Caramel Catastrophe

I have no idea if anyone reads this but my experience over the last couple of days needs to be documented so no-body makes this expensive mistake! I needed to make cookies for a function and of course, that being one of my favorite things to do, I always try to put a couple of different recipes to the test. Generally I’m successful because, well, I know cookies. I love to eat them and I love to bake them. A little delight I have made numerous times that are absolutely devour able, are my cake truffles. The original idea was given to me by my friend Debbie Folkerts, she brought home a recipe from a wedding she’d attended, of little chocolate wonders that I adapted and make in all different flavors and bite size yums. Well, knowing Southerners’ penchant for caramel, I decided to try a spicy cake truffle dipped in caramel. It started out wonderful, albeit messy. The finished results were little balls of caramel with a center of soft spice cake that had been enhanced with pear preserves and chai spice tea. At first I put them in candy paper cups but because they were so messy, handling them became a problem so I decided the easiest thing to do was drop them on a foil lined cookie sheet and put them in the cups after they hardened a bit. I sprinkled them with a bit of orange nonpareils and although they took two hours of intense work to get them made, they looked to be a success. WRONG! I got up this morning and the caramel was a melted mess all over my dining room table. I thought it had cooled off enough over the evening that they would set up without refrigeration because putting them in the refrigerator usually just makes them sticky because of the surface moisture. Folks, the humidity really does make a difference when working with candies. I could have cranked my air conditioning way down but even that is no guarantee. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t make fudge.