Cookie Questions?!

For a while now I have been on the quest to figure out what kind of icing Frost Bakery uses on their cookies.  I dont know how many of you live in The Woodlands area, but if you do get your butt over to Frost (2 locations now) and get a cookie...or a cupcake, I mean it is a cupcake store but I love the cookies.

Anyway, I love their cookies and they have an awesome icing on their cookies that normal royal icing just doesnt replicate.  I went to the store the other day and asked the girl what kind of frosting it was and she said it was a buttercream base but wasnt sure what else was in there since she had just started there.  Dang it she was new, but that was more than I had before I walked into the store so props for that!

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My problem is I have no idea how to get buttercream to be the consistency of royal icing...I thought maybe mix the two together but if buttercream has shortening in it then that may be why it doesnt get hard.  So I throw it to all of you out there on the internet...how can I get a buttercream/royal icing baby?!  I am dying to be able to make this at home and try my hand at decorating cookies for real (up until now I have just been slapping it on with a knife but I want to make pretty cookies dang it!).  HELP!!!!!

Side note---this will no way impact me buying cookies from Frost, they will still get plenty of my business because I love them and they do have great cupcakes too, I just want to be able to make it at home is that so wrong!  Oh and Frost was featured on Cupcakes Wars...I dont have cable so I havent seen the episode but how cool is that?!  And all the words "Frost" are a link to the website so you can drool all over their amazing flavors.  The one below is the snickerdoodle, which I have tried and it was awesome!

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How did I find this awesome bakery you might ask?  Well when I was working at AVIA (now Hyatt Market Street) they brought some mini-cookies by as a sample if we wanted to use them for our turn-down amenity.  I thought they were awesome cookies and really pushed our Director to use them, but he went with the Chocolate Bar downtown instead (which has amazing chocolates).  But I was hooked and now go as often as I can, it used to be far away but now that they have a location at the Waterway I could get in major weight trouble!

So #1---HELP...how can I make a royal icing consistency buttercream frosting

#2---get your butt over to Frost and tell them how awesome they are so they stay around for a long time, support Local!!

Project Housewife Out!

Foodie Friday

Happy Friday people!  I could NOT be more happy that today is Friday and the weekend is coming up...I mean seriously happy that today is Friday, you have no idea.  Anyway, less talk more food right?!  Well today I have decided to share my cake ball recipe with you guys.  I made this for the first time ever for Christmas and they were a huge hit at home and at work, people scarfed these babies up!  Im not going to lie though, these are very time consuming and if people didnt love them as much as they did I would never consider making them again.  But since they were such a huge hit how could I deprive people of the magic that is a cake ball!!  So without further ado, here it is...LEMON CAKE BALLS

Paula’s Cake Balls

(Adapted from a Smithfield.com recipe)

Servings: 36  Prep Time: 10min Cook Time: 20min  Freeze Time: 1hr Cool Time: 2hrs Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package cake mix (I used lemon but at the bottom I have other combos)

• 1 (16 ounce) container prepared cake frosting (I used lemon)

• 6 ounces of chocolate flavored confectioners coating disks or bar (I used white but you can use whatever you want)


Instructions

Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box.

When cake is finished baking allow to cool for 30 minutes. Crumble the cake into a large bowl using a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Add the frosting and mix until well combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Line a baking tray with wax paper. Use a melon baller as a scooper to form balls with the cake mixture. Place on wax paper. Once you have used all of the cake mixture, place the baking tray in the freezer for 1 hour.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl of the microwave, stirring every 5-10 seconds until smooth. At this point you can add a bit of food coloring if you are using white chocolate.

Remove the balls from the freezer. Using one toothpick, pick up the balls one at a time and dip in the chocolate. Use a second toothpick to slide the ball off the first toothpick onto the wax paper lined baking tray.  We used bamboo skewers and those seemed to work well but if you find that the balls are falling off the toothpick put the balls back in the freezer so they can set longer.

Once you have covered all the balls in chocolate coating place the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate coating is set. At this point you can drizzle other chocolate on the balls for decoration.  I know mine dont look that pretty, but thats beacause we used a shallow dish for the dipping.  You want a tall skinny dish to melt the chocolate in so that the whole ball gets coated and you dont have a top that doesnt have chocolate.  Also if you find that the chocolate is too thick for dipping (this white chocolate was) then you can add 1tbsp vegetable shortening at a time to thin it out.  This really helped and I was shocked!  I was all ready to add water or oil and those are 2 of the things the package of chocolate said not to add so vegetable shortening saved the day here.

Because I forgot to take a picture of the final pretty ones, here is the source for this picture

Other Combinations:

Red Velvet Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting and dipped in white chocolate coating


Strawberry Supreme Cake/Strawberries and Cream Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating

White Cake/Wild Cherry Vanilla Frosting - Dipped in Dark Chocolate Coating

French Vanilla Cake/White Chocolate Almond Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating

Dark Chocolate Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating

Spice Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating

Confetti Cake/Vanilla Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating


So there you have it...cake balls!  They are pretty easy but its a lot of waiting around time and those are my least favorite kinds of recipes I want my food NOW dang it!  What is your favorite variety of cake balls?
 
Project Housewife Out!

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