Chocolate Bowls

This was a really interesting way to do ice cream. It was fun to eat ice cream out of something edible rather than just a regular bowl and adding chocolate on top. I thought marbling the colors together was a good effect, it made it look more professional.

I got the instructions for this on chocoley.

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup chocolate

-1/2 cup colored chocolate

-Ice cream

-Mint for garnish

Melt the 2 colors of chocolate.

Add one to the other and swirl.

Blow up some small balloons.
Spray well with cooking spray.

Dip the balloons in the chocolate.
We swirled a little extra colored chocolate on.

Put in the fridge for at least an hour.
Pop the balloon and peel it out of the chocolate shell.

It was a little hard to get the balloon off, it was stuck a little,
but if you go slow you can get it out.

Scoop in ice cream and garnish with mint.

I thought this was fun. Only one of ours broke out of six, so I thought that was pretty successful. It was good to have a fancy dessert, and ice cream and chocolate is something you know most people will like.

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cupcakes

Ingredients:
- 1 package plain devil's food cake.
- 1 can cherry pie filling (21 ounces)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract

This recipe comes from Anne Bryn's book The Cake Mix Doctor and can be found on page fifty. The original recipe made a full sized cake with chocolate glaze --  I opted for cupcakes because they're easier to eat.

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the cake mix, cherry pie filling, eggs and almond extract in a bowl. Blend.

Bake the cupcakes according to the package directions.

Frost and serve.

This is such a great and inexpensive way to dress up a simple box of cake mix. As someone who doesn't always enjoy cherries I didn't find the cherry flavor to be overwhelming, but rather a nice compliment to the chocolate cake. Everyone should add this to their to make list!