Friday, February 13, 2009

Cake Balls

A friend told me about cake balls recently so I went online to retrieve a recipe and found this one at http://www.allrecipes.com/. I included tips I found online along with my own in the recipe below to allow for more details and helps along the way. This recipe is very versatile. You can mix and match cake and icing flavors as well as the chocolate coatings. If you want to go the extra mile, cake balls can be rolled in nuts, sprinkles, coconut, etc. or double dipped in white and dark chocolates. I chose strawberry cake mix for Valentine's Day as I wanted the pink center. These were very pretty (pic doesn't do justice), but I'd like to try my favorite cake/frosting flavors in the future. These were yummy desserts/candy and a hit with others, but know they are very sweet! Cake balls are great for parties, showers, bagged for gifts, etc...

Ingredients:
1 package strawberry cake mix (or your choice of flavoring)
1 container prepared vanilla frosting (or your choice of flavoring)
1 11.5 oz package of milk chocolate baking chips (I used Ghirardelli)
1 4 oz bar of white chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

Instructions:
1. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions using any of the recommended pan sizes. When cake is done, crumble while warm into a large bowl, and stir in the frosting until well blended. [I used a 9x13 pan and broke the cake into pieces (after cooling for 30 mins) to get it into my food processor where I blended the frosting with it. The processor was full, but it blended down quickly (pic below). A handmixer should work well, too.]
2. Put this mixture in the refrigerator, covered, for at least 3 hours. (I let them refrigerate for about 6 hrs.)
3. Use a melon baller, small scoop or your hands to form bite size balls of the cake mixture. Place on cookie sheet(s) covered with wax paper. (I used a melon baller to help shape my balls. After doing half of them with this, I realized I still had tons of mix left so I started almost doubling the ball sizes. I made 58 cake balls of various sizes.)
4. Stick the balls in the freezer for an hour (no need to cover).
5. Melt chocolate coating in a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring occassionally until smooth (pic below). If you have an official double boiler, use that.
6. Dip the balls in melted milk chocolate using a toothpick or fork to hold them. (For me, this was the hardest step. The frozen balls tended to hold too much chocolate and not spread evenly without my help of a spoon or brush as the chocolate started to harden quickly. However, if your balls fall off the toothpick into the chocolate, they are not frozen enough. So, I found a small window of time when the balls received the chocolate best. I worked amidst all extremes and coated the balls the best I could with the help of a spoon or brush when needed.
7. Place on wax paper and put in refrigerator to set.
8. Melt white chocolate the same way as milk chocolate.
9. Decorate balls with melted white chocolate. (I used a fork to zig zag designs on the balls. You can be more precise and use a bakers bag and tip.)

More Tips:
* I made 58 cake balls, but did not have enough chocolate to cover about 20 of them. Buy more chocolate or use less. I plan to buy more next time. I had some left over white chocolate from decorating that allowed me to cover some balls.
* If you use the microwave to melt your chocolate, check the chocolate every 15-30 seconds as it will burn very quickly! I recommend the double boiler method for best results.

Cooked strawberry cake and vanilla frosting mixed together in food processor

Cake balls without chocolate coating

Homemade double boiler to melt chocolate. I also melted my white chocolate this way.

Some of the completed cake balls

1 comment:

Clay and J said...

Looks yummy! I wonder if you could freeze some of the cake/frosting mixture and use later? I'll have to try this recipe!