A Spring-like January Day

Recipe - Cake Balls

I made red velvet cake balls on Saturday for Brady's Boy Scout bake sale!

The basic recipe for cake balls on allrecipes.com is a cake mix (18.25 oz.*) prepared, baked, crumbled, and mixed with a container of frosting (16 oz.), then dipped in vanilla or milk/dark chocolate candy coating.

*Cake mix size is now 15.25 oz. and still works great!

After reading some of the reviews, I only added 2/3 of a container of cream cheese frosting with a crumbled red velvet cake (cooled about 30 min.)  I made two batches which made about nine dozen cake balls (8 dozen for the bake sale, and a dozen for us!).

I shaped the cake and frosting mixture into balls with a small scoop, then chilled them in the freezer on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper for about 30 min. before dipping them in the melted candyman coating.  I melted the coating in the microwave.

I tried a few dipping methods, but ended up dropping one at a time into the coating and lifting with a fork to drip, then using a knife to scoot it onto the wax paper.
I melted one pound of coating at a time, and let it cool some before dipping the chilled cake balls.  This seemed to help with the problem of cake crumbs getting into the coating and also the coating wanting to crack once it set up. 

It took almost two pounds of the vanilla candy coating per batch.

I used a decorator bag for the melted milk chocolate candy coating drizzle.

I placed each one in a mini cupcake paper liner.

Thinking of the possible flavor combinations... carrot cake and cream cheese icing, lemon cake and lemon icing, German chocolate cake and coconut pecan icing, chocolate fudge cake and chocolate or mint chocolate chip icing, vanilla funfetti cake and vanilla icing...

Winter Jam 2013

We attended the Winter Jam concert Friday evening!  We saw several Christian rock artists including TobyMac, RED, Matthew West, Jason Castro, Jamie Grace, NewSong, Royal Tailor, and Sidewalk Prophets.  Nick Hall was the speaker for the evening.  The arena was sold out with over 18,000 people in attendance!

 Elli wearing her new ear protection headphones.

 Eating cotton candy!

Pretty Christmas Dress

54th Street Grill

We enjoy eating out at 54th Street Grill.  Here are a few pictures when we went during Christmas break!

Sky scraper onion rings appetizer with honey mustard and chipotle ranch dressing.

We love the presentation!

I had steak soup, fire-grilled sirloin steak, loaded baked potato, honey wheat bread with honey butter, and cherry limeade.  Jeff had the pork tenderloin sandwich and fries.  Brady had the Memphis burger that is topped with smoked pulled pork, and Kaitlyn had the grilled chicken southwest tortilla wrap.

 Elli had macaroni and cheese and apple wedges with caramel dip.

Bed Head

Just Dance!

We are having fun with our new Just Dance 2 and Just Dance 4 video games for the Nintendo Wii console.  Players hold the Wii remote in one hand and try to mimic all the dance moves of the silhouette dancer on the screen to earn points.
We are dancing...and exercising...and laughing!!!

Dec. 28, 2012.

Kaitlyn's 18th Birthday!...Party #2

Here are some pictures from Kaitlyn's 18th birthday party Friday night with her friends!

Elli ready to go to the restaurant!

 We went to an Italian restaurant!

 A treat from the restaurant for the birthday girl!

 Brady, Kaitlyn, and Elli.

 Kaitlyn drove her friends in her car to the restaurant.  She locked her keys in the car, but AAA came to the rescue!

 "Paris is always a good idea." - Audrey Hepburn

They watched the movie "How to Train Your Dragon"!

Pillow Fort!

Kaitlyn and Brady made a pillow fort with Elli that had four rooms!

Kaitlyn's 18th Birthday!

Kaitlyn turned 18 today!  We celebrated with her today and will have a second celebration with Kaitlyn's friends on Friday!  Love you so much, sweet beautiful daughter!!

Wrist Watch

Do I look cool with my new outfit and matching wrist watch from Jie Jie?

What?  My boots are on the wrong feet??