Homemade Chocolate Cream Cheese Mints {Recipe}

These mints are perfect for a special Valentine, or any special occasion. And they are really, really easy to make.

What You Need
4 oz. (half of a block) of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 pound (approx. 3-5 cups) powdered sugar
2 tsp. creme de menthe (or 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract)*
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
 Either:
  10 oz. Chocolate Almond Bark (or Candy Melts)
  or Semi-sweet chocolate for melting

*I prefer Creme de Menthe for my mint-flavored treats. I just think the taste is better. You can find it in the liquor store or liquor aisle (if you don't live in Minnesota). For this recipe, the clear version would be better. I was stuck with green because that's what I usually carry.

Pot of Gold Cake Pops on Fox 9

St. Patrick's Day is just one week away. So, I took my Pot of Gold Cake Pops and hit the road. Today, I am visiting Fox 9 with these pops, some of the most popular treats I've ever made (if you go by how many people have visited their original post).

KMSP-TV

If you're new here, welcome!
Here are some links that will help you make these pops:
Pot of Gold Cake Pops
How to Make Cake Pops
How Long Does It Really Take to Make Cake Pops?
Click here to buy the gold ball sprinkles.
  (I got the gold sugar sprinkles in-store at my local Williams-Sonoma.)

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Special Delivery: Valentine's Day Cookies

A special order for Valentine's Day. Simple envelopes addressed to the one(s) you love.

To make these, I used the recipes below:
Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Royal Icing

I will warn you that while they are "simple," they don't exactly go fast. It takes some real time to do that much writing and tiny details.

Other Links you may want to check out:
Royal Icing Consistency
How to Color Icing (getting red and black is not easy)

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Hearts-Inside Cake... Or Not

After I had so much fun learning how to make the Polka Dot Cake...

I decided that I wanted to try it with hearts for Valentine's Day. It seemed so simple... and really, the hearts-inside part actually turned out pretty well...

It's just the rest of the execution that failed... miserably.
I'm hoping to give the hearts - or maybe another shape - another chance some time soon. But, if you want to try it yourself... and certainly get better results... let me tell you what worked, and what decidedly did NOT.

"Wild About You" - Easy Monster Cake

How about a hairy, purple Monster to say I'm Wild About You, Valentine!?!
This cake is super easy! It took me less than an hour to decorate. It's perfect for Valentine's Day, Birthdays, whatever!

What You Need:
6-9" Round Cake (This was 6"x3")
2-4 cups of Buttercream Icing (depending on the size of your cake)
  Colors: Purple, Pink, Black (and white)
Decorating Bags & Tips #5, 12, 233

Valentine's Day Ideas & Treats

Truthfully, Valentine's Day for me is more of a store-bought treat day. Mostly because I just want really good chocolate truffles. I don't want cookies or cupcakes or cake. But that's just me. I know some people would prefer the homemade stuff, so... here's my collection of Valentine's Treats in one easy-to-find post.

Cakes:

 Ruffle Heart Cake

Easy Fondant Valentine's Cake

Easy Buttercream Valentine's Cake

"Wild About You" Monster Cake

Not-At-All-Easy Chocolate Valentine's Cake

A Little Easier Chocolate Lover's Cake

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake

Cookies:

Chocolate-Strawberry Sandwich Cookies

Love Letter Sugar Cookies

You're My Little Love Bug Cookies

Bee My Valentine Cookies

Valentine's Day Bouquet of Cookies

Other Ideas:

Cream Cheese Mints (Easy!)

Chocolate-Vanilla Tuxedo Cheesecake

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Easy Cake Pops

Pink-Pink Cake Pops

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Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. When it comes to the treats for the kids in class, I tend to go the "non-food" route. But for the teachers, I like to spoil them with something like this chocolate sandwich cookie.

What You Need:
Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies (heart-shaped, of course!)
Valentine Sprinkles
Strawberry Icing:
  1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temperature
  3-4 cups powdered sugar
  1/3 cup pureed strawberries (fresh or frozen)

Pecan Turtle Cake Recipe

It's all here. Chocolate, Caramel, Pecans. Yummy turtle cake. And the best part for me was that it was all leftovers from other projects!

What You Need:
Chocolate Cake Recipe
Caramel Buttercream Icing Recipe
1 cup Pecans (toasted and chopped)
Caramel Sauce (see Caramel Icing Recipe)
Chocolate (melted)

Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Recipe

I got a recipe similar to this from my aunt in a little book she put together for me for my wedding. I altered it a bit to make it a smaller batch, but I love the texture and flavor of these peanut butter cups.

And if you want, you can also make them in a pie-sized piece. I've made them mini-cupcake size, standard-cupcake size and in those little mini foil pie tins.

What You Need:
1- 12 oz. bag chocolate chips (I recommend milk chocolate.)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter (I prefer crunchy, but whatever you like.)
1 package of graham crackers, crushed (1/3 of a standard box of graham crackers.)
1 cup powdered sugar

Yield: About 3 dozen mini cupcakes, 2-3 of the mini foil pie pans.

Easy Rainbow Pudding Pie for St. Patrick's Day

Seriously, start to finish, it took me less than an hour to do all three of these! (Well, except for baking the crusts.)

What You Need:
Pie Crust (These are mini-pies, but you could totally do full-sized.)
Instant Pudding (Prepared as pie filling - mixed with 1 3/4 cups of cold milk)
Whipped Cream (or Cool Whip)
Wilton Nonpareils 6 Mix Sprinkle Assortment (or other sprinkles divided by color)
Parchment paper for template
Optional (for "pot of gold"):
1 Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie (or other round, dark cookie)
Yellow or gold sanding sugar or sprinkles

Pot O' Gold Cake Pops

Where's the leprechaun? These are the perfect little treat for St. Patrick's Day... even if they're not green.

What You Need
1 Cake, baked and cooled
1-2 cups icing, I prefer cream cheese icing
Dark Chocolate Candy Melts (They do make black, but I think these taste better and look just as good)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Gold Dragees Sprinkles (or yellow nonpariels or yellow sanding sugar)
Rainbow of colors of Candy Melts (to make rainbows)
Lollipop Sticks
Parchment or waxed paper
Styrofoam
Optional:
White Candy Melts
Rainbow of sanding sugar colors
Ice pack to keep cake balls cool while you work
Heating pad to keep candy warm while you work

Chocolate Chip Cut-Out Cookies

Confession time. I don't like Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Gasp!
What?!
No!
I don't know why. I just don't.

My husband, as is well-documented, only likes things with copious amounts of chocolate in them. So, I thought maybe I could "spice up" my sugar cookies by adding something extra, like chocolate chips.

I was worried that the add-ins would make the icing look dimpled, but thankfully, that didn't happen. So, now I think I might just be a "sugar cookie add-in" add-ict.

As Seen On...

In case you missed me this weekend on Fox 9 making cookie pops... here I am:

Beki Cook's Valentine Cookie Pops Recipe: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

I do wonder if I could have said "yup" a few more times there at the end... I don't think I covered it quite enough. (Kidding.)

Here are links to the recipes and tutorials we talked about in the segment:
Vanilla Sugar Cookie recipe
Royal Icing recipe
How to make cookie pops
How to make a bouquet of cookies

And here's a great look at the other two segments I've done in the last year at Fox 9:
Fondant Jack-o-Lantern Cakes
Banana Cake Pops

You're My Little Love Bug... Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I'm a little late with this tutorial. Valentine's Day has a way of sneaking up on me! But these cookies are super easy to make, and I suppose if you have a big fan of ladybugs around, you could make them anytime!! (Or you could leave the dots round and just make them as ladybugs.)

What You Need:
One Recipe Vanilla Sugar Cookies
One Recipe Royal Icing (colored red and black with white reserved)
Nesting round cutters or biscuit cutters
Optional:
Cookie Treat Sticks for Cookie Pops

How to Make a Valentine's Bouquet of Cookies

Making a bouquet of cookies is not hard at all. If you can make sugar cookies, you can make cookie bouquets.

I took these cookies on the local news yesterday (2/12/12) morning, to demonstrate how to make one of these bouquets... and we ran out of time to show you completely, so here is a step by step.

What You Need:
Cookie "Pops"
Flower Pot or other decorative bucket or basket
Dried beans or rice
Styrofoam disk the same size as the opening to your pot or bucket
Paper Shred or Tissue Paper