Mini Key Lime Cakes

The blessing and curse of Tastefully Simple is that you know just how good the food tastes, and you want to make all of these special treats, and just have to wait patiently for the right occasion to make them.  This was true of the key lime cheese ball mix I'd bought nearly a year ago.  One of the recommended ways to make it was to use it as a topping on Tastefully Simple's almond pound cake, which sounded delicious.  I wanted to make that little treat for a retirement party for one of my employees, but I didn't want to spend an hour prepping individual servings.  My edit was to serve up the different components and let everyone build their own little key lime cake, which worked out wonderfully.

Ingredients

• Key Lime Cheese Ball mix from Tastefully Simple
• Almond Pound Cake mix from Tastefully Simple
• 2 cups or more strawberries, sliced

Directions

1. Prepare cheese ball and cake according to package directions.  Place cheese ball in center of serving platter.
2. Cut cake into cubes, size depending on number of servings you want to have--bigger cubes for a dozen people; bite-size cubes to serve 40 as I did.  Arrange on platter.
3. Slice strawberries and serve with other ingredients.

I recommend writing up a little set of instructions to go with your components so you aren't forever explaining to your guests how they can serve themselves, and what the ingredients are.  A little chalkboard would be perfect for this!  I didn't think of it until I was at work, so I just printed out a little sign that I placed next to the serving platter.

All prepped!  Pound cake in 3 of the serving dishes and strawberries in the fourth, with the cheese ball in the middle.

End of the buffet line!

B.A.C.O. Dip

I made this delicious dip for the first time yesterday, as a pre-Thanksgiving dinner snack.  It was definitely a hit, and the first thing we broke out for the leftover attack at 9 p.m.
Also, I'm proud of the way I renamed it.  Neiman Marcus Dip, while sounding impressive, doesn't really convey a thing about the ingredients: bacon, almonds, cheese, and onions: B.A.C.O.  My name wins.

Ingredients

• 5-6 green onions, snipped into small slices
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups mayonaise
• 3 ounces bacon bits (I used soy Baco bits for my vegetarian guests; I'm sure would be super amazing with real bacon bits!)
• 1 small package slivered almonds (the one in the original recipe looks like it's just 2-3 ounces.  I just portioned out about a half cup of almonds from a bigger bag I had and used extra mayo to reach the consistency I wanted)

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and chill for a couple hours.  
2. Serve with crackers, veggies, or corn chips.

SO EASY!  Perfect for busy holiday events.