Happy weekend! Who needs some serious amounts of chocolate after this week?

So I remember when I was younger how much we used to make fun of everyone in the retail business and how they couldn't seem to wait 5 minutes after one holiday before clearing the shelves of that merchandise and filling it with the paraphernalia for the next one.

It was especially funny to us when the holiday happened to be one that doesn't come with much celebrating for the general population or we didn't know anything about the reason for it. St. Patrick's Day, for example, was always hilarious because we didn't know anyone of anyone who celebrated it for any reason. Ugh, and I can't tell you how much it bugged me to keep getting pinched because I'd forgotten to wear green. Show of hands, did anyone else resort to flashing their underwear to avoid it? Guilty. I just love my brother @rigaronib 's series of holiday art as it pretty well describes the level of laughability for most so-called holidays.

When we lived in Latin culture for a few years, I couldn't help being super interested in the different holidays and the importance placed on each one. I think the biggest thing I noticed is that their holidays were hugely based on religious events rather than made-up dates for marketers to exploit and they were mostly named after different Saints. On the other hand, Chile wasn't without it's humorous holidays as well, but the thing about those is that you usually didn't know a day was a holiday until you showed up at a store to buy something and they informed you it was closed for the holiday that had just been declared for the whole week. Oh, that's another thing. Businesses in Chile are not legally allowed to be open during some holidays and even if they are they probably won't be.

So what's my point here? Well, I'm just finding a lot of irony in the fact that I've now fallen into a line of work where I holidays have become much more relevant and I'm now actually the one shoving themed recipes at you. Well, I'm hoping you'll be excited with this recipe today rather than offended. I mean, it IS chocolate so how can you really go wrong there? But yes, this is a recipe I made with Valentine's Day in mind and it's so fun and easy to make.

I'm including the recipe for my basic chocolate cake that I made as the base but you can just as easily use a boxed cake mix if that makes things faster and simpler for you. Hey, you can even switch up the flavors of cake mix as well. I'm going to be honest, this recipe is about as basic as it gets and sometimes those are my favorite to share because you guys are always telling me how much you love the simple stuff.

So hopefully I haven't offended you with my little bit of a holiday rant or anything. Hey, if you've got a yard full of decorations for Martin Luther King's Birthday or you spend all year planning for April Fool's Day, kudos for creativity my friend. Hats off to you. I've now shared recipes for some pretty off the wall themes myself. (Speaking of that, will you guys please remind me not to forget about pi day this year? I always seem to miss it.) Haha, have a great weekend!

Ingredients

1 recipe for chocolate cake (recipe follows) or one cake mix prepared according to package instructions.
Buttercream:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
vanilla extract
whole milk
250g (about 1 1/2 cups) white chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
pink sugar, optional

Chocolate Cake:

1 cup granular sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour

Instructions

Cake: (If baking your own. Otherwise simply follow the instructions on boxed mix.)

Preheat oven to 350° F(180° C) and combine butter and sugar in large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in sour cream and beat in egg. Add salt, vanilla, baking soda, cocoa powder and flour and stir until smooth.
Grease and flour a 13x9 inch cake pan and pour batter into pan, smoothing with spatula. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.
Remove to wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes. Carefully tip pans upside down and drop cake on wire rack or large plate.

Buttercream:

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, cream butter with 1 cup powdered sugar. Add the vanilla and milk and mix until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar a little at a time until incorporated. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute until light and fluffy.

Cake Balls:

Crumble up the cake and add the crumbs to the mixing bowl along with the mini chocolate chips and mix until just combined. You should have a thick dough-like mixture.
Use a tablespoon or dough scoop to spoon out balls that are about 1 inch in diameter (any size is fine if you want them bigger). Drop them onto a tray lined with parchment and place in the freezer to chill for at least 30 minutes.
Once the balls are chilled, melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler and dip each of the truffles into it and place back on the tray. If desired, sprinkle on pink sugar before the chocolate has hardened. Allow them to completely harden. Store in an airtight container at room temp for up to one week or in fridge if keeping them longer.

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D5300 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. You can find out more in my INTRO POST.

And, by the way, to all the minnows out there, my intro post did a huge $0.21. The key to success on Steemit is to be consistent and persistent.

Also, a huge shoutout to @rigaronib for designing my logo!

For more great food ideas, please do not forget to look at my other recent food posts

1. Dairy Queen Cake Batter Blizzard Copycat
2. Braised Slow-Cooker Pork Roast + Rainbow Root Veggies
3. Black Forest Chocolate Chip Morning Buns
4. TUESDAY TOAST: Bruschetta, Goat Cheese, & Almond Toast
5. Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal
6. Frozen Cookie Dough Banana "Nice Cream"
7. Ham Rice + Steakhouse Comeback Sauce
8. Acai Mango Detox Smoothie Bowls
9. Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
10. Chocolate Cookie Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwiches