The Good Plate

Archive for the ‘Candy’ Category

Cream Cheese Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Recipes in This Post

• How to Temper Chocolate
• Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

The other day, when I was perusing Pinterest, I came across something that looked fabulous. It was strawberries stuffed with cream cheese, and it was called Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. I pinned it, and decided it would make a nice treat for the kids in Spane’s class going to the Planetarium field trip. Last year, I made White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies for Mrs. Mary’s class when we went to The Natural Science Museum.

I lucked out, and strawberries were Buy One box, Get One Free. There are 24 kids in Spane’s class, plus the teacher, and possibly one or two more parents who, like me, volunteered to go on the trip to help with the children. There were enough strawberries, with a few extra for the house.

I decided to change the original recipe a little and dip the strawberries in chocolate. All the recipes on the Internet tell you to add shortening to the chocolate to temper it. I don’t like shortening, and I knew that I had dipped strawberries before without it. Of course, looking in The Joy of Cooking, I found that I didn’t need shortening at all, just a candy thermometer, that I have a nice glass one with a clip. There are instructions later in this post about how to do this.

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Rose Fudge Truffles and Black Forest Fudge

Recipes in this Post

• Rose Fudge
• Black Forest Fudge

It’s my birthday, and I can make anything I want to! It’s also Founder’s Night at my son Spane’s school, so I thought I should bring something to liven up the festivities. I got up early this morning and make two kinds of fudge, Rose Fudge and Black Forest Fudge. As of this writing, there are no pictures, but there will be as soon as it sets.

I love the flavor of roses, there is nothing like it. I have some rose syrup that I often put in lemonade, and love roses with peaches. What could be better in fudge?

One of my favorite cakes is a Sour Cherry Fudge cake, and I’m making that for my birthday cake (more later), so I decided to take that to the candy level as well.

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I really like giving stuff I made in my kitchen to my friends, neighbors, and Spane’s school. So, this year I decided that I was going to give out some of the fudge and cookies that the kids made at the Kid’s Christmas Party on Saturday.

Life has been hectic since then, and Spane really wanted to help me to decorate the Roll Out Cookies. Today was also the last day of school before the winter break, a perfect opportunity to give his teacher and the front office some nice treats.

We got up very early this morning and started our project. The first thing I did was cut up the fudge in nice pieces. I put a little cappuccino and a little Peppermint on each plate, then wrapped each plate in some nice Christmas tissue paper that I tied with a red ribbon that said “Kiss the Cook”.

Of course, I saved one of the plates of fudge for our house. As I write this, most of it is gone. Oh, well, I can make more.

Then it was time to decorate the cookies. I separated the cookies into groups. There were nine flower looking cookies, and a dozen Christmas trees, but various other assorted cookies. The Christmas trees I knew had to have green icing, and I thought the flowers should be white.

I have found the best icing for cookies is Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Vanilla frosting in the can. I put some of it into a microwave safe bowl, and heated it in the microwave for about 10 seconds, or until it was runny. You have to be very careful not to let the frosting burn, because it will get so hot it will melt the plastic container it comes it!

Then I took a tiny bit of green Wilton food coloring gel and mixed it in thoroughly.

The cookies were on cooling racks over baking sheets. This helps keep the area clean because the icing can drip. This also keeps whatever you might want to sprinkle on the sheet, and not on your work surface.

To paint the Christmas trees, I simply used my small silicon pastry brush and painted the green icing on. After I put the cookie back on the rack, it was Spane’s turn to decorate the cookies with multicolored jimmies and multicolored candy covered sunflower seeds. I used a bit of rock candy as the tree topper.

After the icing had dried a bit, I put the cookies on the same serving dish that still miraculously had three of the White Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies I had made on Saturday.

Then it was time to do the flower cookies. For those, I poured the white icing directly on them, and then sprinkled chopped peppermint on them. Then I put a glacé cherry in the middle.

Spane wanted to take the cookies to school with him for the classroom party, but I said, no, all the other cookies I have decorated have been given away, but not these. I promised him the we would make more cookies for Valentines day.

It gives you a warm feeling in your heart when you give someone a cookie, and they bite into it. Then the corners of their mouth starts to come up, and there is a big, giant smile on their face. I’m not talking about kids, I’m talking about adults, but kids do that, too. To see that smile on someone’s face after eating something I made just makes my day.

Today is the 17th of December, in the year of our Lord, 2011. My friend Valencia had emailed me about having her child come for a sleep over a few weeks ago. Spane then came to me and asked if his other friend could sleep over. Then Spane and Noelle started practicing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer at the park, and the idea sparked in my head to have a kid’s Christmas party.

So, today we’re baking and making candy. I’m writing down the recipes on cards that I’ll give to the children so we won’t have to do anything with the computer except take pictures.

Here’s what we’re going to make:

• Fudge -
  • Peppermint Fudge
  • Cappuccino Fudge
  • Fruity Fudge
• Cookies -
  • White Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies
  • Roll Out Cookies

Before we get cooking, here’s a little entertainment for you. Presenting Mr. Leo, Mr. Spane, and Miss Noelle doing their rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Amber and I are backup singers (seriously, we’re off camera).

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I am sorry we have no pictures of the Rum Balls. It was really hot in Glendale on Wednesday, September 7, 2011, that as I formed the balls, they immediately started to flatten, so I had Rum Pancakes instead. I’ll make them again when it’s cooler and take pictures.

On Tuesday, my local Ralph’s had Oreos on sale, 2 packages for $5.00, so I bought one to eat with milk, and one to make rum balls. I also got a package of Duncan Hines Fudge Frosting.

Oh, the humanity! Some of you are saying this I am sure, but that’s okay. Rum Balls are made at bakeries from cake remnants, so using packaged cookies and packaged frosting I think is still okay. Even though my Rum Balls got flat, after they were refrigerated, they were still very rich and good.

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Recipes in this Post

• Marzipan Pixies

From Other Posts

• Pixie Wings

Double Header!

Well, today you get a double header. There is a craft project and a great dinner you can try. Originally, I had the recipes for the Chicken Kabobs with Rice Pilaf and Yogurt Sauce in this post, but I decided they needed to shine on their own, and the marzipan pixies needed a page by themselves.

As some of you know, I was making stuff for Noelle’s birthday and had at that point only made the pixie wings from hard candy. Now, I have completed the the pixies themselves out of marzipan.

What is marzipan? Marzipan is mostly crushed almonds mixed with sugar. It differs from almond paste in that it is more firm, and more suitable for creating figurines. When I was growing up in Germany, there was a wonderful bakery that for Christmas, made the Nativity scene with gingerbread, and all the figurines were made of marzipan. It took up the entire window, and everything was edible!

I want to thank Tom Fox for his inspiration, lending me the marble to make the wings, and for taking the final photos of the girls! Thanks, Tom.

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