Thursday, July 31, 2008

Recipe: Cake Balls

I felt like doing something a little different this week, so I made cake balls instead of cupcakes. This is the first time I've made them, and they are so delicious but extremely sweet.

You can use whatever cake and frosting flavors you like, so be creative! You could flavor the candy melts as well. I kept it simple, using a plain vanilla cake mix, vanilla buttercream frosting and milk chocolate melts. They didn't last long!!

Recipe: Cake Balls

Ingredients:

  • 1 13x9 in cake
  • 2 cups frosting
  • 1 package of candy melts (14oz)

Once the cake has completely cooled, crumble it into a large bowl. The smaller the crumbs, the more consistent the inside of the cake balls will look.

Mix in half of the frosting. Continue to add frosting until the mixture has a smooth consistency.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Roll the cake mixture into 1 1/4" balls and place on the cookie sheet. Place cookie sheet in the fridge for two hours or in the freezer for 30 - 40 minutes to firm up the cake balls.

In a small bowl, melt some of the candy melts by microwaving for 30 seconds and stirring. Repeat until all of the wafers are melted and the consistency is smooth. Line another cookie sheet with wax paper.

One at a time, dip the cake balls in the melted chocolate. Pass back and forth between two spoons to let any additional coating to run off and place on the new cookie sheet. When the melted chocolate starts to get low, add more melts and microwave an additional 30 seconds. Once all of the cake balls are coated, refrigerate until the coating has completely hardened.

Makes 45 to 50 cake balls.

Decorations: Cake balls can be decorated by adding sprinkles (candy sprinkles, toasted shredded coconut, nonpareils, cookie crumbs, etc.) after coating each one but before they have completely hardened, or by drizzling a contrasting colour of candy melt on the tops of the cake balls.

Enjoy!!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your recipes always sound so delicious and your bentos are always beautiful. Love reading your blog.

Jacki said...

I'm glad you like my blog! I like to keep a blog because it forces me to be more creative and keep coming up with new ideas. Do you bento?

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of such a thing! Sounds interesting. Do the cake balls melt after they are done or do you have to keep them refrigerated? Could you pack them in a bento or would they be a mess by lunch time?

Jacki said...

Hi Toni! The nice thing about the candy melts is that once you melt them, they go back to be being solid when they reach room temperature. I find that with melted chocolate chips, for example, they stay gooey.

So you can leave these out on the counter once they've hardened, although I prefer to refrigerate them.

The ones I made didn't last long enough to make it to a bento, but I think that would work just fine, although I would probably put them in a foil cup like I do with most chocolates, just to be safe.

Anonymous said...

I just read the whole post about them at Bakerella. So cute. So many options.

I am about to start making bentos for my daughter when she starts school in a couple of weeks and I am on the hunt for small little bites that I could throw in there. Cupcakes seems like too much dessert for a 5-year-old's lunch, but these would be perfect once or twice a week.

I wonder how they would do in the freezer. Like if I made a big batch and then froze a couple dozen so they were already to go and just let them thaw in the lunch? I might have to test that theory out...

Thanks for the good idea! Your bentos look so flavorful and fresh. Pretty, but without being kitschy.

Jacki said...

For bento desserts I like anything that fits in a mini cupcake cup (including mini cupcakes!). It's easy to make a batch of squares and cut a few rows into 1" squares and freeze them and just grab one when you make a bento. Date squares, nanaimo bars and baklava all work great for that. Let me know if you try freezing the cake balls, I would love to know how well it works.

Kudos for making your daughter bento lunches! I think it's great that you're getting her off to a good start with healthy lunches rather than all the processed stuff out there.