First Blog Post! (Chocolate Truffles)

       Alright....so this is my first real blog post. I've had to create a few blogs and posts for various class assignments throughout college, but nothing like this. There has been some heated debate between the voices in my head about whether to start this blog or not for a while. Recently the movie "Mom's Night Out" came out on Redbox and I finally got to watch it! This is now one of my all time favorite movies ever, and the main character starts the movie out struggling with the beginning of her blog. After countless mishaps and a night spent in jail she becomes a successful "mommy blogger". While I am not yet a mother nor do I spend many nights in jail with Trace Adkins, it inspired me to get this puppy going.
   
      I started my own cake decorating business in May after my best friend and I created my awesome wedding cake....

Red Velvet with cream cheese icing, Lemon with lemon filling and vanilla buttercream, and traditional almond wedding cake with strawberry filling and white chocolate buttercream. All covered in fondant and decorated in fresh flowers. 

I'm pretty proud of this. I also made a wedding dress out of cupcakes and my husband's grooms cake...

My secret recipe chocolate cake with salted
caramel buttercream.
It was divine!

All traditional almond wedding cake
with strawberry filling
and white chocolate buttercream. 

Since then I have taken a several orders for birthdays, a bridal shower, and even another wedding!

       This blog isn't going to just be about cakes and sugar though! I want to share with you everything about me, and what led me to start this business.....The short version of me starts on a cattle ranch with my parents. I showed cattle in the FFA chapter of our small town all the way through high school, and I showed a little in open shows during college. Now I mostly just mentor younger kids, and help them learn all about the ways of a show farm life. Until almost my teenage years I was an only child, and despised it. Although looking back, it was pretty nice being the second grandchild on both sides and the only child of my parents. When I was twelve my baby brother, Robby, was born. He is the complete opposite of me, and I think he is literally trying to drive me crazy but I don't adore him any less because of it. I majored in Agricultural Education in college, and I am now certified to teach high school Ag. I met my husband, Benji, during my sophomore year of college, and we were married on our third year anniversary this past April. Two weeks after meeting him my parents took in my cousin, Joleigh, after some crazy family drama, and I now have a sister too. She's my little kitchen bug and just last night was helping me make some tasty hoagie rolls from scratch. Last summerr my husband(then fiancee) took me out of my small town to go half way across Texas where he accepted a job as a corrections officer for TDCJ (the state prison system). I was miserable from extreme pine allergies and the dreadful house we were living in, not to mention I hated being so far from my family. So he moved me back at the beginning of this year. We are now living in my parents' house on the ranch until we can find a more permanent home. I have two awesome fur babies, Gemma and Molly. Gemma is my three and a half pound teacup chihuahua, and Molly is Benji's fifty-five pound lab mix....

I have always loved to bake and cook. It's calming to me. I love how I can turn on my Pandora, put in my headphones, and start cooking, then the whole world just kind of disappears.....at least until a member of my family comes into the kitchen. I am even going to start a new job in the next couple of weeks as a baker. I am so excited!

       Now that you know a little about me, let's get to today's recipe! Chocolate "Candy Cane" Truffles.....yummo :)

I found this recipe on Pinterest....I am addicted to Pinterest. I find most of my recipes there. The weather people are saying this is going to be an awful winter for us in Texas. Really really cold and really really wet. An arctic storm came through yesterday blowing in a ton of cold wind. It is abnormally cold and windy for this time of the year.

        I have a friend who sells Premier Jewelry, and I am hosting a parting in December and I'm going to have a hot chocolate bar. So I thought today would be the perfect day to try out a recipe for hot chocolate in the crock pot. I found a ton of recipes, but they were all basically the same with a couple variations. The one I made used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 6 cups milk or water, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 3 cups of chocolate chips. Combine all of this in your crock pot, stir well, and let it heat on low for two-three hours. Stir occasionally so all the chocolate melts. It's finished when it starts steaming, then you can turn on the warmer. This recipe was OK. My chocolate chips didn't melt all the way, so I think next time I may use powder or melt my chocolate chips before I add them to the mixture.

       While my hot chocolate was heating away, I decided I wanted something with a little more chocolate to round out my day. So I went back to Pinterest and found this recipe for Chocolate Candy Cane Truffles from Your Cup of Cakes's blog. Lizzy is an awesome blogger, who has been doing this much longer than me. I definitely suggest you go check out her blog and subscribe, she's got some awesome recipes. Chocolate Candy Cane Truffles

                             

They look so scrumptious right? I absolutely love everything Christmas, especially candy canes. I keep a box hidden under my bed during the season just in case I get a craving....don't judge me, I can't help it. I had everything to make these delectable bites of heaven.....except candy canes. I searched and searched my pantry for something to roll these suckers in. I thought about just doing white chocolate with peppermint extract added in, but it's just not the same. So I revised the recipe! I do this quite often, almost nothing I make is actually made to a recipe....."It's more of what ya call a guideline"..... I also love Johnny Depp and all his movies.

       So I substituted the peppermint extract in her recipe for vanilla and rolled my finished truffles in crushed pretzels, crushed honey teddy grahams, and I even dipped some in white chocolate...without the peppermint extract. This was my finished product....

My pictures aren't anywhere near as pretty as Lizzy's, but I am also using my phone's camera instead of a digital. 

       They are delicious! I can't wait until I actually have some candy canes to roll them in. I have many taste testers in my house plus our neighbors and friends are always excited when I decide to experiment :) I actually ran out of truffles in the first fifteen minutes of posting them on Facebook! I doubled the recipe because I had the ingredients to do it, but I guess next time I will have to quadruple the recipe since they were such a hit.

       Alright! Here I go, out into the big bad blogger world! Let me know what you like and what I can improve on. I am tough, I can take the criticism.It's part of being a farm girl!

Until next time.......Love Lucy :)