Yummy Yummy...Christmas Cooking!

This weekend my mom and dad came and we all did some Christmas cooking! Too bad Joey was gone on a trip for basketball and didn't get to taste anything! We made chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate covered peanuts, hot candy (cinnamon candy), and red velvet cake balls.

Dad and I are finishing off the red velvet cake balls.

The hot candy recipe and one of four batches of hot candy cooling.

I made the red velvet cake balls last year and they were a big hit! The real name for them is Pandora's Box. I guess since you can not really tell what is inside is why they are really called Pandora's Box, and that it is a yummy surprise when you bite into one. Several people have asked how to make them so here it is:

Red Velvet Cake Balls

Ingredients:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

1 can of buttercream icing

almond bark (white or chocolate)

Prepare and bake one box of red velvet cake. Let the cake cool, cut it into pieces, and crumble in a bowl. Using a mixer add a can of buttercream icing until cake and icing is mixed well. Refrigerate cake and icing mixture overnight or if rushed for a few hours. Roll mixture into balls, dip in almond bark, and lay out to harden on wax paper.

This is what the red velvet cake balls look like after refrigerating.

We did some white and chocolate almond bark. When you dip them out it is easier to use a slotted spoon. We also tried to lay them on the wire rack to harden so the extra would drip off and not gather around the ball. It looked like it was going to work and make them look much prettier, but when it came time to pick them up they were stuck to the rack.

We made so much that mom took some home and I kept some here. It was fun to do it together! We had only one kitchen to clean up and lots of goodies!!