Half-Baked
Not entirely sure how I got so good at baking. I was always in charge of desserts when I was a kid, being the sole sister among five brothers. I have to assume my science degree and aptitude for chemistry helped as well.
Smallish explanation aside, this page is primarily dedicated to nomenclature, as I have a tendency to invent names for my baking creations.
I make a lot of cakeballs, if you don’t know what the heck those are, check out Bakerlla.com. I had made one batch and was talking it up to some friends, when one of them linked me to that site. I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from seeing how she experiments in the kitchen.
1. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot balls – chocolate cake balls with whiskey in the dough, vanilla frosting, and chocolate candy melt
2. Orange Dreamsicle balls- orange cake, buttercream frosting, vanilla candy melt, orange sprinkles
3. Shamrock Balls (aka Leprechaun balls) – chocolate Bailey’s cake, buttercream frosting, green candy melt, rolled in crushed Thin Mints, for a little taste of overkill and diabetes
4. Nerd Balls – lemon cake, vanilla frosting, vanilla candy melt, rolled in Nerds candy (lemon cake might be overkill, so maybe plain white or yellow would suffice – Funfetti could work, but I tried it before, and the colors disappear when you mix the frosting in)
5. Butterscotch Balls – butterscotch cake, vanilla frosting, coated in either vanilla or chocolate candy melt, or melted butterscotch chips, rolled in toffee bits
6. Spice Balls – either spice or carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, vanilla candy melt
7. Red Velvet Balls – red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting, vanilla candy melt, red sprinkles (for a fun alternative, and a nod to Bakerella, I learned you can make a green velvet cake, gotta try this!)
8. Pumpkin balls – pumpkin cake, cream cheese frosting, orange candy melt (or white candy melt and orange sprinkles)
9. Poppies will put them to sleep balls – lemon poppyseed cake, vanilla frosting, vanilla candy melt (haven’t tried this yet, thinking poppyseeds on the outside might be opium OD?)
10. Peanut butter balls – haven’t done this one yet, but it will involve the peanut butter candy melt I found at the craft store, and most likely chocolate cake or brownies
11. Moon balls – any type of cake (I used just brownie balls on my first trial), vanilla frosting, and after you shape the balls, you poke little craters in them with a sucker stick, then when you coat them, you make an extra thin coating of vanilla candy melt, and use physics (spinning the ball) in order to sink in the craters to make little moons
12. Smurf balls – new untested creation: thinking of figuring out a blueberry cake, probably using blueberry gelatin with a white cake mix, vanilla frosting, blue candy melt (thinking small dried blueberries would be a neat garnish, but dunno, will see)
13. Asscake – not a cakeball, this was a cheesecake I made using chocolate goat cheese in lieu of a second block of cream cheese. surprisingly tasty, considering the goat cheese alone tasted like ass, thus, the Asscakes moniker.
14. Twinkie Balls – I initially was thinking about making something that tastes like Zingers, and when talking about this to a friend, he suggested just buying a box of Twinkies and destroying them, which I did on 3/21/10. My stomach heaved a bit as I turned on the mixer and the twinkies kind of popped like zits. It was seriously disturbing. Contemplating the coating for them, and I am out of sticks, so stay tuned on this one.
15. Cherry-chip balls – cherry chip cake, vanilla frosting, vanilla candy melt, red sprinkles
16. Chocolate-covered strawberry balls – strawberry cake, vanilla frosting, chocolate candy melt, red sprinkles
17. Blueberry muffballs – blueberry muffins, buttercream frosting, white chocolate candy melt, topped with dried blueberries
