Bakerella?

Because of my awesome shoe-loving friend Cher, who shared a miserable work experience with me for a year or two, I discovered The Pioneer Woman. I. Love. Ree. I read her whole "black heels" thing- every post- about her meeting and falling in with Marlboro Man, her now husband, and I suggest you do too. Immediately.

Ree linked to her friend recently... Bakerella. WHERE HAS THIS SITE BEEN ALL MY LIFE???? I tweeted about her and everyone was all "duh, Pugs, where have you been?" Well I guess the answer is IN A HOLE because I was missing out!

I saw her recipe for the classic Red Velvet Cake Balls and swooned. I made them last night as a trial and they're great!

Lesson learned- if you don't really like white chocolate, you won't like red velvet dipped in it. I made a few white chocolate ones but switched back to regular milk chocolate, and used the leftover white to drizzle. FANCY and so easy.

FYI the chocolate ("bark") I used is what Bakerella recommends, the Kroger brand. Seriously, if anyone wants some and doesn't have a Kroger, I'll send you some. It's THAT easy to use and fool-proof. Look how pretty they are!

Like Bakerella suggested, I froze the balls for a little bit before putting them in the chocolate. I don't know if that's why, but all of mine busted out a tiny bit on the bottom! Luckily it wasn't at all noticeable when they were sitting normally.

A few tips: See that little chocolate spillover "base?" It's easier to avoid them if you use a FLAT surface and not a plate with edges that raise a bit... if you're like me, and use a plate it's possible that they'll slide if placed near the edge. If you notice chocolate pooling, take a toothpick and outline closely around the base. When you remove the hardened chocolates, the spillage will easily snap off along your traced line. Also- if you don't have wax paper, use tin foil. Not just a regular plate. Or they won't come off without breaking and you'll have to do some cake ball repair.

My friend Angie also suggested adding the frosting a little bit at a time, saying that if the cake is moist, you won't need the whole can.

The above is all we had left (I mixed with my hands while a tipsy Mr Pug added the frosting for me. I waited until it was almost dough-like and I knew we didn't need more. We probably had more left in the can but SOMEONE was eating finger-swipes of frosting while we worked! (Hint... it wasn't me!) PS- I am now wondering if he purposely left a smiley face in there?

Mr Pug just went to Best Man A's house to watch the IU game and I made him take some with him:

I hope they're a hit! I know we really enjoyed them.

These babies are going to be great to bring out for the holiday celebrations, they are elegant and yummy. I also plan to make these for at least one of the summer wedding celebrations. I love that you can customize the colors and decorations with different color candy melts, chocolate drizzles, and sprinkles. Although if you do sprinkles, be careful- this chocolate isn't like regular melted chocolate. It hardens very quickly so you need to do sprinkles right away.

This recipe yielded 61 cake balls for me (yes, random number) and I used a mini-scoop from Pampered Chef. After scooping though, I hand-rolled the balls to tighten them. They are a pretty good yield from just one box of cake, so if you wanted to do these as favors, or for a candy buffet, they'd be easy to do! (Hint- especially if making them in bulk, I'd bake the cakes in advance. Baking it and letting it cool was time-consuming.)

Please try them (and hopefully, learn something from my helpful hints) and then tell me how they go!