Well, these do have chocolate, but I love the combo of chocolate and raspberries. They're a bit time consuming and fresh raspberries are expensive, but strawberries could be used instead if that's what's available. I've also made chocolate truffles and stirred in raspberry jam for a raspberry chocolate truffle and I've wrapped maraschino cherries with the stems still on in chocolate truffle filling and dipped them into chocolate, a double chocolate hit with a cherry in the middle! Anyway, the raspberry truffle recipe, from an old Gourmet magazine, and it would be nice dipped in white chocolate too: Chocolate-Covered Raspberry Truffles Gourmet : December 2004 Be sure to use bittersweet chocolate with no more than 60 percent cacao for this recipe. Yield: Makes about 50 Active Time: 50 min Total Time: 2 hr (includes chilling) 1/4 cup heavy cream 7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not extra-bitter or unsweetened), finely chopped in a food processor 1 1/2 tablespoons framboise or brandy(I used raspberry vodka but extract would work too, added to taste) 6 oz fresh raspberries (1 cup) 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder Line a tray with wax paper. Bring cream just to a simmer in a 1- to 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Remove from heat, then add chocolate and stir gently with a heatproof rubber spatula until ganache is smooth. Stir in framboise. Pat raspberries dry if necessary. Add 6 to 8 raspberries to ganache and gently fold in to coat using rubber spatula. Remove each chocolate-covered raspberry with 2 forks, shifting it from one fork to the other to let excess ganache drip off, then transfer to tray. Coat remaining raspberries in same manner, working in batches of 6 to 8. Chill truffles on tray until firm, at least 1 hour, then loosen from wax paper. Put cocoa in a sealable bag and add all of truffles. Seal bag, leaving some air in, and shake to coat. Empty bag into a shallow bowl. Transfer coated truffles to a platter with your fingers, shaking off excess cocoa. Keep chilled until ready to serve. Truffles can be chilled, covered after 1 hour, up to 2 days. Coat with cocoa powder up to 1 hour before serving. If you're having truffles, you probably don't want chocolate cake and if you're having lemon cake pops, you won't want lemon or other citrus. Carrot cake is good, but a little "heavy" and people either like it or they don't. How about a coconut cake, or maybe red velvet? I don't care much for red velvet, I think it's pretty much just a chocolate cake wannabe and I can't imagine eating that much red dye, but some others love it. If you're not opposed to using liquor, someone here posted this recipe, maybe Stacy? I copied it back in the olden days before I had enough good sense to note where I got it! Actually, almond extract would probably work fine in these if you don't have the Amaretto. Amaretto Dream Cupcakes with Amaretto Butter Frosting 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt- 3/4 cup butter or margarine 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup Amaretto 1/3 cup slivered almonds In a medium bowl; sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Alternately add 1/3 of flour and all of the buttermilk, then 1/3 of flour and the Amaretto, beating well after each addition. Add remaining flour; mix until smooth. Stir in almonds. Line regular or mini muffin cups with baking papers. Fill each 2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool In pans for 5 minutes. Remove and cool completely before frosting. Yield: 24 regular or 48 mini cupcakes. Amaretto Butter Frosting 3 cups confectioners' sugar 1/4 cup butter or margarine; melted 3 to 4 tablespoons whipping cream 2 to 3 tablespoons Amaretto In a small mixing bowl, beat confectioners' sugar and butter. Add whipping cream and Amaretto; beat until smooth. Add remaining cream and Amaretto if needed to achieve spreading consistency. Yield: frosts 24 regular cupcakes good luck on that job, I know they'll love it all. Be sure to come back and let us know what you decided and how it went! Annie

Wow! I love the recipes. I was searching for truffle recipes and these are great. My daughter and I are thinking about starting a small chocolate candy biz and are looking for ideas. Here is a great quick recipe we use. Crush 1 package of Oreo cookies in the food processer. Soften 1 8 oz package of cream cheese and add to cookies. Roll into balls and refrigerate for about an hour. Temper milk or dark chocolate and dip. Let cool and keep stored in refrigerator. They can also be rolled in cocoa, powdered sugar,chopped nuts,coconut, etc.

I am most definitely going to make those! Thanks, Pesky. Oh, and the almond bark-do you just crush it up? Sorry, I am not much of a baker/candy maker and quite stupid about the whole thing except for the basic cookies like Toll House, peanut butter, and old fashioned roll-out sugar cookies Grandma used to make. :)

Thanks, all, for the compliments and good wishes! Jude, I should have just taken more pictures! The folks who were asked to take pix of the food and people --well, either they were blurry, or they were of the people! No problem, but it would have been nice to show the entire table array of food and flower bouquets! I used a balsamic recipe from lex culinaria, but for this dish, I deliberately left out the ketchup and the salt (many folks in our age group have high blood pressure so reducing or eliminating any extra sodium is good). Here's the recipe in case you don't have it. It's wonderful!!! Balsamic Salad Dressing from lex Culinaria 1 cup olive oil (or parmesan infused olive oil) ⨠1/2 cup balsamic vinegar ⨠6 tablespoons good quality grated parmesan cheese ⨠1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce ⨠1 tablespoon lemon juice ⨠2 tablespoons sugar ⨠1/2 teaspoon paprika ⨠1/2 teaspoon dry mustard ⨠6 whole cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp. garlic powder) ⨠2 tablespoons ketchup (can use a little more to make it thicker) ⨠1 + 1/2 teaspoons salt ⨠Mix everything in a jar and shake. Enjoy !!! :O) Sooz, retired one week!!!!