What I Ate Wednesday... and Kids-in the-Kitchenfunk Kitchen

Kids-in the-Kitchenfunk Kitchen

 

It has been a long time since I linked up to Jen's blog!  If you haven't seen it, check it out here:

She has great food ideas, and she does great crafts and decor as well.  

Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me throughout the day, and when I had the time to decide I could participate, all the pretty food I had eaten was finished - that is, my breakfast and lunch would have made some pretty pictures, but dinner didn't.  But I'm playing anyway!  Because one of my pictures is of something AMAZING!!  

First, this is my favorite comfort food...  

 

I couldn't do anything with picnik to make eggs look tantalizing, so I apologize in advance.  

Okay, really my favorite comfort food is liver and onions and mashed potatoes.  But since I don't keep that around the house, and I'm the one that has to cook my own comfort food, it has morphed into eggs and cottage cheese and toast (tonight it was an english muffin).  I don't know what it is about this practically all white meal...

And then --- Dessert!

I had 2 cake balls, one chocolate and one coconut.  The recipe follows - it is so easy and SUPER delicious!

Again, sorry for the picture, but the light was so bad from both sources that I couldn't tweak them to highlight how delicious they are!

I have been making these for our son's college graduation party, but I swear a little elf has been sneaking into my freezer and eating them (and its not always me!!).  

If you would like to make coconut cake balls, I suggest using white cake mix.  And when you are done mixing the ingredients, throw in a bag of coconut!  Its that simple.  However, after using one small bag of coconut, I found I wanted MORE coconut - because I love Mounds bars and they really do taste similar!  

Here is the recipe:

Cake Balls:

Cake Mix (prepared as directed)

4T butter

8oz Cream Cheese

2 C of confectioners sugar

3 t of milk

* * * * * * * * * * *

Bake a box of cake mix in a 9X13 pan as directed. Let it cool.

While it is cooling, melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large bowl.  Add one 8 oz block of cream cheese and blend well.  Add 2 cups of powdered sugar, adding it in increments to blend it into the cheese mixture.  Add a few tablespoons of milk if needed to help the process.  You want this nice and smooth.  Put this aside.  

Once cool, crumble the cake into..., well..., CRUMBS, in a large bowl.  This is why this is a great Kids-in the-Kitchenfunk Kitchen recipe!  

Now mix the cake crumbs in the cheese mixture.  

At this point some people might put the mixture into the fridge or freeze for a short time to firm it up, but that isn't completely necessary.  You can judge for yourself.  

When firm, shape the mixture into balls about the size of a tablespoon.  Place them on parchment paper that has been placed over a cookie sheet.  When the sheet is full, place it in the freezer for a short time.  

While you are waiting for the cake balls to firm up, you can begin to heat the chocolate chips in the microwave or double boiler.  One BIG tip I can give you is that you can add a little bit of shortening to the melting chocolate - this will ensure that the chocolate won't get hard too early.  

I find that a double-boiler is easier than the microwave only because I can keep covering the cake balls without having to stop and re-melt the chocolate.  

In order to cover the cake balls I finally discovered that you can use a wooden skewer to stab the balls one at a time, dip them into the chocolate, and put it on the parchment covered sheet again to firm up.  After you have dipped them, try spinning the skewer between your fingers in order to drop the cake ball off the end of the skewer.  If you have a little chocolate missing from the top of the dipped cake ball you can brush a little melted chocolate on that spot, drop some sprinkles onto it, or you can wait until the chocolate balls are firm and you decorate them with icing!

Happy Creating!

I hope you get the chance to get creative today!

...from Lori @ Kitchenfunk