Monday, Dec 8th

Trying to catch up now that I have a minute.

The kids and I did a little Christmas baking Monday night. I let them make english muffin pizzas for dinner. Ellie's was cheese only and Anthony's was pepperoni. They seem to eat better when they get to make the food.

After dinner I mixed a cake, the first step in making cake balls. (I bought ingredients to make a triple chocolate version instead of the red velvet shown on her blog.) While the cake cooked & cooled I grabbed the marshmallows and the rice krispies to make the cute little green wreaths that I saw in my Good Housekeeping last month. I didn't have that specific recipe in front of me so I kind of winged it. I followed the basic directions on the side of the box. I decided to only make a half batch just in case. I also do the microwave directions because it goes faster.

I think my mistake was putting in the green food coloring AFTER adding the rice krispies. The color didn't mix evenly and the more I mixed the cooler the mixture got, so by the time I went to start forming the wreaths they were already starting to set up. My last couple barely looked like wreaths. I tried to have the kids decorate them by adding sixlettes. They were not very sticky though so a lot of the balls just rolled right off. I did still take a picture LOL!

I cleaned up that mess and then starting to finish up the cake balls. I broke up the cake with a spoon then started adding the icing. I don't think my proportions were right because it was VERY moist. I had to let the mixture sit in the fridge to try and help it firm up more. By this time the kids were in bed so it was more of a "ME" project, than an "US" project. I finally was able to start making the mixture into balls. It was VERY messy .... icing all over my hands. Note to self: get gloves for the next batch (if there ever IS a next batch)

I put the formed balls into the freezer to firm up a little more. About 30 min later I tried to do the candy coating. I should have just waited. It was late, I was tired and I don't think they really were firm enough. I melted the candy melts according to the directions on the package and dipped the first ball .... what a mess.!!! The ball seemed to lose it's shape in the melts and I couldn't figure out how to keep the coating smooth on the ball. The next dozen or so went about the same way. The are fine for the kids to eat, but definitely not worthy to be wrapped for either kids Christmas party. Back to the drawing board (oh - and I didn't take a picture of them LOL)