Seventeen

This past weekend was my roommates birthday. We fit 10 people in our little New York apartment. We even ran out of room in the refridgerator for the booze...

...and had to use the deck to keep everything cold.

We did an eight course tasting menu. Yes, you read that right, 8 courses.

The menu varied from shrimp and grits to ribs. Everything was delicious.

My duty was dessert.

Are you ready?

1. Cake Truffles. Red Velvet and White Chocolate & Devils Food Cake and Dark Chocolate.

Ingredients

• 1 standard cake mix (homemade or pre-packaged)

• 16 oz of the frosting/filling of your choice

• 4 oz Chocolate (dark, semi-sweet, or white) to coat the truffles

Directions

Bake the cake in a 9x13 pan as directed by the recipe/package selected. Tear the cake into small pieces while still warm (do not let the cake cool completely). Add the cake and frosting to a bowl and combine. Do not over mix - the cake/icing mixture should not be homogeneous. Use a spoon and form the mixture into balls. Let cool completely. I actually put mine in the freezer for about an hour to help them harden. Melt the chocolate over a double-boiler and use two forks to roll the truffles into the melted chocolate. Place the truffles on a cookie rack or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to rest. I put them back in the freezer/refrigerator until we were ready to eat them.

2. Apple Dumplings. Don't judge the ugly plates, they were really cheap and we needed 8 of them!

Ingredients

• 1 10-ounce can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

• 2-3 apples, cored

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup water

• 1/4 cup butter

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Roll each biscuit into a circle about 6 inches in circumference. Place 1/2 of an apple onto each circle. Wet the edges of dough, then pinch them together with your fingers. Place dumplings in an 8-by-8-inch square pan. Combine sugar, water, vanilla and butter; bring to a boil. Pour syrup over dumplings. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until dumplings are golden. Baste the dumplings with the syrup a few times throughout the cooking process.