Cake Poops

No, that is not a typo.

Once upon a time, I had the idea that I would become a chocolatier and own my own chocolate shop. I had the name picked out and everything. This was in the middle of my baking obsession where I was baking cookies frequently and experimenting with different recipes. I am not a bad baker, and have often been told that I make the best treats, but I haven't yet perfected chocolate. I can bake with it just fine if it is just another ingredient like salt, but if it has to be pretty, that is another story.

For a Birthday party, I decided to make some cake pops. Bakerella has lots of cute creations on her website. She even wrote the book. They looked easy to make and I had so many ideas of what I could do. For this party I decided on a Batman theme and found these little beauties. I made my own cake not from a box. A first for me. I made my own frosting. Another first for me. And they were good. Things started looking up for me. I bought my 6 inch sticks, my candy pieces, and candy melts in preparation. Everything thing seemed to be falling into place.

Let the decorating commence!

I started with some white candy melts to make the face. I had borrowed a fondue pot from my neighbor but since I had only melted chocolate in the microwave, I had to look up what temperature at which to melt it. That done, I found that I had overheated the chocolate. Strike one.

I had only bought one bag of each color of candy melts which equalled...two bags. Strike two.

I let those chill after I had added the faces and candy pointed peaks on the hood. Time for the blue dipping. I tried the fondue pot again only to have it make the candy melts chunky and gritty. I added crisco as per the directions in case I messed it up and overheated it again. It got harder and chunkier. Strike three.

At this point I gave up and melted what chocolate chips I had in my pantry and started dipping. I added the sprinkle eyes and let them chill.

Sadly, this was one of the better ones. Most of them looked like this.

See, cake poops.

Things I've learned.

1. If you attempt to make cake pops, the styrofoam base is a must. I used a cookie cooling rack atop a cookie sheet with a towel on top to minimize slippage. I had many mess ups because I had them slip.
2. Make sure you have all your equipment on hand in advance. 
3. I can't  work with chocolate.

What can I say, I am jealous of all you creative people out there who can work in this type of media. I am not good at this.

                    

                                          Eve

Key Lime Cheesecake

Of all the sweets that I make, this is definitely my favorite. It is simple, creamy, and refreshing. Can cheesecake be refreshing? This cheesecake is tart with just a hint of sweet. Just how I like it. It is also so simple that it is easily changed to your liking without much effort. It is so easy, and so good.

I was first inspired to make this by Paula Deen, but I have simplified her recipe and changed it to my taste. I still haven't perfected my technique but I had just had to share it with all of you.

As with most of my recipes, these measurements do not have to be exact and since there are no eggs in this recipe you can easily adjust the level of tartness to sweetness without fear of salmonella.

Ingredients

2- 8 oz pkgs of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C Key Lime juice
1 tsp Lime zest (optional)
1/2 C butter
20 cracker sheets of Graham Crackers

Crush the graham crackers into crumbs with a food processor or place them in a baggie and use a rolling pin to break them up into a fine crumb. I have a 3 cup food chopper which I use for this part. It makes things go so much easier.

Melt the butter and mix it into the crumbs. In an 8 inch springform pan, press the mixture into the pan evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min. Remove from the oven.

Mix the cream cheese, lime juice, sugar, and zest (if you used it) in a bowl on high until the mixture is creamy and smooth. I've found that if I take the time to mix this well instead of leaving it lumpy like cottage cheese--and I've done that--then it doesn't crack while I bake it. You also won't have lumps of cream cheese in any of your bites. When it is creamy, smooth it onto the crust and bake for about 40-45 minutes. It's been so long since I've made a cheesecake this large that it startled me that it was still bubbly under the top skin after the full 45 min so I put it in for another 5 minutes. Don't do this. Just trust that it is done. Cool. I left mine to cool overnight before I cut into it. It took all of my will power to do this.

As you can see, this doesn't make a very thick cheesecake but I think it is the perfect ratio of crust to filling. It doesn't leave an overpowering taste in your mouth nor is it crust-heavy.

This recipe can easily be adapted to make cheesecake bites by putting it into a foil-lined 9x9 pan and cutting the cake into 1 inch squares or by putting it into a paper cup-lined mini muffin pan and reducing the baking time. If you go the mini muffin pan route you can substitute whole mini Nilla Wafers for the crust instead of the graham cracker crust if you're in a hurry.

If you like this, and decide to make it, we'd love to hear about it. Send us a link of your post and link back to Bumblebliss on your blog and send us some blog lovin.

I linked up to
DIYbyDesign
Marni's Organized Mess
DebbieDoos Newbie Party

                    

                

                                           Eve

Oreo Truffles

So for those of you reading this, you're probably thinking that I must be 600 lbs because all I ever post on here is food and generally desserts of some kind but it's not true. Sometimes there are dinners.
While searching through blogland I couldn't help but be tempted by the word, "truffle." Really, could you? Now I'm not talking about the dirty, treasures hunted by pigs, but the sweet, morsels of chocolate that call out to you in the middle of the night. I found a very simple recipe for truffles. I have always envisioned truffle-making to be grueling. Images of me sweating in my kitchen over a hot stove with a candy thermometer whilst my slab of marble awaited its turn to be abused have plagued my mind. To my great surprise, I was sorely mistaken. If you can melt chocolate either in a double boiler or in the microwave than you are set. There is not much more involved than that.

As usual, I made some adjustments per my taste. I used Newman-O's cookies because there is something about the thought of using Oreo's that just doesn't jive with me. I'm sure they are mostly the same but using the Newman's cookies makes me feel like I'm using a healthier alternative. I'm probably totally deluding myself on that but hey, whatever works. If I were to make these again, (they have been ok'd for a repeat by the critics,) I would use semi-sweet chocolate to dip them in as mine were too sweet for me. Even The Man thought that they were slightly sweeter than he would prefer and he has quite the sweet tooth. I also did not do the white chocolate drizzle because mine were already too sweet and that would have put it over the top for me. I might, however, consider dipping these in something...nuts, perhaps?...I don't know. I've always wanted to try the chili pepper and chocolate thing but it never comes up when I'm working with chocolate. Maybe next time.
If you want this recipe you can get it from Recipezaar or from WhiMSy love like I did. She does a tute on her site if you are the kind of person who likes pictures.

If you decide to make this please link back to us and share the blog lovin.

                                      

                               Enjoy!

                               

                                  Eve