#220_ Birthday Cake in a Jiffy

G'daughter Aurionna

I made this cake for our g'daughter, Auri for her 10th birthday
after running errands almost all day and running out of time to make a cake.
Super simple and super easy to do.

The cake is milk chocolate iced with Cream Cheese Frosting,
lady fingers cookies around sides and topped with Cake Balls.

You can put this cake together in 30 minutes... or maybe even less.
No kidding! I know it, because I did it.
That is excluding the baking time and cooling the cake,
and of course the Cake Balls have been made ahead of time.

Cake out of the box
Thanks to my aunt Betty (Crocker), she is a life-saver.

Frost top and sides of cake.
The frosting doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.
In fact I call this a sloppy frosting.
(click here for the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe)

Line lady finger cookies around the side of cake
or you can use chocolate bars.
My sisters who have been decorating cakes this way,
make slabs of chocolate, then cut them to sizes.
Click here to see pictures of their awesome cakes.

Layer whatever you have or whatever you want on top
such as shaved chocolate, M&M's candies,
chopped candy bars and whatnot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AURI!!

Chocolate-Covered Fruits

Angela made these chocolate-dipped grapes and strawberries.
Yummy!!
Use recipe and procedure for Cakeballs recipe #86, click here.

They looked very presentable when placed in cellophane bags.
Nice treat!!

#110_Easter Dinner

Bunny Rolls


My husband said they look more like pigs than bunnies.
Maybe he is right, but the G'kids thought they are bunnies.
Maybe it is because I had told them that
I made them "bunny rolls" before they saw them, ha-ha!!

So if my husband really thinks these look like pigs
then I might as well call them lechon rolls. LOL!!
Translation of lechon in English? Roast pig.
Oink-oink!!

Dinner Rolls baked in muffin pans

I used the Potato Dinner Rolls recipe
Click here for the recipe


Chocolate Cupcakes
with cream cheese frosting
garnished with dyed coconut flakes and jelly beans

Amy, our daughter usually makes these cupcakes
and since she worked all night last night
and will be working again tonight as a nurse,
I don't think she will be making them for today.
So I attempted to make them myself.
I didn't do as good of a job as she does but I want
to have something Easter-y for the Gkids.

G'daughter Lindsey taking a bite off a cakeball

Vegetable Casserole with Alfredo sauce,
topped with cheese, (posting recipe later)

Angela made this cake and she got the recipe online.
It is a very good cake except I don't like its name.
It's one of those better than s_ _
kind of cake. I think she changed the name to
"Better-than-Brad Pitt Cake" though.

Amy made some of her signature sugar cookies
which was a hit today as always.
She also brought some green salad and spiral ham, both not pictured.

I made some Banana Cream Pie, not pictured,
and Sally brought some pumpkin cookies, not pictured either.
It was hard to keep up with all the food.

This is Potatoes 'N Cream
The recipe is in my former company's cookbook.
(not my company...I meant, the company I used to work for)
I will post the recipe later.

Charlie and Nikki brought some Scalloped Potatoes, not pictured
It was really good!

Roast Beef

7 1/2 pounds of rump roast,
4 hrs in the oven and finished cooking it in the crockpot
for 2 more hours for moist and tender roast.

We had a nice Easter dinner as always,
hope you did too!

#86_Cakeballs and LolliCakes

LolliCakes/ Cake Pops
Check out some new pictures here.

Hand-dipped Chocolate Cakeballs.....everybody loves them!!

I copied this recipe from the Houston Chronicles back in December. I was going to make them for the Christmas cookie exchange, but since I've never made them before and I wasn't sure of what the outcome would be, I didn't want to waste my time and effort so I just shoved the recipe in a shoe box where I put all the recipes I clip. Then the other day I found the recipe and decided to make it. Since we were having a get-together today, I thought it would be a good time to try the recipe.

It is an easy dessert to make except, for the dipping part. I found it a little challenging. Nevertheless, I will be making more of them now specially since everybody at the dinner liked them. Even the persnickety eaters loved them. Everybody gave their approval by thumbs up or a nod or a wide grin. One of our daughters, who is on a Weight Watcher's diet couldn't resist "the temptation". She even had a couple of pieces of the cakeballs. She said she wants these cakeballs for Easter and for her birthday cake. Aha!! I already envision 34 cakeballs with a birthday candle on each one!

And...for me, I will be making these bite-size treats for Christmas this year for sure.

LolliCake

White chocolate-covered Cakeballs with candy sprinkles.

Insert a lollipop stick into each cakeball, and you'll have LolliCakes!!

You can buy lollipop sticks from the craft stores.

1) Start by baking a cake of your choice following the directions on the box. In this case I used chocolate fudge cake mix. Set it aside to cool a little bit, not completely cooled.

2) After it cools a bit, place it in a big bowl and finely crumble it using 2 forks.

3) Stir in a can of cream cheese frosting (store-bought kind) or less for not-so-moist cakeballs. This serves as a binding agent. Mix really well until there is no more frosting visible.

4) Form the mixture into balls, and arrange them in a cookie sheet.

5) Freeze these balls for at least 2 hours before dipping them in melted chocolate.

Depending on the size of your cakeballs, this recipe yields between 36 to 40 pieces.

The recipe calls for Almond Bark, but I found these kinds of melting chocolate at the craft store worked really great. I guess you can use any kind of dipping chocolate or melting chocolate.

I like these kinds of dipping chocolate chips better because they come in several colors and flavors such as vanilla, white, dark and light chocolates, strawberry, purple, orange, and many more. Then you can make these cakeballs for different ocassions.

6) Melting the chocolate chips:

Since I've never worked with dipping chocolates before, I just followed the directions on the back of the package on how to melt them. There are two ways to melt these chocolates as suggested on the package: either in the microwave or a double boiler. I chose the double boiler method. Put a glass bowl over a pot of steaming water and constantly stir the chocolate chips until they are melted and smooth.

7) Dip each cakeball in the melted chocolate.

I heard that chocolate dippers (I mean the people) have their own tricks of dipping chocolate. Since I dipped 36 of them, I was able to kind of figure out what was the best way for me to do it. I used lollipop sticks to dip them in the melted chocolate and let the excess chocolate drip off. Then I placed them on waxed paper. I'm sure you can also use tooth picks or bamboo skewers to dip them.

If you want to use some candy sprinkles on the Cakeballs,
do it before the chocolate dries,
and they dry quickly.

NOTES:

When the melted chocolate starts to harden, place the bowl back over the steaming water..
or microwave works too.

If you have any question regarding this post, e-mail me at melypresto@gmail.com

ADDENDUM:
3-11-09
I am making 2 batches of these today for a baby shower and I discovered that using an ice cream scooper to scoop the mixture onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, then chilling them for a couple of hours makes it easier to form the cakes into balls. Freeze Cakeballs before dipping them in melted chocolate.

4-17-2011
I just posted new pictures of Lollicakes or Cake Pops...check out the link below:
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/04/288lollicakes-for-easter.html

For Cookie Balls, click on the link: http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/07/313cookie-balls.html

Monday, July 11, 2011

My Reply to Anonymous' question on melting chocolate:

Anonymous,
I wish I can post my response on the comment box. I don't know what's wrong with blogger.com, but its not allowing me to post on there.
Re: recipe #86...if you have trouble melting the chocolate using the double boiler, try the microwave. Follow the instructions on the back of the package. Thanx!!