Cake pops!

   We all have this one food that if we could, we would eat it all the time. For some it could be pizza, or doughnuts, or bagels, but for my son it's cake pops, hands down! He knows where all the nearby Starbucks are located and whenever we drive by one, he goes: let's go for cake pops (no matter what time of day, or night, it is)! It's to the point that he got a Starbucks gift card for Christmas from his friend, just so he can get cake pops whenever he wants to (or whenever we are willing to take him to get one)... the kid is four years old and already owns a gift card to Starbucks... the world we live in!
   So it was just a matter of time before we made our own cake pops at home... and I will be honest, they were way better than the store bought ones! We were pretty happy with the outcome!

Ingredients:

*  cake mix (I used Lemon Supreme Cake Mix, Duncan Hines)
*  3 large eggs
*  1/3 cup vegetable oil
*  8 oz cream cheese, room temp.
*  1/2 cup powdered sugar
*  2 tbsp lemon juice
*  chocolate candy melts, different colors
*  sprinkles
*  cake pop sticks

Directions:

1. Bake a cake following directions on the box, let it cool.

2. While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting: combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice and mix until smooth and fluffy.

3. Transfer the cake into a large bowl and crumble it until it resembles fine crumbs.

4. Add 3/4 of the frosting and using your hangs mix it with the cake crumbs until it gets moist and can form a ball without falling apart. Add some more frosting if needed.

5. Use a medium ice cream scoop to scoop uniform balls of cake mixture. Roll the cake in your hands to create tight balls, place them onto a plate.

6. Melt 2-3 ounces of candy melts in a microwave, dip the cake pop sticks into the melted chocolate and insert into the cake balls about half-way. Freeze for 15-20 minutes.

7. Melt remaining candy melts in a tall bowl. Remove cake pops from the freezer and carefully dip them into melted chocolate until completely covered. Remove excess chocolate by swirling or gently tapping them.

8. Sprinkle the cake pops with sprinkles immediately (it will harden fast), stick them into a styrofoam block and place them in the fridge until chocolate hardens.

   Don't use the entire frosting at once. Depending on how moist your cake came out, you might need less or more of it, so I would add a little bit of frosting at the time and see how the mixture feels like. You don't want it to be too dry, but you also don't want to add too much frosting and create a mush. You also don't need colorful candy melts, milk or white chocolate will do just fine and as for the decorations, you can get as creative as you want!

Enjoy,
Magda

Avocado "hummus".

   It's been almost a year since my last post and I won't even try to explain myself.... let's just say I didn't get to it (aka, I was being a little bit lazy). I'm back, at least for now!

   My son just turned 4 couple weeks ago and besides big opinions, he also has a big love for cooking! He always wants to "help" when I cook, he drags the chair all the way from the dining room to the kitchen, puts it next to me and says: OK, now give it to me, I will do it! Sometimes some of the ingredients end up on the counter, floor, chair, our clothes or a dog, but most of the time he is doing pretty good job and I am super excited that he likes cooking as much as I do! I hope it stays this way!
   This time we made an avocado-mint "hummus". It's one of those recipes that I could really step aside and let him do most of it... which was combining it all in a food processor and blending it. He had fun, there was not much mess (only one piece of avocado ended up on the wall!) and he loved the final product! You never know with 4 year olds... he loves hummus, he likes avocados, but I had no idea what he will think about the combination of the two... but he devoured it (#winning)!

Ingredients:

*  1 avocado
*  1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans
*  juice from half lemon
*  lemon zest
*  1 garlic clove
*  1/4 cup olive oil
*  pinch of salt 
*  5 leaves of mint (optional, but delicious)

Directions:

1. Rinse and drain garbanzo beans.

2. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend it until combined and smooth. Taste and adjust salt if needed.

   I put mint as an optional ingredient because not everybody is a fan of it. I think the hummus is delicious without mint too, I just love this herb so much, I couldn't resist! My boys seem to like it this way as well, so it's a win-win for everybody.

Enjoy,
Magda