When my neighbor announced a cookie exchange for December book group, I wasn't excited. I'm not sure what it is about cookie exchanges--maybe it's that I don't really want a tray of 24 assorted cookies sitting on my kitchen counter (and taking on each other's flavors), and maybe I'd rather cook 24 of my favorite cookies than take my chances. But I think part of my reluctance is that as much as I love cookies, I don't make Christmas cookies (I make syrup), and I'm not about to show up to a Christmas cookie exchange with normal chocolate chip cookies.
Then I got an idea--I'd buy red and green M&Ms or chocolate chips and stir them into a favorite cookie recipe. Voila. Christmas cookies. But then another neighbor announced a party the same week as book group and I thought, "What they hey, why not make cake balls?" As some of you know, cake balls are pretty labor intensive, and as a rule, I avoid labor-intensive cooking (most laborious activities, in fact). But I do love cake balls and hadn't made them in over a year. This time, I mixed red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, dipped them in white mint candy coating, and sprinkled with crushed candy cane. This was my first time using the candy melts and they worked great--the coating is thinner than melted chocolate chips, but then, candy melts tend to be more expensive. The 14 oz. bag covered about 2/3 of my 50 cake balls, so I used chocolate chips for the rest. Then I told my kids that red food dye is carcinogenic--more cake balls for me.
We are definitely sisters! I am similary cynical about cookie exchanges, and for most of the same reasons. Glad to hear your cake ball experiment was a success - sounds delicious! What a shame that you had to give so many of them away... ;-)
ReplyDeletethat sounds incredible! i'll have to try melting the candy--last summer i made cake balls and melted white chocolate chips and my finished product did not look like that picture. they were still delicious, however. plus, white chocolate + mint = my favorite.
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