Bacon Pancake Truffles

The days of cutting up pancakes, dousing them in maple syrup, and then chewing them all on your own are over. Why go through all that effort when the food processor can mush all of it into one easily digestible (and tasty!) goo? Of course, more effort is added in when you mix it with candied bacon (duh, I mean you've met me, right?), scoop it into balls, and coat it in chocolate. But those are the sacrifices you should be willing to make to experience this fabulous, not just for breakfast, truffle.

 Bacon Pancake Truffles

For all of the gooey details, visit Foodbeast.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls

So a cake ball is, traditionally, crumbled up cake mixed with frosting, right? Sure that gives you great options for certain specially cake balls: German Chocolate, Hummingbird, etc. But what about those cakes that have no frosting to call their own? I decided to give one of those cakes a cake ball shout-out, and it turned out even better than expected.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls

Ingredients

• 1/4c butter 
• 1c brown sugar 
• 20oz pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice reserved  
• 6oz maraschino cherries without stems, drained 
• 1 box yellow cake mix 
• oil and eggs called for on cake mix box 
• white chocolate baking bark

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, drop butter in 9x13 pan and melt in oven. 
2. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. 
3. Arrange pineapple slices on brown sugar, place a cherry in center of each pineapple slice, and arrange remaining cherries around slices.
4. Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water. (Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup.)
5. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.
6. Bake 42 to 48 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, and let the cake cool completely.
7. Crumble cake, pineapple, cherries and brown sugar goo into a food processor and mix until combined.
8. Scoop into balls using your 2t cookie scoop and put in the fridge to chill.
9. Melt your white chocolate bark and coat your cake balls; return to fridge to set.

The fruit and the melt-y brown sugar made for a great binder for the cake. I didn't add any extra liquid. Using the food processor was a good idea as it distributed the cherries and pineapple throughout the mixture. I might prefer this cake in ball form: it was a lot less messy and easier to eat this way. And, man, it was good.

Mudslide Cookies

Have you ever had a Mudslide at TGIFriday's? It’s a chocolate-y, milkshake-y cocktail of vodka, Bailey’s, Kahlua, ice cream, and awesomeness. Sometimes you might go to Friday’s just to have one and sometimes you just aren’t super motivated. For those times, I suggest snagging a bottle of TGIFriday's Mudslide mix (just add ice…and lots of Hershey’s syrup) from your local package store. And, if you have to have some left over, make these cookies!

I got the base recipe from How Sweet Eats and traded the Bailey’s in the original recipe for Mudslide mix. And I added a super important step: dunk the dough in more mudslide before you bake it!

 Mudslide Cookies

For the full booze-filled recipe, visit Foodbeast.

Chocolate Covered Sour Gummy Worms

Sour gummies are where it's at. Hand me a bag of Gummi Bears, and I'll pass it along (or soak them in vodka). Hand me a bag of Sour Gummy Worms (or Sour Patch Kids, holla!), and I am all over it. I like the sour tarty-ness that makes your face pucker. Plus, the flavors of sour gummy worms (underneath the sour sugar) are totally better. 

We all know how I like to make already good things even better. I didn't wrap the worms in bacon this time (project!), but I did wrap them in something almost as good: chocolate. 

Chocolate Covered Sour Gummy Worms

Choose your weapon: regular or white chocolate bark or both. Melt it down, dip the worms, chill to set.

You still get some of the sourness, but it's cut by the sweetness of the chocolate (but not so much so that it's overly sweet...at least according to my taste buds).

Bacon and Eggnog Cookies:The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011

Christmas and cookies, as Cal Naughton would say, go together like Chinese food and chocolate pudding. So imagine my delight when I stumbled across a blog post inviting me to join in on The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap of 2011. Here's the deal: I signed up to send one dozen cookies to three fellow food bloggers. And as I sent mine out, one dozen cookies from three other food bloggers (three dozen total) would be sent my way. 

I knew I wanted to bake something traditional, but with a twist. My train of thought went a little something like this: Christmas-y, Christmas-y. What's Christmas-y? Fruit cake...mint...eggnog...eggnog! Alright, booze in a cookie is a good start but what goes with eggnog besides nothing? Hmmm, eggnog. What is nog? Wait...nog...egg. What goes with eggs? Bacon!!! So Bacon and Eggnog Cookies were born.

The base recipe is Mrs. Field's Eggnog Cookies; I just added a little bit of awesome (i.e., candied bacon).

Bacon and Eggnog Cookies

For the detailed recipe, visit Foodbeast.com.

Thanks so much to Sylvia, Marie, and Callye for the fabulous cookies you guys sent!

Lofthouse Cookie Truffle Red Velvet Cupcakes

Why do people feel offended for me when I tell them I’m baking my own birthday cupcakes? I like to bake, and this way I know I’m getting something good. And these cupcakes are good, I mean like I-just-touched-a-Backstreet-Boy good. (I don’t know from experience, but I’m sure it’s pretty amazing. And just a heads up, I’m still interested if any of you want to help me work that out.)

As you may well know, I enjoy many things. I also enjoy putting together the things I enjoy to create an even MORE enjoyable thing. Two of my favorite sweets are red velvet cake and Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies. So what could be better than sticking one in the other?

Lofthouse Cookie Truffle Red Velvet Cupcakes

For details on how to make the Best. Birthday. Cupcakes. Ever. Visit Foodbeast.

Lofthouse Cookie Truffles

Best. Store. Bought. Frosted. Sugar. Cookie. Ever. 

Ever.

I love everything about these cookies: the soft, cloud-like texture; the dense and creamy pile of whipped bliss on top; sprinkles! If you haven't tried one, stop reading this post now, go to your nearest grocery, purchase and consume immediately.

My ultimate plan for these truffles (sans the chocolate coating) is even more awesome, but these, being ridiculously tasty on their own, deserved a separate post. As the frosting helps to bind the crumbs already, the ratios are different than previous truffle recipes.

Lofthouse Cookie Truffles

Ingredients

• 10 Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies
• 2oz cream cheese, softened
• white chocolate baking bark

Directions

1. Turn cookies into crumbs in the food processor.
2. Add cream cheese and pulse until combined (this may take a little finagling).
3. Melt chocolate; coat truffles; chill to set.

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. If you like these truffles, which you will, you are going to love what I'm going to do with the rest of them. Stay tuned.

Honey Bun Truffles

I wasn't a huge fan of Honey Buns growing up. I mean if you gave me one, I'd eat it, but I don't think I would have chosen it otherwise. I also tried a deep-fried honey bun at the fair last year; I wasn't impressed. Regardless, they were next on my list of Little Debbie truffles, so I was happy to give them another chance. 

The recipe again is similar to the previous ones: just the treat and cream cheese rolled in a ball and covered in chocolate. But I figure you are looking for something more detailed than that, so here you go...

Honey Bun Truffles

Ingredients

• 1pkg (6 indiv. wrapped) Honey Buns
• 4oz cream cheese, softened
• white chocolate baking bark

Directions

1. Break apart Honey Buns into food processor and pulse until crumby.
2. Add cream cheese to crumbs and pulse until combined.
3. Scoop into balls and stick in fridge to set.
4. Melt chocolate and coat truffles.
5. Return to fridge to set.

I thought these were a bit savory. Maybe with the stickiness of the Honey Bun, the cream cheese wasn't needed. They were definitely much better cold. My favorites are still the Oatmeal Cream Pie and the Star Crunch truffles, but if Honey Buns top your Little Debbie list, I say give this recipe a try.