Orange Rolls

(if TRIPLE, then just double yeast)

1/4 c water
1 pkg or 1 T yeast
jiggle together, sprinkle sugar on top, set aside.

Scald milk- 1 c (no boil on top- sides and bottom)

1/2 c shortening
1/3 c sugar
1 t salt
Mix together
Add milk and let sit- 5 minutes

4 3/4 c flour (won't use all- dough needs to be sticky)
2 beaten eggs
1/4 c mixed orange juice
Add 2 cups of flour, some of the eggs and some of the yeast to the mix.  Stir.  Add the rest of the flour little by little with more eggs and more yeast- just makes sure it's still sticky.  When you're out of eggs and yeast add in orange juice and more flour.  Just make sure the dough remains sticky.

Let sit and cover (1 hour to 1 1/2 hours depending on temperature- until doubled).  Then punch and let sit for 10 more minutes.

Grease counter
Roll out dough in rectangle.  Use a pizza cutter to cut in 3/4 inch strips.
Butter pan.  Loosely tie strips in knots and set in pan.  Let them rise some more for 30-40 minutes.
Cook at 375 for 9 minutes.

Glaze: Orange juice and powdered sugar.  Spoon over baked rolls

Cranberry Wild Rice Casserole

1 box Uncle Ben's Original Recipe Wild Rice
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

In a small saute pan, lightly toast almonds on medium heat, stirring constantly.  Watch closely because it only takes about 2 minutes.  Prepare wild rice as directed on the box, adding the vinegar to the liquid.  In the last 2 minutes of cooking, throw in the cranberries to plump them up.  Just before serving add the almonds.  This is a great recipe for parties because you can easily double or triple the recipe for a crowd.

Sugared Nuts

Preheat oven 300 degrees

Stir: 1 1/2 c sugar
3 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t (heaping) salt

In another bowl: 3 egg whites and 3 T water

Add 12 c of nuts to egg and water mixture.  MIX until all nuts are wet.  Add sugar mixture.  STIR.

Spread out on a raised cookie sheet. (Can cook 2 cookie sheets at once).  Bake 1 hour.  Stir and loosen with spatula.  Bake an additional 30-45 minutes, rotating cookies sheets if they're cooking unevenly.  Loosen, let cool.

Kool-Aid Playdough

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkgs unsweetened Kool-Aid
3 T oil
2 cups boiling water

Mix together salt, Kool-Aid, oil and boiling water.  Add flour.  Mixture will thicken.  Knead, adding flour as necessary

BIG Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 eggs
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 cubes butter
1 t vanilla
1/2 t water

Add: 2 1/2 cups flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips

Grease pizza pan, spread dough, should be 1/4 in thick

Bake 375 degrees

10-15 minutes

Alfajores

2 c unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling

2 c whole-wheat flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 c unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c granulated sugar

1-1/2 t finely grated orange zest

Two 13.4 oz cans Nestle dulce de leche

1 lb milk chocolate, melting chips

Cookies:

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, and salt.  In a stand mixer cream butter, sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Stir in the orange zest.  

With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture to  butter mixture.  After adding the last of the flour but before it’s fully mixed, add 1/4 to 1/3 cup cold water and mix just until a smooth dough forms, 1 -2 minutes.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces, form into disks, and wrap in plastic.

Chill overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Roll out the cold dough on lightly floured surfact until it’s 1/8 to 3/16 inch thick.  With a 2 inch round cookie cutter (we use a glass), cut the dough in circles.  (You can reroll scraps once).  

Bake in center of oven one cookie sheet at a time until edges are lightly browned and the cookies puff up slightly, 8-10 minutes.  Cool the cookies on rack and store in airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month.

Fill Cookies:

Lay out cookies.  Put a heaping 1/2 T of dulce de leche on half of the cookies.  Cover each with a top cookie, into a sandwich.

Coat the Cookies:

Melt Chocolate Melts in microwave (we buy them at Michael’s) in a glass measuring bowl.  Stir every 30 seconds until creamy - with a wooden spoon.  Dip sandwich cookies, coating both sides and all around. Let excess chocolate drip off.  Set on wax paper.  With back of spoon, smooth out top of cookie.

Store in plastic container with wax paper in between layers.  Keep in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.

A Valentine's Day Gift Box of... Cake

Things you”ll need for this Sweet Heart Cake:
Red Velvet Cake
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe I used here)
Heart-shape cake pan
and one other cake pan
Wax paper
Pencil or pen
serrated knife
White fondantand red icing coloror red fondantFondant Rolleror rolling pinToothpicksSmall knife
Mini brown candy cup liners
Candy meltsCandy writers, heart sprinkles, nuts

1. First, you’ll need to grease and flour at least one heart-shaped cake pan. I used one that’s about 8″ wide and used a round cake pan for the rest of the batter.

2. Now, mix your ingredients and pour in the pans. (The Red Velvet Cake recipe I used made a cake that was really too greasy, so I’m not going to post it. But you can just as easily use any cake recipe or cake mix for this.)

3. Bake the cakes and let cool.

4. When cool, take a pencil and trace the shape of your cake onto wax paper.

5. After you’ve outlined your cake, draw a second outline about .25 inch around the outside of the first heart shape. You can eyeball it.

6. Go back to your cake or cakes and level them by cutting off the tops with a long serrated knife.

7. Keep the excess. You can use it later.

8. Okay, now you’ll need some red fondant. You can tint fondant red yourself or take the easy way and buy it already colored. (It’s a real pain to tint fondant red and get the color you want, so I’m buying this stuff anytime I can help it.)

9. Work on a clean dry surface and sprinkle a little cornstarch before you begin working with the fondant. If you don’t, it will start to stick to the surface. Work with just the amount you need and keep all the rest wrapped up tightly with plastic wrap. It dries out quickly.

10. Now use a rolling pin or fondant roller and roll it flat. You’ll need to roll it larger than your heart shape template.

11. With scissors, cut the wax paper along the outer edge of your heart shape to make the template. Then, gently hold the template in place on your fondant and use a toothpick to trace the heart shape.

12. Remove the wax paper and carefully cut out the shape with a knife. Use the toothpick marks as your guide.

13. This piece of fondant is going to be the bottom of your cake box. Lay it on a plate, cake board or cake stand. I used a round cake board and a few doilies to place the fondant on. Now use a little of your frosting to coat a layer on the inner section of your fondant heart shape.

14. Place the cake on the fondant and center it. The frosting helps hold it in place.

15. Now, frost the top and smooth it out.

16. Go back to your wax paper template and cut out the inside heart shape. Use this new template for the top of the cake box. Roll and cut out another piece of fondant to use to cut out the heart for the top of the cake the same way you did for the bottom.

17. Place the fondant heart shape on top of the cake so that it’s centered with the bottom layer of fondant. Frost the sides carefully. Make it as smooth as possible. Use a paper towel and gently remove any excess frosting that may get on the bottom edge or the top of the cake.

18. Now roll out a long strip of fondant.

19. Using a straight edge, cut the sides off so you have a long even piece of fondant. You’ll want the width of this piece be at least .25″ wider than the height of your cake so that it forms the sides of the box to hold the truffles.

20. Carefully, wrap the sides of the cake with this strip of fondant. Again, the frosting will help hold the fondant in place. The smoother your frosting is, the smoother the sides of your box will be.

21. And, voila… Sweet Heart Candy Cake Box!

Now, you just need to fill it with truffles.

You can use the other cake and excess trimmings to crumble and make red velvet cake balls.
Read the original how-to for the Red Velvet Cake Balls. or just Cake Balls in general.
(Keep in mind that this recipe used the entire cake for cake balls, so you will want to cut down on the amount of frosting you use to make them work. Start small and add more as you need it until the consistency is moist enough to mold and still hold it’s shape. )

I just decorated these different ways with candy writers, heart sprinkles, nuts and drizzled candy melts. You can take this a step further by really making it an assorted box of chocolate. Go all out and make the cake balls with different cake flavors.

Cake Bites

Unfortunately I can't claim that I came up with the idea for these, but they are very good, and I'm going to share my first experience with making them.


Things you'll need:
Cake mix (and anything the box says you need... eggs, oil, water... if you want to make a cake from scratch that's up to you, but just generally you need a cake mix)
Frosting
Melt-able chocolate (Candy Coatings, I don't like the chocolate chips for these, but you could use them if you can't find anything else)


Steps:
1. Mix and bake the cake as you would normally.
2. Let the cake cool.
3. Empty the cake into a mixing bowl and break up into little tiny pieces...  Just use your hands and mash it up.
4. Let the cake cool some more.  The cooler it is the easier and better the next steps work.  If you want to speed things up, put the bowl in the refrigerator for a bit.  My sister and I actually got impatient and so we tried it both ways.  Let me tell you, it ends up taking longer if you don't wait for the cake to cool and although they still taste good they look like a MESS.
5. Add the frosting, you will need a whole container for each broken up cake.  The frosting allows the little pieces to stick together so you can form little balls.  Your hands WILL be messy after this step.
6. Roll the cake mixture into balls.  You want them to be about bite size, but you can choose your preference of size.  We placed them on wax paper over a cookie sheet which made it easier to stick them in the freezer so the balls could become a little more solid- just so they're not so mushy and easy to destroy their shape. It's CRUCIAL for the next step that they aren't too mushy.  (I've seen these things made into Cake Pops- if you wish to make them on a stick, place a stick in each ball now. You can buy the lollipop type sticks at the store.)
7.  Melt the chocolate or candy coating.  Coat the cake balls with chocolate.  You want to completely cover them though.  We tried several different methods of coating them with chocolate.  Rolling them in the chocolate seemed to make them fall apart, and use WAY more chocolate than we wanted.  We tried drizzling the chocolate over the top and then "finger-painting" the sides. (Because when it drizzles down it never seems to go far enough or down each side equally)  What I found worked best was taking a spoon and starting to drizzle the chocolate over the top with the spoon, then try to even it out using the back of the spoon and then I used the indent part to wrap around the bottom sides of the ball.  Kind of a swirling motion as if you were trying to get the very last bit of yogurt or pudding out of the plastic containers they come in.  I found this way to be the quickest and most effective way of doing it.  


Sadly we ate them all before I blogged about them.  So I will have to take pictures and add them the next time I make them, sometime in May.

Cake Pops

Supplies:

Devils Food cake mix {and ingredients listed on box}
1/2 package of chocolate frosting
White Chocolate Candy Melts {2 bags from Michael's}
Candy sticks {from Michael's}
Styrofoam
Gel Food Coloring {NOT liquid}
Foil
Vegetable Oil Spray
Shortening {large spoon full}

Step One:

Line your large cake pan with foil. Now grease the foil with vegetable oil spray.

Step Two:

Follow the recipe on your cake mix and bake your cake as directed. Allow the cake to cool.

Step Three:

Put your baked cake in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to crumble the entire cake. Add about 1/2 of the package of chocolate frosting to the crumbled cake. The chocolate frosting is what acts as a glue to hold the cake balls together. Now its time to get dirty. Use your hands to mix the frosting evenly throughout the crumbled cake mix until the cake mix is well moistened. Your cake mix should be moist enough to shape into a large mound and keep its shape. And if your hands don't look like this, then you're doing it wrong {lol}.

Step Four:

Roll your cake mix into 1 inch balls using the palms of your hands. You should be able to get 35-40 cake balls from a single batch of cake mix.

Step Five:

Now we prepare the chocolate shell. Pour one entire package of white chocolate candy melts into a microwave safe bowl. Follow the melting instructions on the package. *Be sure not to burn the candy melts or they will taste super yucky* Pull out your melted white chocolate and stir thoroughly with a spoon until COMPLETELY smooth. Once smooth, add a large spoon full of shortening {Crisco} to the white chocolate to thin out the consistency a bit. Stir thoroughly again.

Step Six:

Take a cake pop and dip into the white chocolate about 1 inch. And then place it into the center of your cake ball. This will act as a glue keeping your cake pop and stick attached. Then place your cake pop in the Styrofoam to harden. Continue with the remaining cake pops.

Step Seven:

Now you are ready to coat your cake pops in the delicious white chocolate. This is the most tricky step of the entire recipe. It took me some practice before I was good at evenly coating the chocolate on the pop. The key is to place the pop in the chocolate at a sideways angle with one hand. Using the other hand, spoon the chocolate mixture all around the pop. Try to do this as quickly as possible before the chocolate begins to harden and get lumpy. Once you have evenly coated the pop, gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl to get off any excess chocolate that would drip.

Step Eight:

Now its time to make your pops look extra pretty. Use the remainder of your white chocolate for the drizzle. If you run out, make more following the steps above. Add the GEL food coloring of your choice until you receive your desired color. The liquid food coloring will immediately harden and ruin your chocolate. Fill a Ziploc bag with your colored white chocolate. Cut a small hole in one corner of the Ziploc back so that you can drizzle the colored chocolate over your pops. Now let your pops dry and then you are done! You can chill in the refrigerator if you want.

(Variations can include different cake mixes, frostings, and chocolate coverings)

Recipe on Ashley's blog, complete with pictures