Cranberry-Raspberry Chocolate Cake Truffles

 

Happy Valentine's Day! What better way to celebrate this wonderful/terrible holiday than by sharing these cake truffles with your significant other/eating them alone while sobbing and watching a romantic comedy? Whether you are a lover or hater of the holiday, you're probably a lover of delicious sweets and that is why these cake truffles are the perfect treat. :)

I was lucky enough to share these yummy cake truffles with many people I love in my life. My roommates here in New Jersey got the first taste. Then I mailed a box to Dylan in Cleveland as an early Valentine's Day gift. (If you have any doubt about how good these are, he got the package on Saturday afternoon and they were gone by Sunday night... I gave him six...) Finally, I got to spread the love with some beautiful Boston friends I stayed with this weekend. These rich little truffles go a long way, so sharing them with loved ones is easy.

Cranberry-Raspberry Chocolate Cake Truffles
Makes: 40 truffles  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 24 hours

Ingredients
1 box white cake mix
*3 eggs
*3/4 cup vegetable oil
*1 1/4 cup cranberry juice cocktail
2 8-ounce cream cheeses
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raspberry jam
20 ounces chocolate chips (white, dark or milk)
Pink and white sprinkles

*Ingredients depend on box directions. The important part is to replace the water with cranberry juice.

Directions
Mix boxed cake as directed, replacing the water with an equal amount of cranberry juice. Bake as directed and let cool. Crumble cake into a large bowl.
In a mixer, combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add cream cheese frosting and raspberry jam into the crumbled cake and mix until fully incorporated. Roll into 1-inch balls and lay on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Refrigerate overnight.
Remove cake truffles from fridge. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between. Dip balls in chocolate, lay on baking sheet and cover with sprinkles. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Cranberry Rocky Road Cookies: The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

Happy holidays, everyone! :) I'm back home for winter break and have one online final and a paper before I'm officially done with this semester. I've already moved out of my Boston apartment and will soon be making my journey to The Middle-of-Nowhere, New Jersey for a 6-month internship. I said my bittersweet goodbyes to all my amazing Boston friends this weekend, and I have to say this has been the best semester EVER. I made some wonderful new friends and got even closer to old ones, which makes it terribly hard to leave. Love you all so much, and thanks for an incredible year!

On the bright side, a few positives of leaving Boston are 1) a great new job, 2) [hopefully] great new friends, and 3) more time to blog!!! Which brings me to...

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

 This year two amazing food bloggers, Julie at The Little Kitchen and Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil, arranged an international cookie swap for food bloggers to network, exchange information, and best of all, cookies! I can't think of a better and tastier way to connect with other bloggers out there.

I was scrambling to come up with a recipe for this event, since I usually don't ad lib on baking recipes, but I was really stuck on the idea of chocolate and marshmallow because it was my favorite ice cream as a kid. Somehow this transitioned to rocky road, then dried cranberries were thrown in the mix, and huzzah! Cranberry rocky road cookies were born. These were very quick to whip up and are the perfect holiday cookie for both chocolate lovers and fruity dessert lovers to enjoy.

Cranberry Rocky Road Cookies

Makes: 4 dozen cookies  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups baking soda
2/3 cups cocoa
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Place softened butter in an electric mixer and beat for 30 seconds until whipped. Add in sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat for 1 minute. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa and mix well. Add dry ingredients into the mixer in four parts and beat for 2 minutes.
Next, chop whole walnuts before measuring. Add walnuts, chocolate chips and dried cranberries into the cookie dough and beat for 1 minute.
Scoop dough with a tablespoon and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until the dough is risen and remove from the oven. Add a few mini marshmallows to each individual cookie. Bake for another 2 or 3 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool.