Navi Truffles

When thinking of fun recipes to make for party snacks I figured out that making truffle shaped like Fairies would be fun. Making them "Navi" would be even more fun, because what is more satisfying than finally being able to just eat (and hence destroy) the annoying fairy from Ocarina of Time! I am sorry to the "Navi Fan Club" out there, but she is annoying and the only part about OoT I dislike would have to be her incessant nagging... But, making her in food form was enjoyable, so let's get to it!

You will need:

- 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk (14 Ounce)

- 2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

- 11/2 Cups White Chocolate Chips

- 1 Tablespoon Shortening

- 24 or more Pretzels, regular shape, depending on how many you wish to make

- Blue or Green Sparkle Sprinkles

- Toothpicks (Optional)

For Cookware

- Wax or Parchment paper

- Spoons for mixing

- 2 Microwavable bowls, Small and Medium

- Bowl or plate for sprinkles

- Plastic or Cling Wrap

- Melon-baller, Tablespoon, or small metal spoon

As well as patience.

First, combine the Semi-Sweet Chocolate and the Sweetened Condensed Milk in the Medium bowl.  Microwave the mixture until the chocolate is melted.

The rules for melting chocolate in the microwave are!

Either use the "Melt Chocolate" setting, or set it to low heat.

Use short 1 minute heating and stir after each time.

Not doing this can scorch the chocolate so you must be careful!

Once it is melted and combined, cover in cling wrap and set in the fridge until it is solid. This can take from 1-4 hours, depending on how strong the fridge is.

Next, melt the white chocolate with the shortening in the small bowl.

Then, get out the desired amount of pretzels.

Dip the pretzels on both sides and lay on wax paper to cool. 

You can leave them whole, or carefully cut the bottom rim off to give them a more "Wingy" look.

This does not show them on wax paper, but I assure you that you need to use it. 

I did them both ways to show you.

Next, spread out your sprinkles and have them ready, you can lay them on a plate, in a bowl, whatever you would like.

Once the chocolate in the fridge has hardened enough, take it out and begin making round truffles with a melon-baller or a spoon. You want about a tablespoon for each one.

Once they are all formed, remelt the remaining white chocolate, if necessary, and lay out more wax paper.

Add a thin layer of white chocolate to each one, then roll them in the sprinkles and place on the wax paper to dry. Once you have formed the amount you would like, dab chocolate to the backs of the "Wings" and stick them to the "Body".

Repeat until you have made as many as you want and let them all sit on a counter or in the fridge. Once they are firm you may add toothpicks to the base, if you so desire.

These are very tasty as well as kawaii~!

Yes, the pretzels were not covered enough, I'm aware of this.

Additional Ideas!

You can also roll these in cocoa powder or powdered sugar for "regular" truffles.

You can also add clear sprinkles to the pretzels to make the whole thing sparkle!

Or, you could even melt a little chocolate, place in a ziplock bag, cut the tip, and make faces on them!

Also, you can try all kinds of plating like sticking in foam with toothpicks or any other creative way you would like!

I hope you will enjoy nomming, and hence silencing, Navi as much as I did! Who knew she was so tasty?

Enjoying the noms of their labor,

-C.A.M.

Portal Cupcakes

When it comes to baking cupcakes are on of the easiest things to make, but I find it far more fun to take something as simple as mini cakes in wrappers and make them pretty awesome. So naturally I decided to make something geeky, delicious, and a bit weird this week out of yummy little desserts.

In order to make these you are going to need to have some time on your hands, multi tasking skills, as well as a few other things.

1 Box of cake mix (probably going to want yellow, white, etc.)

1 bag or roll of cookie dough (something that you can make cut outs with, I used sugar cookies)

Blue and Orange Jello (Depending on how many you want to make - 1 box will only fill about 4-5 cupcakes so you may want 2 boxes or more of each color.)

Icing or frosting (I used white buttercream)

Cupcake wrappers (I used foil)

You will also need a piece of paper, a small sharp knife, a pen (or a gingerbread man cookie cutter),a small spoon, a ladle, a baking sheet, and a cupcake pan.

The best way to save time on this is to make the different parts of the cupcakes in a certain order.

First thing you want to do is make to cookie dough. You can make this from scratch, buy a mix, or buy one of those pre-made logs. If you have the pre-made kind then you can skip this step.

Mix up the dough according to the instructions or recipe and make sure you are making the kind for cutout cookies or your little portal men are going to be little blobs. One of the best ways to make them better for cut outs is to add about 1 Tablespoon of flour to the batter if the dough is made for drop cookies.

After it it all mixed and kneaded roll it into a log and wrap it in some clear wrap, or if you have none a plastic baggy. Put it in the fridge to chill and then we will come back to that later.

Next you are going to mix the cake batter. Make it according to the box instructions or the recipe you are using and preheat the oven.

Line your pan with the wrappers. The reason I used the foil ones is because it is technically 2 wrappers, a paper and a foil each. You want the wrappers to be thick on these because you are putting a filling in them.

You may want a type of ladle or spoon to fill the cups evenly and to avoid a mess.

Fill them up about a little less then halfway. If you over fill these they will spread all over the pan and the tops will be huge! We do not want that, we want nice even tops.

Now you want to either jiggle the pan back and forth or gently tap it on a countertop to get all the bubbles to the top and popped. You don't want little air pockets in the cupcakes.

Once you think you have sufficiently de-bubbled your cakes bake them.

That is a good looking surface for the portal to come through!

Place the cupcakes on a cooling rack or the counter to cool while we work on the rest of these.

While you are cooling and baking your cupcakes make the cutout for your little portal man. You can use a gingerbread cutter, or even these fancy ones here, but for us poor people use this method. Also, you can make your portal men look anyway you like this way! You can go crazy or classic.

I chose to go with the more classic portal pose.

Draw an outline on a piece of paper and cut it out. You want to have a pretty long torso (longer than the one pictured) because you are cutting them in half and part of each piece will be going into the jello. You want them to be pretty small to be able to fit and thin because they are going to spread out a little while baking.

(And, yes, they do look like chalk outlines on dead bodies, this is a thing I know.)

After your cupcakes are done baking change the oven to the cookie temperature.

Break off a small part of the cooled dough and roll it out thinly on a clean and well floured surface. Place your cutout on the dough and cut around it with the small knife. Then after cutting out the desired amount lift up the excess dough and remold it.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet about one inch apart and cook them for about 5 minutes and check on them, you don't want them to over cook.

Once they come out you are going to want to cut them in half, if they cool too much before you cut them then they can crumble when you try to cut them. Once they are a bit hard and easy to move place them on the cooling rack and let them finish cooling. Repeat this until you have the amount of cookies you need, remember that one cookie if for 2 cupcakes so you do not need too many.

While you are baking and cooling your cookies begin making the jello. separate the gelatin into two bowls and heat some boiling water in a kettle or the microwave. For each packet you are going to add between 1/2 - 3/4 cup of boiling water. This gelatin needs to be thick so that's why we use so little water. (You can also simply follow the "jigglers" recipe on the Jello brand boxes)

Mix until the jello is dissolved and place in the fridge. You want it to be thick but not solid!

Next you want to take those cooled cupcakes and hollow out the middle carefully, you do not want to go too deep or too far to the side. Gently cut out a hole and pop out the center, it should be about the size of a "doughnut hole".

Now that you have your baked goods make and cooled we should put these together before someone thinks you are a homicidal maniac, what with all the hollowed cakes and halved bodies in your kitchen.

Once the jello is thick (almost like pudding texture) you want to start filling the cupcakes. If it is too thin then the cake will just soak it all up and if it's hard then it won't go in right so this is all about timing. If you find that it got too hard then you can microwave it for about 15-20 seconds to loosen it back up.

Fill up the cupcakes half orange and half blue, then frost the rims.

It should look something like this!

Fill them up with as much jello as you can since it will settle a little bit after you fill them.

Next stick the little portal men halves into the "portals", put the legs in one color and the tops in the other. You want to do this before the jello hardens too much, otherwise they will not stay put.

Then place them in the fridge to finish cooling for a couple hours or overnight.

(People will probably be very confused when they open up your fridge, so be prepared for that.)

So there you have it, Portal Cupcakes! Congratulations! These are fun to make and have a really unique taste, and not in a gross way!

This cake is not a lie.

(You were waiting for me to say something like that, weren't you?)

Another tip for you is that if you do not want these to be portal but still want to try them you can make "Hot Tub Cupcakes", I used to make these for pool parties all the time.

Same recipe except you take Teddy Grahams and put little jelly rings around them and stick them in the Jello. You can also make little lounge chairs from mini cookies or graham crackers.

So if you take these to the pool or to the grooviest party I hope you enjoy them and wow all the people attending.

Enjoying the noms of their labor,

- C.A.M.