The One with Christmas Break!

It's FINALLY Christmas break, and I am sitting at home with a bad cold, so it's a good time to catch up on blogging about Christmas treats (while also watching a lot of TV!) Since my new favorite thing seems to be mini candy canes (see the Christmas cake balls), I decided to try making peppermint almond bark. They have a really good kind at Cost-co that has white and milk chocolate so I thought maybe I could make the same kind at home. It turned out to be really easy...

Ingredients:

• 1 package white chocolate almond bark
• 1 package milk chocolate almond bark
• about 30 crushed mini candy canes

Step 1: Melt the package of chocolate almond bark. Pour it onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. The good thing about this layer is that it doesn't really matter how smooth it is because it will be covered with the white chocolate layer.

Step 2: Wait for the milk chocolate layer to harden, then melt the package of white chocolate and pour it over the top. The bottom layer might start to melt a little, so be careful not to mix them together. While the white chocolate is still wet, sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top.

Step 3: Let it all harden, then cut it into small pieces.

It looks really pretty, but here are a few things I might try differently next time...

• When I started cutting the bark, the candy canes fell off a little bit, so I thought next time, smoosh the candy canes down into the white chocolate to make them stick better OR mix the candy canes into the white chocolate before spreading it over the milk chocolate, then maybe sprinkle some extras on top.
• The mint flavor was not very strong. Next time, I might try mixing some mint extract into the milk chocolate layer.
• Someone also suggested adding pretzels to the chocolate layer, which sounded good to me!

Any other suggestions?

The One Where I Feel Guilty (even though it wasn't my fault)

Christmas means LOTS of parties with LOTS of goodies, so I made up a HUGE batch of Christmas cake balls for a few different things: a cookie exchange, my brother's youth group party, and my mom's work party. I made 2 kinds - white cake with white frosting, and white cake with mint chocolate frosting (just add a little mint extract to store bought chocolate frosting - make sure to get the kind with box tops for me!). Then, to make them a little more festive, I decided to add mini candy canes. For the mint chocolate ones, I used a candy cane stick to dip them, and then left it in. I think they kind of look like Christmas ornaments...

Then I decided to do a little stress relief by putting the rest of the candy canes into a little plastic baggie and slamming it onto the counter to make even smaller pieces (I was a little alarmed by how much I enjoyed this part)!

Next I made little piles of the candy cane crumbs, dipped the cake balls, and put them on top of the candy canes. After they hardened, I turned them over, and they looked super cute!

When they were all done, I put Kim (yay, home from Africa!) in charge of arranging them, and here they are, looking all festive and Christmas-y... 

I thought after this that I was done with cake balls for a while, but when I went to work on Thursday for our holiday potluck lunch, I realized I was wrong. This is where the guilt comes in...Even though I had made delicious mini pumpkin cheesecakes to share, I was yelled at for not bringing cake balls! Apparently someone (not me) had promised there would be cake balls (made by me), so they were expecting cake balls! So, to make everyone happy, I went home and made a new batch. They turned out just as cute, especially when I wrapped them up in cute Christmas bags to give to the people who complained the most!