valentines prep 2010

you would think i was preparing for a marathon or something...
its amazing how so very much more i am aware of holidays now that i have a youngun to participate in them.
i decided last month that we would observe st valentines day this year.
as in bennett would observe it in the form of valentines given to his friends at school for the first time {i am so excited he is entering the age of craftiness!}.

if i had little girls, the house would probably be decked out in pinks and reds and hearts and frills.
but so far i am a wee bit outnumbered and these things wouldnt fly.
i did manage to make one small mark of the season:


i was planning for some time now to make something along the lines of this:

funny thing is: thats not really my "taste".  i mean when i think of a delicious treat, hard chocalate {and white chocolate} doesnt exactly come to mind.  i am strangely not a "candy" person...more of a "baked goods" type.
anyway would you guess it is near IMPOSSIBLE to find candy canes this time of year? i mean i know they are "christmas" candies, but they are red and white! seriously - valentines day anyone?!?
{and i know i could have used peppermints, but i dont know...i wanted to use CANDY CANES. hmph}

anyway since no candy canes were to be found i abandoned that idea and decided upon CAKE BALLS.

the cake ball premise is not too far from that of the oreo ball. simple ingredients, complexly delicious outcome.
you can google "cake balls" and find millions of "recipes" but generally there are innumerable ways to make them.
this is what i did:

cook this {per recipe on box}

+ half a bag of these

let your two year old son lick the mixers right before he goes down for a nap.

oh wait, maybe dont do that.

when cooled, crumble completely 

 

and mix with a tub of this 

{next time i would do a little less than a whole tub to retain the cake-y texture...
mine are more like cookie dough texture...but honestly im not really complainin'! :)}

form into balls and place on cookie sheets. make sure the balls are smaller than ping pong balls.
{so they will fit on the lollipop sticks}

place in freezer for an hour.

melt this

place balls on lollipop sticks found at wal-mart or your local craft store

dip balls in chocolate.

{fyi: make sure you dip the cake ball all the way to the stick, so that the chocolate covers the top part of the stick as well.  this will help it stay together when the chocolate cools...i found this out the hard way and had to come back with extra chocolate to attach them! argh}

lay on wax or parchment paper and let cool a little bit.

sprinkle with valentines day sprinkles.

 

you can see above where the chocolate did not meet the stick on most of these. 
this was later amended.
 
place in refrigerator for added coolness and shape fastness.

i found and printed some precious *free* valentines from ohdeedoh

{i needed some "boy" valentines...}

wrap in saran wrap or cellophane and tie with ribbon

and there ya have it folks!

bennett came home today with a bag full of candy.
chocolate candy like reeses and the like.
now THAT is MY type of candy