Butter Pecan Cake Balls

This was my first attempt at making cake balls. I decided I would try butter pecan cake with cream cheese icing dipped in white chocolate and topped with a pecan. These were a lot of fun to make and they turned out SO moist. They remind me of truffles. One or two of these and you've hit that sweet spot wall. But they are so worth it! I think my next attempt will be a pumpkin spice cake ball with cream cheese icing. Stay tuned!

Fall Leaf Cupcakes

I had some creative brainstorming today that just hit me, so when it strikes, I must act. I had been toying with some ideas to do something for fall and today it came to me.

The cupcakes above are yellow cake with eggplant-colored buttercream icing. The leaves are made of gum paste. I started with adding a golden yellow food coloring gel to the gum paste and then adding brown, blue, and red without mixing all the way to create the marbled color you see. The leaves were cut from a template I created (not a cookie cutter) and veined with a gum paste tool (not a veiner press). Believe me....if I had both of those tools, I would have used them. In the final stage, they were dusted with yellow luster dust to give it a shine. The paper wrappers were made from brown lunch sacks that I cut up and crumpled to provide a nice texture. I wrapped a piece of twine around them and tied it in the back to help them to stay on the cupcake.

I think what's so cool about these cupcakes is that I used ingredients and stuff that I had around the house. Now, not everyone would have gum paste or luster dust, but since I had some leftover from a previous project, it makes it easier. I had so much fun creating these. A lot of hard work but a big payoff in the end.

No-Bake Cookies

Now, I know these cookies are probably the easiest cookies to bake, but finding a good recipe can be challenging since there are so many versions of this cookie out there. I tried a different recipe before these that called for marshmallows. They were good, but had more of that marshmallow flavor than the deep chocolate flavor that I love so much. So, I found this recipe and in my opinion, they turned out great. For that deeper chocolate flavor, I added dark chocolate cocoa instead of regular cocoa and I liked it much better.

No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa (I used dark chocolate cocoa)

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

Put sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a pan and boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Add peanut butter, vanilla and oats. Boil for 2 1/2 minutes or longer, stirring frequently. Drop on wax paper or buttered cookie sheet.