Getting Creative in the Kitchen...Cake balls & More!

Over the last several weeks I'd been itching to try some new recipes in the kitchen. So I decided, in all my free time, that I would take a stab at some of them. I'm finding out how hard it is to work full-time, do church activities, and still find the time to enjoy cooking. Some nights it's a struggle, but I really do love to cook and bake and try new things and I'm grateful that Josh is always so willing to try my creations! Basically the point of me making these cakes was to try and perfect a fondant and butter cream recipe. This was the first of many attempts and it was my first time to make either of them from scratch.

This one was covered in fondant. The stuff at the store is so nasty, so I decided to try and make my own homemade fondant. The recipe was simple. It was just marshmallows, confectioner's sugar and a little bit of water. I put some dye in it and used a cookie cutter to make the feet. Fondant is harder to work with than I thought. It's easy to get the finished product of the fondant, but putting it on a cake and molding it is a whole other story. It's pretty plain and simple, but it took me forever to get to this point- ha. I'm definitely not a natural at this - looks like I'm gonna need some more practice. :)


This cake was dressed with butter cream, which by the way is delicious. Don't be fooled, getting it to lay on the cake as smoothly as it looks in the bowl is not easy. Needless to say, I need to practice my techniques a lot more!

Here's the recipe for the Butter Cream:
Ingredients:1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream.
3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
Instructions:Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.




And these are the cake balls I made for a get-together with the girls from the church. Cake balls are Scrumptious!! These cake balls were strawberry cream cheese with white chocolate. They are super easy to make, but very time consuming! Oh and just a quick tip: if you are wanting to dye the chocolate, make sure you purchase food coloring that is oil based (i.e. Wilton) and not water based. My friend and I learned the hard way and ruined the chocolate the first time. Beginners mistake! :)