Pumpkin Cake Balls Part 2 of 2

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My Halloween treat to you is the "conclusion" of my cake balls post.  I hope you have a lot of fun tonight with your kids, or your friends, or your family, or your frat brothers -- whatever it is you are doing!  I can't wait to dress up my baby and help hand out some yummy treats.  We'll probably take a little stroll around the neighborhood, but not go door-to-door.  She's only 13 months old, after all!

If you haven't seen it, visit Cake Balls Part 1 first.

Now it's time to decorate the cake balls.

Supplies:  When you have made 50 cake balls, you need at least 2 bags of candy melts.  I chose vanilla-flavored orange and dark chocolate.  I wanted to make half jack-o-lantersn and the other half chocolate with fall-colored sprinkles.  To make jack-o-lanterns, I also needed an AmeriColor Food Writer and some green apple Tic Tacs.  I ordered the marker from Amazon here.

Supplies!

Cover a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Take some of your frozen balls out of the freezer.  If you leave them out, they'll thaw out and not be so easy to work with.

Melt half your bag of candy melts.  I put mine in the microwave for one minute, stirred, and another 20 seconds.  Another great way is to use a double boiler.

In the past, I made cake balls chilled, but not frozen.  But this time I did frozen and it made it go by so fast!  I can't believe I've been messing with not-frozen in the past.  Lesson learned!  Do it frozen!

If you are using Tic Tacs to make pumpkins, put the cake ball on a cookie sheet and insert the Tic Tac.  Hold for a second or two until it sets.

Pumpkins all in a row!

If you are using a cake writer and making pumpkin faces, this can be tricky!  Make sure you draw the face AFTER the chocolate sets, and before condensation starts to form.  Once the candy gets wet, it's nearly impossible for the marker to work.

Hi!

If you are using sprinkles....

....place the cake ball on your sheet, then sprinkle before the chocolate sets.

My other cake balls!  And what it looks like when bitten into.

After all the chocolate has hardened, I put them in a bin or sealable bag and put them in the fridge (not the freezer).  We really like the way they taste REALLY cold.  Of course, this makes the marker not dry, so be careful if you made faces.  If you didn't make faces, there is nothing to worry about! :)

Finished!

Believe it or not, these only took about 40 mintues to decorate.  I've had other times where it took MUCH longer.  But that was because I was melting the candy little bits at a time (ugh), using cake that was not frozen, so it would crumble on me and I had to be delicate.  With them being frozen, it took a lot less time.

Notes about Cake Balls/Pops.  The lovely thing about cake balls is you can mix and match.  Our favorite is homemade "Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate" cake mixed with Duncan Hines cream cheese frosting and coated in dark chocolate.  So good!  Red velvet cake covered in chocolate is also so very good!

I hope that you enjoyed this post as much as I did preparing it.  And again,

Happy Halloween!

BeatlesFreak

Halloween Around the Neighborhood

Ever since the rain passed, I have been trying to get outside with my daughter as much as possible.  Soon winter will be setting in and we won't want to go on our walks anymore.  Then it will be impossible with ice, snow, etc.  Ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the neighborhood we walk in was getting more and more decorated for the season.  I decided, in a break from my usual food posts, that I would like to share with you my favorite autumn scenes from our daily walks. 

One day, I finally remembered my camera.  I was nervous the entire time that someone, especially a grumpy old person, might come out of their house and say, "why are you taking pictures of my house?!"  Thankfully, that didn't happen!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these scenes as much as we do!

Baby all ready for her walk.

A cute start to our walk.  Frankenstein and candy corn!

It's spooky the way it is catching the wind ...

This guy especially freaks me out, so here is a close-up for a better look!

The thing on the door especially scares me.

Sooo creepy!

These guys are my favorite! :)

And we saw some deer at the end of our walk in the clearing next to our home.  They always just stare at me suspiciously.

Starting last week, this mannequin appeared at the end of a driveway on the way home from work.  They vary her everyday.  At first I thought she was REAL!

(Yes, there were no cars behind me).

Here she is close up:

Weird, huh? I thought so!  She sort of looks like Uma Thurman's character in Pulp Fiction. 

Happy Haunts!  Halloween is just days away!  I hope you're ready.

BeatlesFreak