Tulip Chocolate Bowls

Ice cream filled tulip chocolate bowls are the perfect sleep over food. I had a sleep over recently and, luckily, was able to make them in advance. They are super easy to make and equally as delicious to eat. I filled them with ice cream, but there are many more filling options including fruit, mouse, yogurt, candies, ect. Whatever you fill them with, your guests will be amazed with the decorated edible bowls. 

Ingredients

About 10 blown up water balloons

2/3 bag of Chocolate chips

2/3 bag of White Chocolate Chips

Food coloring (I used 3 drops of red to make pink)

Let’s Get Cookin’

Blow up 10 water balloons to about the size of an orange. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  

Melt chocolate in microwave bowl. Use half power and 1 minute 30 seconds, stir. Continue to microwave for 10second segments until melted.

Repeat with white chocolate chips.

Scoop ½ of white on to melted chocolate in the bowl.

Dye other half the color of your choice.

Scoop all in to the melted chocolate bowl. Let chocolate sit for about 5 minutes or until thickness of pudding.

Take a water balloon, dip in to chocolate, and give a little twist. Than rock it back and forth, and side to side.

Lift, swirl quickly and then place quickly on cookie sheet. Continue with the rest of your balloons. Chill for 30 minutes in fridge or until set.

Once set use scissors to snip a whole on top of balloon. Let the balloons deflate. If still stuck carefully pull the balloon off and throw away.

You can store them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Fill with choice of fruit, mouse or as I did ice cream just before serving.

Will I make them again… Yes they are so cute and fun to eat. My friends and family loved them.

Click to see full recipe

Merry Christmas

I know it has been almost 2 months ago that I posted, but Christmas cookies are all over my house needing to be shared. No matter if it seemed like The Taste Bud Diaries were dead!

I made the first batch of cookies with my friend Amy, right after Thanksgiving. We made Spritz (recipe below), and gingerbread cookies, both are my favorite. Amy also introduced an added flavor to the spritz recipe that I absolutely love. Using the wreath press, add dough in to the whole than put a dollop of raspberry jam in it. After cooked you can sprinkle powder sugar on top to give it a polished and impressive touch. The flavor is heavenly.

 

The next cookies were twisted candy canes. I made them with the confirmation class of 6^th graders I co-teach. We took a day off from the curriculum and made cookies for women shelters around the twin cities. It was amazing how excited the kids got when they found out they could give back to the community by doing something fun.

 

 

The next cookies were twisted candy canes. I made them with the confirmation class of 6^th graders I co-teach. We took a day off from the curriculum and made cookies for women shelters around the twin cities. It was amazing how excited the kids got when they found out they could give back to the community by doing something fun.

 

Last weekend we went to my grandma’s house to make lefsa. It’s a Scandinavian food made out of potatoes and usually looks like a tortilla when all done. This year we used 7 pounds of potatoes and 3 pounds of butter, for a total of 80 lefsa's. Every Christmas eve we have Swedish meat balls and lefsa. I have never gone a year without. My Parents and brother also made popcorn balls last weekend. Sadly I was not home to enjoy making them. I did however eat my fair share

 

On Thursday evening I was noticing our cookie supply was running low. Paul and I made more spritz for Christmas day, because my family is hosting my mom’s side.  About 15 people would be without Christmas cookies :( We cant have that!

 

 

 

Spritz Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of butter, softened

½ cup sugar

2 ¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla (I like almond

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

Heat oven to 400°. Mix butter and sugar. Stir in remaining ingredients. Fill cookie press with dough: form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until set but not brown, 6 to 9 minutes.

You can also use food coloring or sprinkles to add some festiveness. 

 

I will be making a ginger bread cake for Christmas eve at my grandparents, on my dad’s side. And (fingers crossed) will be up in early January. I would do it sooner, but on Christmas night I am leaving for Washington dc and won’t be back until next year.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays :-D

16 Birthday

To celebrate my 16 birthday I am counting down my top 16 cakes that I ever made! Today I don’t have a whole lot of birthday plans some shopping and going out for lunch, and it is the homecoming dance tonight. Talk about the best party ever:)

Oh I forgot to tell you a secret. I don’t like cake. At least not plain vanilla or chocolate, I do like coffee cakes and “fancier” flavored cakes. This was a big factor in my favorite cakes.

Lets get Started

Number 16: Poseidons Trident

This cake was for Paul’s 9^th birthday party. It was Percy Jackson themed . Percy Jackson is a book about a boy, living in 21^st centaury New York, who finds out he is half human and half god. In Percy’s case his father Is Poseidon. Paul (and I) loved this book so we made it his theme. On the trident is says Happy birthday in ancient Greek writing.

Number 15: pool balls  

For my uncles birthday I made pool ball cupcakes. You cover the frosting with colored sugar. I just added food coloring to sugar. Then slice a marshmallow and write a number on it. Leave one ball with only vanilla frosting to be your cue ball.  Starbursts work great for pool stick chalk and use chocolate dipped pretzels for pool sticks.

Number 14:  Star burst

Simple yet fun, I made these cupcakes for my aunt’s birthday this summer. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I made them look polished with fun colors and the star with the opposite color was piped on to give a finished touch.

Number 13: The avalanche

We still don’t know what happened to this cake. My Friend Taylor and I made this a few years back. It makes number 13 because how much fun we had doing it. Best cake experience ever.

Number 12: super soaker

My brother’s 7^th birthday party was all about water guns. It’s only fitting that we made him a super soaker cake.

 Number11: Blueberry lemon swirl cake

This cake was super tasty. Here is the link to it! http://thetastebuddiaries.blogspot.com/2011/03/blueberry-lemon-swirl-cake.html

Number 10:  Apple crumb cake

Last year for my birthday we went to a apple orchard/ corn maze. For my birthday cake I made a Apple Crumb Cake. It was supper moist and dense making it the perfect fall cake. To top it off my dad made two apple swans for decoration.

Number 9: Teddy Graham Football

Paul had a football themed party this year. I made a vanilla cake and frosted it green. Than with white frosting I made the ten yard lines and touchdown zones. My friend Mariel and I frosted jerseys on graham crackers.  Two chocolate chips sitting bottoms together make the football in the middle of the field and chocolate dipped pretzels make the field goals.

Number 8: Camping Moose!

This cake has a very interesting story. We were camping last year on my brother’s birthday and I wanted to make him a cake. All the decorating stuff was bought at a gas station up in northern MN. It is made with a standard cupcake frosted with chocolate frosting. Than on Paul’s cupcake I frosted a Twinkie and stuck it into a stick (from a branch, you have to use what you can while camping:-) and then into the body. I melted a Hershey chocolate bar to form the antlers and a bit of marshmallows for the eyes. Both are already camping musts.

Number 7: Bible

This year I got confirmed. In the Christian faith and in most denominations (for me Lutheran) people are confirmed at some point in our high school life. When we were babies we were baptized. Our parents said that they would raise us Christian. Being confirmed is when we say that we will stay Christian and become an adult member of faith community. I added strawberry jell-o to the vanilla cake mix. By cutting the cake in ½ I was able to make a realistic sized bible. In between the layers were cutup strawberries. A flattened laughy-taffy was used as a book mark.

Number 6: Red velvet Sweetheart cupcakes  

I made these with a few of my friends for Valentine’s Day last year. For the full story and directions click the link.

http://thetastebuddiaries.blogspot.com/2011/02/mini-sweetheart-red-velvet-cakes.html

Number 5: Easter Chocolate Nest Cake

This is the perfect cake for chocolate lovers. It is a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The eggs are truffles and the nest is a cut up chocolate bars. For the recipe http://thetastebuddiaries.blogspot.com/2011/05/nest-chocolate-cake.html

Number 4: Sunflowers

My birthday is, obviously, in the fall. I didn’t really know what to do for my cake, so I decided on sunflowers.  Frost your cupcakes green, place an Oreo cookie in the center. With yellowish orange frosting, pipe on the leaves. They look great like this, but for a finishing touch use a red M&M and chocolate frosting to create a lady bug.

Number 3: Babies!

This summer my aunt hosted a baby shower for my step cousins and his wife’s, son.  You can’t have a baby shower without babies! I only made ½ a batch of these because they are a lot of work, and a whole batch of number 2 below!

Number 2: Chocolate malt cupcakes with cherry vanilla butter cream

I have never loved a flavor of cake as much is this. The two flavors complemented very nicely. On top of the butter cream I added a whooper for a fun touch. There will be a post on this recipe soon.

Number 1: Monarch Butterflies

I have loved butterflies for as long as I can remember. These monarchs have beautiful wings made out of candy melts (found in craft supply stores). It works best to have two people when making the wings. My mom piped on the orange and I did the brown. Then take a tooth pick and pull it through the brown to orange.  Use the brown to make antennas and chocolate chips for the body.

Hope you enjoyed:-)