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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

An Easy Cake Ball tutorial



I realized I've posted pictures of cake balls twice and never given the recipe.  It's really hard.

(It also goes against all that I am, using all store bought things, nothing from scratch.)

Ready?  Want to learn how to make cake balls?  Here goes...

1.  Bake a cake mix in a 9x13 cake pan.  (Red velvet is our favorite.)  Cool.

2.  Crumble the cooled cake into a large bowl.

3.  Add 1/2 or so cream cheese icing from a can.

4.  Mix well.  Form into tablespoon sized balls.  Put them on a cookie sheet and refrigerate.  For a few hours.

5.  Pull them out.  Add sticks if you want to make them into cake pops.

6.  Melt some candy melts, (the chocolate disks available at most craft stores), in your choice of color.  I usually add a couple of tablespoons of Crisco, it helps it be smooth and shiny.

7.  Dip the balls into the melted candy melts.  Allow them to harden and enjoy!

hints:
I have found that the stick stays better if you dip it into the candy melt before you stick it into the ball.
I usually pull off the hard, dark outer edges of the cake before I crumble it in the bowl.
If you are making pops, get a chunk of styrofoam to use as a base for the dipped pops.

Here are the links to the pictures of balls and pops I've made in the past.

I made these for Troy's office for Christmas.

Christmas Cake Pops

And, I made these for my sister's baby shower.

Luke's cake balls

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Chickens are here!

We are still waiting on the ones we ordered to hatch April 11, but, after we got our shed earlier than we expected, we were eager to get babies.



Watching the shed be placed.


So, off to Tractor Supply we went.
And, came home with 6 Red Stars!











All six chicks learning to eat at 2 days old

And eating again at 3 days old.  (today)

We love them.  So far, even Maggie seems to be adjusting well.  She peers over the top of their tub and watches them, but doesn't get too close.


So far, we've had leg scratches, cleaning poopy chicken bottoms, poop on the floor, leaning too hard on the side of the tub and tipping the whole thing over.  And that was just in the first 24 hours!