Valentine's Day Goodies

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to make (and eat) some sweet goodies. I made my boo his favorite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with cream cheese icing, and my first attempt at red velvet cheesecake-filled cake balls. Little did I know he wasn't too crazy about red velvet...more for me! :D

Red Velvet Cheesecake-filled Cake Balls

Ingredients:

8-ounce cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 box red velvet cake mix

1 can store-bought cream cheese icing

Package almond bark/white chocolate for melting

Combine the powdered sugar and cream cheese and using a 1/4 tsp spoon, scoop small dollops onto wax paper. Put in the freezer for several hours or overnight.

Prepare the red velvet cake as directed on the box, but use milk instead of water (makes it more moist). Bake in 13 by 9 pan as directed and let cool completely. Once cool, crumble into a large bowl and mix with about 1/2 to 2/3 can of cream cheese icing. (The same way to make cake balls previously described). Remove cream cheese balls from freezer, they should now be easier to work with. Mold red velvet cake mixture around each cream cheese ball to form your cake balls. When finished with all the cake balls, place back into freezer until chilled (they are easier to dip into melted chocolate when chilled).

Melt almond bark/white chocolate in microwave or in a double broiler. Dip balls into the melt and place on wax paper, or make cake pops by using candy sticks for dipping. Add some sprinkles or decorate however you like.



So these aren't the prettiest cake balls in the world (I was having some trouble with the melted white chocolate) but they sure are tasty!



Margarita Cupcakes for MLK Day

One of the joys of being a state employee is getting off for MLK day. My cousin (who is a teacher and also had off) and I hit up the mall for our happy Monday free of work. Afterwards, we watched home videos from our childhood my mom let me borrow and made these yummy creations, washing them down with homemade frozen margaritas. The best part is that these cupcakes only have 160 calories a piece! :D

Ingredients:

Pretzel Mixture:

1 1/2 c crushed pretzels

1/4 c  melted butter
2 tbsp sugar

Cupcakes:

1 box whitre cake mix
3/4 c margarita mix
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/4 c milk

2 tsp grated lime peel

4 egg whites
Topping:

1 1/2 c frozen (thawed) whipped topping

2 6 oz containers fat free Key lime pie yogurt

2 tsp grated lime peel

1/3 c coarsely crushed pretzels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix pretzel mixture ingredients until blended and spoon about 1 tablespoon mixture into each of 24 cupcake liners.

In large bowl, mix cupcake ingredients with an electric mixed and fill each of the 24 cupcake liners about 2/3 full on top of the pretzel mixture.

Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Mix yogert, whipped topping and 2 tsp lime peel and frost each cooled cupcake. Sprinkle with coarsely crushed pretzels. Store in the refrigerator.

Of course we had to do something with the rest of the margarita mix :D