16 oz packages cream cheese softened 
  8 oz stick butter softened
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  3 tablespoons brown sugar
  3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
  1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans
  1 cup miniature semisweet chips

Beat softened cream cheese and butter until well blended.  Add brown sugar and confectioners’ sugar and blend until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla extract. Fold in miniature chocolate chips and 1 cup of the chopped pecans.

Place plastic wrap into a small bowl as a liner and add the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate in bowl for at least 3 hours. Flip out the cheese ball onto a plate and press the other 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into the sides of the cheese ball. Serve with animal crackers.

Alternate preparations include pouring caramel sauce over the top or replacing 1/2 the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips . Also goes well with sliced apples, graham crackers or vanilla wafers.

This weekend we drove down to Mobile, Alabama to celebrate our niece, Katie’s, 3rd birthday as well as my mother-in-law’s birthday. The party was decorated for a princess including the cake. My sister-in-law, Stephanie,  made a chocolate and strawberry castle cake. There were three layers of chocolate and one layer of strawberry with the pink icing. 

Stephanie used cupcakes and sugar cones to create four turrets and one with a chocolate tip that all the kids fought over. Strawberry whoppers, strawberry wafers and chocolate icing were used as the door, drawbridge and overall decor. Stephanie had said that she had been watching the Food Network’s great cake challenge and thought “I can do that, no problem”. A few hours into the cake making and she couldn’t figure out how the chefs decorated cakes for hours on end. All on all, the cake was absolutely beautiful and her little girl loved it more than her little mind could articulate. When it came to carve the cake, I had a little tear in my eye knowing how much time and energy went into making this little girl’s birthday wishes come true. When the kids had devoured the cake and ice cream heading off to open gifts, I asked Stephanie where she had gotten the idea.  She said the recipe had come from a cookbook I had given her last year that she made a few adjustment to for her purposes. For some reason I had a moment of pride and gratitude feeling that I in some way had helped although I know that wasn’t the case. Needless to say, the party was extraordinary as all Stephanie and Alex Pate’s parties are. I am just glad Zoey is only one so she won’t think her mommy will be able to create a cake like her Aunt Stephanie.