Cubicle kitchen: Nutty Cake Balls

Cake balls are so deceptive.  The are composed of some very simple steps, but each of those steps adds up to total a process that I would hesitate to call easy.  I started off so innocently on Saturday morning after breakfast with my box of cake mix, but I ended up working on these on and off almost through dinner.  It's the fridge time that you just can't rush.  Could certainly divide some of the steps among a few evenings after work if you had an office potluck on Friday, and you felt your co-workers deserved it.

And then another layer of deception, because after spending a day baking, mixing, chilling, rolling, chilling, dipping, sprinkling, and chilling some more, I took a look at my cake balls and thought they looked kind of ugly.

Okay, so they don't look so bad in the photo.  But they're a little big, and surrounded by the dirty bowls and with my hands covered in batter and chocolate, they looked a little more sloppy than perhaps I had imagined in the beginning.  But then, I have a tendency to imagine cookbook-type photo shoots.  And that rarely happens.

And, of course, no one really cares whether it looks like a truffle in a Parisian chocolatier's window or a truffle in the dirt waiting to be sniffed out by an intrepid pig.  They just see chocolate, frosting, and cake goodness.  I ended up with enough 'inventory' for three separate deliveries of cake balls this week.  On Monday, 16 cake balls disappeared within two hours of being left out.  That may well be a record.  And today, the third and final day, they disappeared at almost the same rate.  Plus, I also had several in-person visits to my desk to berate/thank/congratulate me on such a tempting treat.

There are lots of possible combinations, between the cake, frosting, and chocolate coating.  But I think I'll give myself a little break from this 'easy' treat for at least a week or two.  Besides, my co-workers would probably prefer something at least pretending to be healthier next week.

Nutty Cake Balls

(Adapted from Bakerella)

Makes about 50-60 cake balls

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Butter Pecan cake mix
• 1 can of diet root beer
• 1 can of cream cheese frosting
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (this is approximate, and of course you can use a different nut, like pecans)
• various chocolate for melting, I used white chocolate, dark chocolate, and butterscotch chips, and milk chocolate Candy Melts, not sure how much, but at least a bag of each to be safe

Directions: 

1. Bake the cake according to the directions on the box, but substitute the can of soda for the oil, eggs, or any other add-ins.  
2. Allow the cake to cool completely.  You can utilize the fridge for this, but don't cheat and wait until it's just warm, it should be completely cool.  This helps with the texture, so the cake doesn't disintegrate into the frosting.
3. Take your beautiful and cooled cake, and rip it to pieces in a large bowl.  Mix in the frosting, and half of the nuts, saving enough to sprinkle on the cake balls later.  You can use a spatula, or your hands, just try to make sure everything is well incorporated.  At this point you might like to place the bowl into the fridge to chill a little more to help make the next steps a little less messy.
4. Take the cake/frosting mixture and roll into balls, using about a tablespoon for each one.  Place balls on a cookie sheet or other tray, lined with parchment paper.  As you fill a tray, again, place in the fridge to keep them cold.
5. In a bowl, melt your first round of chocolate.  You can do this with a double boiler or in the microwave, but be careful in the microwave.  Use 50% power and stop frequently to stir.  White chocolate in particular will seize up very quickly, and often chocolate will continue to melt after heating as you stir, reaching the perfect consistency.
6. Take out one tray of balls.  With a fork or spoon, dip one ball at a time in the melted chocolate, making sure to coat completely, then replace on the tray.  Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and place back into the fridge or freezer.  This is best done in small batches at a time, both for the sake of keeping the chocolate warm and the cake balls cold.  I found that after about 6 the process devolved into a bit of a mess.
7. Repeat the previous steps as many times as it takes to get every ball coated and delicious.

Reclaiming the ridiculous

The teenage years are pretty much your earmarked era of unfortunate fashion choices.  It's expected that you will naively submit to a lot of trends that don't age well, and you get a sort of pass on judgement (but not on mocking).

I feel like while I did participate in some questionable trends, I wasn't fully able to realize my potential for making myself look ridiculous, partly because of my weight.  I just didn't feel comfortable in some things, even when I was able to find my size.  This is my excuse now when I find something that I want to wear, even though I know I've entered that phase of life when really you should stop making fashion faux pas.

Like, say, last week, when I found a pair of hot pink corduroy shorts in the clearance section of Kohl's. I knew I had to try them on, and told myself it would almost certainly end there.  But when I put them on, I just couldn't help it.  They were silly, and they made me smile.  And at 70% off, I decided that they didn't need to be particularly practical.  So I bought them.

I haven't worn them yet, but I'm thinking they'll be perfect with some black leggings, pink sneakers, a t-shirt and jacket for going on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl.  Because first of all, it's an outfit that reflects the fun of the event.  And I'm going to put faith in my fellow crafters not to judge me too harshly.  I'm still a child at heart, after all.

Hello, yellow!

I continue to feel like I am failing to walk the walk when it comes to being a crafty blogger.  Or maybe I'm not knitting the knits.  Except I promise that I am, and here is the proof!  My spoilee received her package over the weekend, filled with things in her favorite color, yellow.

First, I made a pair of mitts using a pattern that I've used at least three times before, Susie's Reading Mitts.  I liked the idea of making the decorative border at the wrist and fingers in brown to make them like sunflowers.

Sunflower Mitts

Nice effect I think, particularly with the picot edging as the 'petals'.

And I really couldn't send a yellow from the Lone Star State and not reference  the Yellow Rose of Texas, right?  The best flower pattern I could find for my purposes came from a super-cute tea kettle cosy with a bouquet of them on top, the Rosebuds Tea Cosy.  I whipped up a single bud along with the leaves, and then made a quick i-cord to attach to a key ring.

Yellow Rose of Texas Keychain

Instant floral keychain!

Aside from the knits, I also crafted in other ways.  My spoilee has been hexipuffing.  I swear, non-knitting readers, this is not a drug reference, it means she's making little hexagonal pillows which all gather together to form the most gorgeous quilt of scrap fingering yarn ever.  So my spoiler needed mini-skeins, hand-dyed, but of course.

Kool-Aid Mini-Skeins

I used Kool-Aid, with various mixes of lemonade, orange, pineapple, and any other flavor that came close to yellow-orange.  The best part was creating individual tags for each skein with a picture of something she liked that could be the colorway for the yarn, like Cheese Doodles for the overtly orange one in the top left-hand corner.

And then, I used one of my secret weapons: decoupage.  Using that, I was able to put colorful new covers on three mini-notebooks.

Paint Chip Notebooks

I took paint chips in every shade of yellow from Home Depot, making anyone working there probably horrified at the idea of my room of exploding sunshine.  Then I used the decoupage to apply them to the covers.  I like the simplicity of the stripes, but the slate gray circles were the most fun.

So there you have it!  I feel better now, proving that along with posts, I've been busy with knits and purls as well.

Froyo files: Tomunchi

I've been as far south as San Antonio for froyo, and the other week I was up near Georgetown when I made a familiar request to make a detour for frozen yogurt on the way back down to Austin.  There were a few options, but this was the most on the way, an important factor when the only real reason to stop is for my own obsession with froyo.  And hey, we had just had dinner, so it only made sense to have dessert, right?

Tomunchi: 1701 West Parmer Lane  Austin, TX 78727


When I visited: Saturday, September 15th, around 8 pm

Cost per ounce: 36 cents

Number of flavors: 10

Sorbet options: 2, but not labeled as such

Nutritionals provided: Not that I found

Experience: Before I ever set foot inside, I liked this place.  That's because, unlike many others, Tomunchi has their daily selection of yogurts posted on their website.  I spend so much time searching for current flavors at other places.  Before leaving the house for a shopping trip that may include froyo, I like to be able to see what's on offer and decide what I want.  Some places have the info on Twitter or Facebook with varying levels of consistency, while others just provide a complete list of possible flavors and leave you to take your chances.  So I liked knowing what I had to look forward to.

Apparently this local business has been around a while, long before self-serve frozen yogurt was a 'thing'.  But the set-up is the same: wall of flavors, bar of toppings, and they also do smoothies, bubble tea, and other fruity dessert dishes that look really tasty.  It took a few minutes to get some sample cups because the man at the counter was serving someone else one of those delicious bowls of fruit.  And we had to wait for one of the 'windows' to have it's yogurt put into place, but these are the kinds of things I've come to expect at any place, just a minor inconvenience.

I knew Dad would gravitate to the Coffee, which had a good flavor, not too creamy.  I've had some froyo where the coffee flavor was almost completely lost in the dairy.  In my opinion, Berry Austin has the best in the city with Capital Coffee, but this was certainly good. He also showed minor interest in Strawberry and Chocolate.  He likes the classics.

I meanwhile, indulge in the 'weird' flavors, like my beloved Taro, along with some Tart and Strawberry.  None of the flavors were the best I've had in my tastings, but they were all good, and just having Taro always puts a star next to any froyo place for me.  And the fact that there's bubble tea also makes me happy, because I love bubble tea, despite the fact that I rarely indulge in it due to being about as calorific as a Frappuchino.  I prefer taking the time to eat a bowl full of yogurt and fruit (as you can see) to sucking all my calories through a straw.  But man, those bubbles are so much fun.

Worth a revisit? Next time I'm up around there I might stop in, particularly since my employer happens to have some offices fairly close by.  The price is the probably the best in town, and the yogurt was good enough.

Cubicle kitchen: Dark Chocolate Dipped Pineapple Marshmallows

You might think that this week's office treat was sort of an afterthought.  After all, I've already made pineapple marshmallows, and this batch was really made for swapping purposes, I just happened to have enough left over to bring in.  But really, I thought quite a bit about what to make this past week, and had every intention of making some sort of fudge, or perhaps cookies.

The thing is, I didn't just make marshmallows for a swap.  No, these were marshmallows with a higher purpose than most.  Because these marshmallows became Peeps.  And not just any Peeps.  Kitty Peeps.

Aren't they cute?  I think they are best photographed in groups, because I fear that if you just look at one, you might not realize that they are cats.  But I'm pretty proud of these, that this random concept I had to tie in with my swapping spoilee's favorite color worked out.  If you can't tell, it was yellow.  She even described it as 'Peep yellow' in response to my assertion that I loved 'Peep pink'.  So I thought it was appropriate.

Having whipped up the marshmallow, waited for it to set in the pan, sprinkled with yellow sugar, cut out with a cookie cutter and used a toothpick to decorate with melted dark chocolate, I still wasn't done making treats to send away.  Because while my spoiler liked Peeps in taste as well as color, she liked banana yellow but hated the actual fruit.  So to have a little fun, I decided to send her some 'ironic bananas' made of marzipan.

These are easy to make, just take some marzipan/almond paste, and work in some food coloring.  Then take a piece, roll it into a banana shape, and set on parchment paper.  I let these sit in the fridge for a little while, then melted up some dark chocolate and gave them a dip.  Back onto the parchment paper and into the fridge.

After all this, I thought that making yet another sweet treat was likely a bit much, even for me.  So when just half of the marshmallow made 27 Peeps, I deemed that as plenty and cut the rest into cubes for work.  Physically unable to bring in the same thing twice, however, I knew I had to do something else.  And when in doubt, dip in chocolate, right?

Everyone at work seemed to agree.  If only I had had some flaked coconut, I would have added that, but that's because I just can't stop myself.

Old Navy makes me feel old

I have a tendency to lament 'I'm so old!' a lot.  Mostly I'm being facetious, I know that I'm not actually old.  But I'm still shocked when I see evidence of how quickly time flies and how soon I transitioned from teenybopper awash in the trends as they took over, to the point where the 90s is considered...nostalgia.  Wow.

Particularly jarring are the latest slew of Old Navy ads.  First, it was a series themed around back to school that starred the 'kids' of Beverly Hills, 90210.  That show missed me by just a few years, the purview of say, my best friend's older sister.  And she's married with a kid now, so it makes sense that the store is looking to push her pop culture buttons to get her to make her clothing purchases there.

But now, now I see the Backstreet Boys providing the soundtrack to a parade of skinny jeans in a rainbow of colors:

Boy bands, now that was something I was right in the middle of.  BSB, 'N Sync (my personal favorite), LFO, 98 Degrees, and even Brits BBMAK, I was singing right along with them at every opportunity.  I even went to an 'N Sync concert, the Pop tour.  Back then, of course, no one would have been caught dead in these pants.

But now, here are a much older gang of Backstreet Men, as it were, putting their catchy chorus back into my head while reminding me that I have entered the second phase of my sellability as far as companies are concerned.  Now I am not the teenager with allowance to spend on CDs and magazines.  Now I am the young adult, possibly with a family and buying trends for them as much as for myself.

I know it's a little weird to be demarcating the stages of my life based on what I'm being sold and how, but it's a big part of the cultural context.  Plus, I can't help but get a little meta about myself.  It's the liberal arts student in me.

Froyo files: Chill Out (Kyle)

Is it time for a froyo intervention?  I hope not.  I'm not saying every weekend should consist of three different servings of frozen yogurt, but I sure did enjoy each visit earlier this month.  And hey, if I don't try all of these places, how will you know where to get your fix?

Chill Out: 5103 Kyle Center Dr  Suite 101 Kohl Center, Kyle, TX 78640

When I visited: Sunday, September 9th, around 1:30 pm

Cost per ounce: 45 cents

Number of flavors: 12

Sorbet options: 1

Nutritionals provided: Yes, binder just to the side of the toppings

Experience: Somehow Kyle has ended up with three frozen yogurt places, a small, sweet triangle.  This one is on the same side of the street as the Target and Kohl's, so it's a perfect stop while shopping. I've been here once before, and it was fine, but I was fine passing it when I was across the street at HEB getting groceries.  The selection of yogurt is good, but none of the flavors really wowed me.

This time around, there was: Pumpkin Spiced Latte.  I'm am so ready for fall it isn't funny, even though it's not the best season for cold dessert.  What is great for the colder weather (yes, we do get colder here in Texas!) are the paninis and soups that they also have here.  I didn't try any of that this time though.  Instead, I filled up a bowl with froyo while the weather was still near triple digits.

For Mom, there was Mountain Blackberry and Mango Tango, which was a sorbet.  For some reason, there was a lot of mango around that weekend.  Of course, I say they were for her, but I also got a swirl of these, even though they perhaps weren't a great match for the Pumpkin.  Actually, the Pumpkin and the Blackberry went rather well with a little fruit, like having a pumpkin trifle layered with fruit.  Now that's an idea...

Worth a revisit? There's a good variety of options, and I like that this is locally-owned and proud of it.  The yogurt is good, and they have a lot of options, but doesn't reach the level of cravability of, say, a Yogurt Spot.  I'll need to try out the other two places located within a mile of here to reach a final decision.