My dessert disaster(s). A novel.

In preparation for a friend's Christmas party last night and my up-coming cookie exchange party I've been experimenting with some new recipes. The first one came from thepioneerwoman.com (she's got a great cooking section - I highly recommend you check her out), a recipe for cake balls. Bake and crumble a cake, add frosting, mix well and form into balls. Freeze for a while and then dip in melted chocolate or roll in powdered sugar. Sounded good, but tasted not as good as I'd hoped - I think I added too much frosting so it was too mushy. So I moved on to the recipe Ruth posted for the Marshmallow Cups. Spent Thurs. night brushing chocolate on the cup liners thick enough to hold up, then made the rest of the mix Friday. I used whipping cream that had been in my freezer that I thawed throughout the day, but it just didn't whip up right, or so I tell myself because when I added the marshmallow mixture the consistency was not very smooth (I probably didn't stir the marshmallow mix enough before adding it to the cream, now that I think of it) but I wasn't thrilled with the taste either. So... no problem, for the party I had a back-up plan just in case, one of my holiday standards, Hershey Balls made with Symphony bars. I melted the chocolate the same night I was brushing chocolate on the cupcake liners, and since I was trying to multi-task I let the chocolate cool too much and mixed it in with Cool Whip that was still a little too frozen, so all I got was Cool Whip glop with chocolate chunks. It's Friday, 4:30, party at 7 and 3 of 3 desserts failed. A few frantic phone calls and a trip to the store later I settled on making Berta's Mini Key Lime Cupcakes (in the family cookbook) in record time. Even managed to make them look pretty and festive with slices of lime as garnish. They were yummy and perfect for the party. (Thanks Bert!) However, I was still upset after coming home and seeing the failed results of my attempts, and not being willing to part with 4 large Almond & Toffee Chips Symphony bars, I put the Hershey Ball mixture on a low heat double boiler to melt it all down, then spread it out in a foil-lined cookie sheet and let it sit overnight. I had some chocolate cups left over from the Marshmallow Cup debacle (I used the mini-muffin size), so I spooned the Hershey concoction into the cups and VOILA! Culinary masterpiece! So now I have ONE successful treat to serve at my cookie party. Whew!! I'll have to think of an appropriate name to bestow upon these little chocolate delights.... or CHOCOLATE DISASTERS! HA! Perfect!!

Note to self: next time keep a double-batch of no-fail fudge stored in the fridge and avoid such misadventures. Happy Holidays!