Balls!

On Friday night, I broke part of my car, my beautiful one year old car, by slamming the back gate down on a shopping cart in the Target parking lot. I cried when I saw what I did. I have to take it to the dealer to see if they can fix it without costing me a fortune. I have low expectations on this point. If I get out of there for less than 500 dollars, I'll count myself lucky. (I'm blaming all of the allergy medications that I've been taking for dulling my usual crack reflexes...Ha!)

On Saturday, I took my nephew to the zoo. We had a really good time! I'm surprised about this. I was nervous that there would be toddler drama of some sort. There was none. He walked the entire time, and except for a last minute change of heart when it came to riding a pony, was super excited to see all of the animals. Note to Philadelphia parents: the Zoo gives you your pony ride money back when the kid backs out. This is a great policy!

Love this:


He had no problem with the carousel:


Of course, I bought him some crap at the Zoo shop. One item in particular kept him occupied for the rest of the night at home, and the following morning...a giraffe "grabber" thing. Whatever. It was awesome and I broke it, as I was putting him into his car seat for the return trip to his house on Sunday morning. Yeah, I'm two for two on the breaking crap front this weekend. Except, I'm slightly obsessed with this cheap toy...I feel like I have to fix it or replace it, because the kid freaked out when he was home and realized that he didn't have his giraffe. It cost about two dollars and I can't get it out of my head. Yeah, I have issues.

At a certain point yesterday, I decided that I just can't do anything right. The sensation of being a total klutz was actually suffocating. After breaking two things in three days, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes to console myself. Then, I filled the cupcake tins too far, and the cupcakes exploded out of their holders, and stuck to the pans. This cupcake failure just continued my feelings of inadequacy. I had reached my breaking point. My loving spouse came into the kitchen and found me stabbing cupcakes in their tins. He quickly offered to take me out to dinner. This was a good idea. It gave me time to reflect on what to do with those failed cupcakes.

Thus, I made chocolate cake balls! And lo, they are deadly delicious. I used the chocolate cake and frosting recipes on the back of the Hershey's cocoa and followed instructions provided by the queen of cake pops, Bakerella for forming and coating the balls. (Yes, I am going out of my way to use "balls" as much as possible. Take that, Google.) One day, when I am less frantic, I will take my time, and try to make them attractive. For now, I just have to settle for them being adictively delicious.

Cake Balls! Chocolate Cake Balls!