. Especially when we’re in a hurry. Overall, it was pretty good. The night before, I prepped the batter, then fried it up in the morning. It was good and a nice treat.