Valentine's Sugar Cookies

Here is one more Valentine's treat! Every year the collegiate chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota that I was initiated into has a bake sale for Valentine's Day. They usually have 2-3 bake sales a year and as a member I always got really excited when one started to get close because that meant I got to bake something! So this year, even though I have now graduated, I decided to make a special treat to send to the girls for the bake sale! I'll use any excuse I can find to bake something! ;)

I decided to make some Valentine's sugar cookies so I could try out a new decorating technique and I think they turned out pretty well! I forgot to take pictures until the last minute so that is why most of the pictures are of the cookies already bagged and in the box!

I think this one was my favorite! I didn't plan on making black (or I guess dark grey) and white flowers, but I started running out of pink so I gave it a try and I think they turned out beautifully!

These were probably my second favorite, simple, yet pretty! I probably need to get some more practice with writing on cookies though... 

Onto the box pictures! Haha. Here is the first layer of cookies that went into the box! So pretty! I will definitely make these again!

...and the second layer!

...and the top layer! 

I hope you liked my cookies because I sure enjoyed making them!

Red Velvet Cake Balls

I made these red velvet cake balls last year for a Valentine's bake sale and they were a hit! They were cake-y and creamy on the inside and have a hard chocolate coating on the outside! They are positively delicious!

To make 40-50 cake balls you will need:

• 1 box RED VELVET CAKE MIX (prepared as directed on the box)
• 1 can CREAM CHEESE ICING
• ALMOND BARK (regular or white)

NOTE: I think chocolate chips taste better than the chocolate almond bark, but the almond bark definitely sets up better than the chocolate chips. If you don't want to have to have to keep the cake balls refrigerated, then use the almond bark! (you can still refrigerate them if they are covered in almond bark though)

Start off by baking the red velvet cake as directed on the box. (You could make the cake from scratch if you have a favorite recipe, but boxed cakes work just fine!) Once the cake has cooled, break it up with your hands in a large bowl.

Once the cake is broken up enough that it is just a pile of crumbs, mix in the cream cheese icing (I usually use my hands, but does get messy!). When the cake and icing is well mixed together, roll the mixture out into 1 inch balls. You should end up with 40-50 balls.

Depending on how much time you have, either refrigerate the balls overnight, or pop them in the freezer for a few hours. Having the balls chilled makes it so much easier to cover them in chocolate. Otherwise they tend to fall apart in the warm melted chocolate.

Once the balls are chilled, melt a few squares of almond bark in a small bowl in the microwave. Then dip each ball into the almond bark to coat them. For a tip on covering the balls in chocolate CLICK HERE to see my post of Oreo balls! When they are coated, place the balls onto a piece of wax paper to set up.

After all of the balls are coated in chocolate you can then decorate them by drizzling more almond bark over the top, rolling them in sprinkles, or anything else you can think of!

The Valentine's Day bake sale spread! Doesn't it all look delicious?!

---

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Ingredients:

• 1 box RED VELVET CAKE MIX (prepared as directed on the box)
• 1 can CREAM CHEESE ICING
• ALMOND BARK (regular or white)

Directions:

1. Start off by baking the red velvet cake as directed on the box. (You could make the cake from scratch if you have a favorite recipe, but boxed cakes work just fine!) Once the cake has cooled, break it up with your hands in a large bowl.
2. Once the cake is broken up enough that it is just a pile of crumbs, mix in the cream cheese icing (I usually use my hands, but does get messy!). When the cake and icing is well mixed together, roll the mixture out into 1 inch balls. You should end up with 40-50 balls.
3. Depending on how much time you have, either refrigerate the balls overnight, or pop them in the freezer for a few hours. Having the balls chilled makes it so much easier to cover them in chocolate. Otherwise they tend to fall apart in the warm melted chocolate.
4. Once the balls are chilled, melt a few squares of almond bark in a small bowl in the microwave. Then dip each ball into the almond bark to coat them. For a tip on covering the balls in chocolate CLICK HERE to see my post of Oreo balls! When they are coated, place the balls onto a piece of wax paper to set up.
5. After all of the balls are coated in chocolate you can then decorate them by drizzling more almond bark over the top, rolling them in sprinkles, or anything else you can think of!

---

Red Velvet Cake Taste Test!

So last week I decided to have a little red velvet taste testing session. I compared three cake recipes and two icing recipes. This is what it did to my kitchen... and I cleaned as I went! :/

One thing you definitely need with red velvet cake is plenty of red food coloring!

The batters all turned out so pretty and bright!

Ok, now to the point. The comparison! I cut three different recipe by four so I didn't have bazillions of cupcakes. 

                                          Batter #1:                                 Batter 2:

Batter 3:

And here is how they cooked up!

Ok, now onto the icings!

The first one I tried was a flour icing and can be seen below....and I uhhh...didn't make it right and it was uhhh...pretty bad. I'll have to try that one again sometime and see if it turns out better...

Next I made a vanilla icing with a vegetable shortening base and it was delicious! Definitely a keeper! Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the recipe!

Cupcake #1:

Cupcake #2:

Cupcake #3:

After they were all iced, it was time for the taste test! The best part!

After tasting all of them this is what I decided:

Cupcake 1: Very moist! Maybe too moist for a cupcake because it was hard to get out of the paper, but would be perfect for a cake. Also had great flavor! It didn't fluff up very much though.

Cupcake 2: A little dry. Easy to get out of the paper. Didn't rise very much. Overall, not great...

Cupcake 3: Beautiful, rose nicely. Came out of the paper easily.  Great texture. (And just so happen to be my mom's recipe! I guess mother really does know best!) Could use a little bit of a flavor boost compared to cupcake 1 though...sorry mom!

What I decided was that I basically want to cross the 1st and 3rd cupcake to get the flavor and moistness of the 1st, but the texture and looks from the 3rd. I also decided that chocolate cake is better than red velvet cake. Sorry, I know this is supposed to be about red velvet cake, but I like my chocolate cake better!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

I made these beautiful cupcakes for my first Sigma Alpha Iota, DC Alumnae Chapter meeting! They had a potluck so I decided to make cupcakes!

For the cake I used my chocolate cake recipe, which has become my 'go to' cake recipe because of how wonderful it is! And then I used my mother in law's cream cheese icing for the icing and roses. Now, before you go try to make roses with cream cheese icing, DON'T! They were delicious, but I will admit, choosing to make roses with cream cheese icing was not the smartest thing I have ever done. Cream cheese icing is much thicker and harder to work with than buttercream or royal icing, so I would suggest sticking with one of those for decorating... oops.

I added a leaf onto a few of them!