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!