Inside Surprise

Little Bethany requested cake balls for a potluck she was attending. Bethany likes her cake balls very very straight forward - white cake, white frosting.

While browsing the aisles at Target, this is dangerous by the way, I came across Green Funfetti frosting (I will admit the Pink Funfetti frosting is a guilty pleasure of mine), I knew I had to use this for Bethany cake balls, she would get all worked up about it and provide a good laugh.

These cakes ball turned out AWESOME! I will be driving to Target to get more of this frosting. From the outside its just an ordinary cake ball, but once you bite inside its just an extra surprise that will bring a smile to your face.

Green Cake Balls Pre Dipping

Inside Surprise

Red Candy Melt, White Stripe

I forgot to mention, Bethany doesn't even like sprinkles!

I just love the color contrast of the red and the green.

Slew of Inside Surprise Cake Balls

Holiday Baking

The Holiday Baking has begun in the Duffey household. I made two different variations of cake balls the past couple days.

These first ones are very very simple. Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Heaven! These were dipped in red candy melt, drizzled with green, and adorned with Christmas sprinkles.

Little Baby Christmas Trees

Holiday Balls



These were very simple, but a great way to get the ball rolling for the holidays.

Goin' to the Chapel & We're Goin' to get Maaaaaaaaarried

Yes, you heard right! There is going to be another wedding in the Duffey household :) My wonderful boyfriend Mike proposed with a gorgeous ring on November 26th.

See proof below.

[Pretty Ring]

Now who wants a close up??

Didn't he do a great job?? He picked that beauty out all by himself and surprised me at home with a clever proposal and a night out on the town! Dinner at Pazzaluna (my favorite) and a night at the St. Paul Hotel (gorgeous!)

We are so excited and have already started planning!  Come next August 24th I will either be Mrs. Krista Weinkauf or Mrs. Krista Klotthor.  But the last name issue is a story for another blogpost!  On that note, I'll leave you with this small tidbit of glory from one of the best movies of all time. :)

 George: A cake, Franck, is made of flour and water.  My first car didn't cost $1,200!

 Franck: Well, welcome to the 90s Mr. Banks!

:)

Christmas Cookies

Our family is nuts. When I tell my friends about my weekend it always involves stories with my family. And I am not just talking about my mom, dad, and sisters, I am talking about my whole extended family.

Every Sunday afternoon my Grandparents cook dinner for the family. There are 19 grandchildren (1 married in), 12 adults, plus my Grandma and Grandpa. That is a whopping total of 33 people getting together every weekend.

This past weekend my Aunt Joan made homemade sugar cookies and frosting and let all of us kids decorate them. We have some real beauties! Check them out!

Brady and Auntie Patty.

Jamie

She really liked the pink frosting

Blake and Auntie Joanie.

Thanks Joan for bringing the cookies, they were so much fun!

All the kids asked if we were going to do it again next weekend.

Jenna and Katelyn Rae

Sprinkles GALORE!

Brady and Brock

Brady decided he couldn't have enough sprinkles

Brock only wanted his sprinkles in the center

Breanna and Ashlyn

Ashlyn's favorite part, licking the frosting off the knife.

Nate

He has no shame!

  

Krista and I really hated showing up the kids, but we did.

The Gang

This picture was taken mid-song. Yes that is correct we busted out in Christmas carols while decorating cookies. And if you know the Rubbelke clan...we cannot carry a tune! =]

December 5

December 5th is an exciting day for the family. We are lucky enough to celebrate the day of birth for two very special people.

First we will honor Uncle Rick, because he is older, but is only turning 40. Happy Happy Birthday Uncle Rick! Thanks for always supporting our baking adventures cross country and being a loyal HH follower. Come to Minnesota, we miss you lots!

Uncle Rick and Haven Marie

This little girl has her Papa D wrapped around her finger

Next up on the Birthday Role Call is Tyler's brother, Steve!!! WOOHOO! Happy Birthday Steven! I hope your day is awesome, and Emily spoils you rotten! Also, please come to Minnesota, because we miss you too!!

Steven and his girlfriend Emily

And because I am in the celebrating mood, lets celebrate a new ROTM! Hooray, for Christmastime! I love Gingerbread Cookies and only allow myself to make them in the month of December. So in honor of Gingerbread Men and Women everywhere you lucky folks get a recipe to make them yourself. This past weekend our whole family had a little decorating extravaganza, yours could do the same, keep this recipe in mind. Check back tomorrow to see our cookie masterpieces.

Gingerbread Cookies

10-0 Baby!

Yesterday, Tyler and I went to the Packer game. Go Pack Go! It was my first time at Lambeau field and it was amazing! I am glad I experienced Lambeau in its true state, game time temp 30 degrees! Brr was it cold out.

Here we are in all our Packer glory. Like our new hats? They were a hit in the Kelly family.

Tyler is rocking his new B.J. Raji jersey. He scored a touchdown. I really wanted him to do a Lambeau leap. Wouldn't that have been awesome? I mean check him out.

He likes to dance

Due to Krista's and my lack of baking our FAS, that stands for Favorite Auntie Shannon, stepped up to the plate and decorated some awesome cupcakes. Our FAS took cake decorating classes way back when and we had a blast sharing those Monday evenings together.

Shannon decorated cupcakes for her son's girlfriend, Carey. Happy Birthday Carey, hopefully Zack spoiled you rotten!

Happy Birthday Carey!

FAS, you still have the knack!

Official House Warming

Remember my attempt at making house warming cake pops for my friend Megan? I sure do, because they were horrific. Well, last Friday I had the honor to make her official house warming cake pops. Even though they were requested last minute I was able to throw together a nice fall-ish theme for the pops.

House Warming Slew

Chocolate cake dipped in light yellow candy melt sprinkled with a fall assortment

Yellow caked dipped in mint green candy melt topped with white nonpareil sprinkles

I ended up mixing my light yellow candy melt (combination of the white and yellow candy melt) with blue candy melt and it made a gorgeous mint green color.

I was in love with it!

Orange jimmies make me smile =]

It felt good to redeem myself and make some decent looking cake pops. Congrats on the new house Megan! 

Fall Wedding

We have been baking, if you can believe that! Last weekend we made baby shower cake pops for our wonderful friend, Lisa. We had a mental breakdown and forgot to take pictures.

This week we were asked to make cake pops for a rehearsal dinner. The wedding colors were brown and burnt orange. We made one bride and one groom cake pop. The remainder were either dipped in burnt orange or brown and drizzled with the opposite color. Simple. Perfect. Fall Color Scheme.

Fall Wedding

Bride and Groom

Perfect Fall Color Scheme

New Ideas...

Mike and I recently took a trip to the beautiful state of Colorado. Mike's sister Denise and her boyfriend Aaron were kind enough to take us in for the weekend.

Aren't they cute?

While in Colorado we did a ton of fun and exciting stuff!

First, we attended the Northern Colorado vs. Montana State football game

Go Bobcats!

Yes, I bought yellow nail polish specifically for the occasion:)

Climbed a mountain (Blackhawk Rock)

Hung out with some Elk

AND spent a lovely evening at Aaron's parents house eating, drinking, playing games and talking cake pops! Yes, you heard right, I spent a Friday night talking cake pops with Liz, Aaron's mother and owner of Gr8 Balls of Cake. She is so sweet and funny and we were so excited to meet and talk cake! She had some great ideas for me on how to get creative with the actual cake within a cake pop/ball. Her first recommendation included peanut butter so you know I just HAD to try that as soon as we got back!

So this past weekend I baked one of our classic chocolate cakes. I crumbled it down to small pieces. Like so:

And added multiple spoonfuls of JIF peanut butter!

I slowly mixed the peanut butter in and noticed it was not as wet as frosting usually is. There was nothing scientific or specific about my measuring...I just kept adding peanut butter until the cake "stuck".

Then I did my usual rolling

And dipping

Then sprinkling

Ta-da!

And sharing with friends and family. General consensus (direct quotes):

"Very rich and delightful!" - Emilee Ann, Holyhannah's Baking Specialist

"My mouth is in heaven." - Erica, Thomson Reuters

"These cake balls are amaze-balls." - Malisa, Thomson Reuters

"This is the best treat ever!!!" - Amanda, Thomson Reuters

"I just ate that cake pop and it was mmm mmm good!" - Mom, via text message

At the very least, we can say these were a hit! Thanks for the great idea Liz!

Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins

As promised many days, ahem weeks, ago I made October's ROTM. Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffins. Tyler had a group of friends in town for Halloween so I did some baking for them. I made these muffins along with the amazing Pumpkin Caramel Blondies.

In the Duffey household we have a Baking Room and a Baking Cupboard. Over the past few years we have accumulated ALOT of tools. I was rummaging through the cupboard and happened upon the cutest cupcake liners. Perfect for this recipe and Fall.

Orange Polka Dot Cupcake Liners

The recipe was very straightforward and easy to follow. I didn't fill my liners as full as the recipe called for because I wanted a bigger quantity of muffins.

My mother was the first guinea pig and her review was of mixed feelings. It had a great spice to it, however she wasn't crazy about the raisins. Note to self, make again for the mother, exclude the raisins.

All the boys raved about how good they were, but I think a bunch of guys will eat anything home-baked and enjoy it.

My review, they were OK. The title includes the word MOIST for a reason. They were very very sticky which I guess is better than being dry as a desert. If you are in the mood for a pumpkin muffin, this recipe will do the trick.

Muffins pre cream cheese frosting.

Tyler claims they become cupcakes once frosting is added.

However you can eat a muffin for breakfast =]

There is a brown sugar crumble you put on the muffin before it is baked.

When I went to put on the frosting the crumble mixed in and gave it a nice look.

Moist Pumpkin Spice Muffin

November

Happy 1st of November Holy Hannah's followers. The month of October flew by. I have updated the ROTM to an absolutely amazing dessert. I have made it three times since last Friday. No joke. It's another Fall themed recipe that will be perfect at a dessert table for Thanksgiving.

I found the recipe online at Tasty Kitchen. The name of the recipe is a mouthful, which I suppose is equivalent to the actual bars, Ooey Gooey Caramel Pumpkin Blondies. Say that three times fast. Please do yourself a favor and put the ingredients on your next shopping list. You wont regret it!

Ooey Gooey Caramel Pumpkin Blondies



PS I did not forget about last months recipe, check back tomorrow.

Breanna Suzanne

Most people are celebrating Halloween today, well the Duffey family is quite lucky because we also get to celebrate Breanna's Birthday! She is the BEST oldest sister anyone could ask for. The rest of this post will show you pictures of why Breanna is so fantastic.

She is the oldest of four daughters and embodies the oldest child role to a T. Thank goodness! The rest of us would not have survived without her nurturing and protection.

She is a sucker for anything cute. She saw these Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes and went and bought the ingredients the same day.

She can pedal a Surrey. Breanna is more adventurous than one may think. She loves trying new things.

She has the most patience in the world! 3 children don't stop her. This woman teaches 1st graders, in my book she is a saint.

She rocks pale skin like its no one's business.

She likes to boss JB around...yes this is happening at their wedding!

Happy Happy Birthday Breanna!!

We Love you!