Spring Break

My spring break has begun early this year. Three of four classes of mine are online courses, so this allowed me to finish my midterm project early and assignments due this week. I am school free until April!

Early tomorrow morning, Matthew and I are taking the Amtrak to visit my mom in Capitola, and I am beyond excited. Last night I even checked our train tickets hoping that the departure date was this morning. But my memory served me right, and it is in fact still another 12 hours. My mom is my best friend, and being away from her months at a time is killer. So as you can imagine, this long awaited trip is going to be amazing. Together we will chit-chat for hours, watch HGTV in front of her warm and cozy fire, go on a picnic at the beach (if the weather permits), eat our favorite treat (chips and salsa) and make tasty cake pops together. I can't wait :)

As soon as I return to Redding, I get to try my hand at 15 dozen cake pops for Redding Distributing's beer tasting event. This is going to be really neat. Seeing the assortment of my hand crafted cake pops on display will be surreal. I'm so excited to share these tasty treats with everyone and experience the smiles and "mmms!" they bring about :)

This week, I made a few fun batches of cake pops. One was for my Aunt Lala's St. Patrick's Day party...

....and another for my cousin Anna, who was hosting a baby shower:

See you in April!

Meet Noel

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

I nearly had a panic attack when I saw the large brown UPS truck drive down our street, because I knew my most favorite of all gifts ever to be received was in that vehicle. My husband, Matthew, waited by the door while the UPS driver turned around at the cul-de-sac to make his way back to our house. "Please don't do anything crazy when he gets to the door" Matt said with a sigh, afraid I was going to embarrass him. I might have been screaming at this point, but I can't be certain. Moments later, the uniformed man was walking towards our door with the large white box, and handed it over to Matt as he pushed the screen door open.

As soon as the door closed, the screaming and jumping and oh-my-goshing and hugging and kissing and dancing began because my most wanted gift in the whole wide world has arrived!!!

This is Noel. The most beautiful Kitchenaid 600 Professional Series mixer in the entire universe. Noel is 30 gorgeous pounds of fine machinery who bears a roaring 575-watt motor. She is my partner in crime, and together we are going to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth and warm each of their hearts with our love-filled creations.

Chocolate chip cookies will be a great way to welcome her into the Drake household. Tootles :D

Key Lime Pie

Since I began making cake truffles in January, I have been wanting to create one that tasted like key lime pie. This flavor was almost the first one I made (which ended up being my own version of s'mores). Because of the demand for chocolate, key lime pie has been neglected. But now that it has finally been made, I ask myself "Why didn't I make them sooner?!"

The idea started with lemon cake, cream cheese, and good amount of lime juice. This truffle has the perfect amount of tartness, combined with the warm flavor of cinnamon and graham cracker. Small pieces of lime pulp were added to the mixture. When your mouth finds a bite of it, you get a small tangy jolt. Then, they are completed by being dipped into the complementary creamy flavor of white chocolate. I haven't had key lime pie in a few years, so memory was my only source of flavor inspiration. This cake truffle has the perfect combination of sweet and tart. It is definitely my new favorite.

While grocery shopping this weekend at Winco, I discovered they have large containers of my most favorite sprinkles: jimmies. These are the kind of sprinkles that I pour into a cup and top with a scoop of frozen yogurt. So I had to buy some for my cake truffles. For pictures' sake, a few key lime pie truffles were sprinkled with rainbow jimmies. They are so festive! I absolutely love them.

Homework is calling my name. I hope everyone has a great evening :)

*Drool*

I can't wait to tell you about what I just experienced! Seriously... I created pure ecstasy in cupcake form. This is the very first homemade cupcake I ever made. Usually we just use store bought cake mix, but my husband was away this weekend, and as you can imagine there was more time on my hands. Instead of sitting at the window awaiting his wonderful return, I kept myself extremely busy. I didn't even have time to be sad.

This is a rich, moist, and sturdy chocolate cupcake, topped with a light chocolate mousse, and a chocolate ganache surprise in the center. Honestly, I have never tasted anything like it. How badly I wish I could take credit for the recipe of this divine pastry that makes your taste buds sing. Each bite is creamy chocolaty goodness, and the perfect portion of smooth fluffy frosting complements the rich texture extremely well. And they taste better the next day, too.

I'm addicted.

Little Prince

This week is flying by! I can't believe it's already Thursday. It has been kind of a lazy week for me. Stormy weather spins me into hibernation mode. You would think that I would be studying more, but instead I started a Facbook page for Heavenly Treats. You can access it here.

On a tastier note, the cake truffles I made this week were "little prince" themed for my cousin's first birthday party. Elijah is seriously the cutest little boy I have ever seen. His cheeks are to die for, and his smile just melts your heart.

These truffles were half blue, half yellow, to elaborate on his birthday theme colors. Some were drizzled with chocolate, and others were sprinkled with crunchy sugar (which I just love the texture of!). They were adorned with cute little tags with a faded crown as a background. Overall - super fun to make.

I hope everyone has a great, dry weekend!