Bite Sized Balls of Bliss

Finger food is so easy to eat.  It doesn't require utensils, and often it doesn't even require a plate.  The best finger foods are, obviously, desserts.  Cookies, fudge, candy, chocolate covered pretzels....you name it, it's delicious.  Recently, I had heard about a fancy new-fangled finger food dessert: cake balls.

The concept is easy: form balls of cake, dip in chocolate, and eat.  Last weekend I attempted to make some of these decadent delights and I must say that they turned out pretty well, even if they were more time consuming than I anticipated.

To make cake balls, you will need the following ingredients:
- Cake mix and required water/oil/eggs/etc. (or ingredients for a from scratch cake recipe)
- Jar of frosting (or from scratch frosting)
- 1 lb. chocolate candy coating
- Any desired decorations/toppings

Use any combination of flavors that you think would be good.  I used devil's food cake, fudge frosting, and milk chocolate coating and they turned out very chocolaty and rich.

Follow the directions to make your cake mix or cake recipe.

Pour your batter into a 9x13 pan.  It doesn't really matter what kind of pan you use but I think that a 9x13 pan is the easiest to clean.  It also has the least amount of edges (which didn't seem to crumble well later in the process).

And then bake your cake according to the directions.

Mmmmmmmmm.  Take the pan out of the oven and let the cake cool.  Once the cake has been cooled, get a bowl out.  With your hands take chunks out of the cake.  This part is fun.

Then crumble up the cake into the bowl.  You should get a nice fine crumble.  The edges don't always crumble as nicely so you might want to leave those out.

Next get out your jar of frosting (or make your frosting).  Add it to the cake crumbles a little bit at a time, mixing in between with a mixer or a spoon.  Stir in enough frosting just until the mixture starts holding together.  I only used half of my 16 oz jar of frosting so if you're making your own frosting I would recommend only making a half recipe.

Next you'll want to roll the mixture into little bite sized balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.

The balls should be about 1 inch across.  If you have a melon baller or cookie dough scooper those would come in pretty handy during this step.  I got 54 balls out of this recipe.  The last couple were really sticky and didn't turn out very smoothly because they had some frosting that hadn't gotten mixed in well.

Place this cookie sheet into the refrigerator for a little while until the balls firm up.  Maybe about 30 minutes or so.

When you're ready to dip the balls in the chocolate coating, pour about half the wafers into a microwave safe bowl and microwave on a low power for about 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between.  I microwaved at 30% power for a total of about 1.5 or 2 minutes.  Stir in between each 30 seconds and stop microwaving when it's mostly melted.  Stir until the last couple pieces melts all the way.

Then get your cookie sheet out of the fridge and dip the balls into the chocolate.

You can use a spoon, toothpicks, or whatever else you like to stir the balls around and coat them.  Once coated, remove from the bowl and place back on the cookie sheet.

Once all the balls are coated you can put the cookie sheet back in the fridge until the chocolate sets.  If you desire you can sprinkle things on top of the cake balls or roll them in things to make them fancier.  Sprinkles, nuts, coconut, and crushed candies would all be delicious.  If you have another color of chocolate coating you can drizzle some of that on top in a pretty pattern to make them fancier.  Use your creativity!

Once the chocolate is set you can remove them from the cookie sheet and store them in containers in a cool place or in the fridge.  After taste testing, of course.

These are very versatile and can be made in many flavors combinations and can be decorated to look very fancy.  They would be perfect for all sorts of occasions from picnics to baby/wedding showers to birthday parties.

Enjoy!

Personalized Stationery

Maybe you feel like making something nice for yourself.  Maybe you need a relatively quick gift idea.  Maybe your creative side is crying out for a fun project for the afternoon.  You want to make some personalized stationery.

To make this stationery you will only need a few supplies:

-- Blank note cards (scrapbook paper or cardstock cut to size would also work)

-- Rubber stamps and/or clear stamps and blocks  (you can find some great ones in the dollar bins at Michael's or Pat Catan's)

-- Rubber stamp ink pads

-- Wet paper towels

Start off with your stamps.  You can find some nice, inexpensive rubber stamps.  (Six of these only cost $1!)

And gather some clear stamps, too, if you would like.  You can find $1 bin clear stamps too!  Clear stamps usually come in packages or sets of related stamps rather than individually and are usually a bit more expensive.

Take each blank card (or paper cut to size) and stamp an image or a monogram on the front.  You can make your cards top fold or side fold.  Mix it up and have some stamps centered and others off center.  Maybe you want a set of cards with identical stamps or perhaps you want a variety of covers on your stationery.  Have fun with it!  Make the project yours!  For a special touch, you can even stamp a medium sized letter on the envelopes next to where the return address goes.

As you stamp you can let the ink dry by standing the cards up on their sides to maximize space on your table. Once dried you can tie the packet of cards with a ribbon and voila!  Adorable!

COST:

$10       --  40 pack of blank pastel note cards

$5         --  three ink pads

$1-$15  --  stamps  (this will vary depending on how many you purchase, how many you already own, etc.)

And the best part is that most of those supplies are usable for future projects!

Introductions

Hello world!  It's me!

I'm Tall Girl.  I have big plans and big dreams.  Many of these involve crafts.  Most of these involve crafts.  I love being creative and coming up with new ideas.  I also love to read and would read all day if I could.  Favorite book?  Jane Eyre.  Favorite sport?  Volleyball.  Favorite food?  Ice cream.  Favorite color?  Green.  Sometimes purple, but usually green.  Favorite subject?  Math.  I'm a nerd.  And I love nerd jokes.  Don't judge.

This is my hubby, Tall Boy.

He is a definite ham and a giant nerd.  He tells horrible puns.  Have you ever read the jokes they put on Laffy Taffy?  His puns are like those.  They are funny but awful at the same time.  He's pretty awesome at fixing things and he's great at being thoughtful.  All around he's a pretty nice guy.

This is my cat, Dippy.

She basically has the most awesome life ever: sleep, eat, sleep, chase yarn, sleep, chase ball, eat, sleep, stand on owner's throat while they try to sleep, sleep, repeat.  She's pretty dumb though.  She falls off of most things and runs into walls.  Her most useful trait is that she loves to chase and eat bugs.

So now that the introduction of my little family is done, I can tell you a little bit about what this blog will be about.

In my opinion there are Five Commandments of Crafting.
1.  Crafts must have a purpose.  I don't like making things for the sake of making things.  I have more than enough knick knacks to dust, thankyouverymuch.  When I make something it must be useful in some way.  (Even if that use isn't immediate.)
2.  My crafts must be cute.  Unless they're intended to be notcute.  I'm a perfectionist and I don't like my handiwork to turn out looking like a Picasso when it was intended to be a Michelangelo.  Sometimes this involves some pretty awesome MacGyver tactics, but in the end it looks like I intended.  Mostly.
3.  Completing the craft must be fun.  That's kinda what the point is.
4.  The cost of completing a craft must not require taking out a second mortgage.  I don't have a house and I don't think my landlord would appreciate me mortgaging my apartment so this is a biggie.
5.  I get bonus points if I turn something old/broken/ugly into something new/cute/awesome.

I follow these Commandments (they are subject to change) and I make awesome things.  Cheaply.  Not cheaply as in crappy fall-apart-the-first-time-you-use-it though.  Cheaply as in I-didn't-spend-much-on-this-and-it-turned-out-really-awesome.  So I'm going to attempt to share this knowledge with you, readers.  Hopefully it comes in useful.  :)