I always like hearing about the newest food trends, and this one is a good one...cake balls! If you are unfamiliar with cake balls, just imagine your favorite cake rolled into a bite-sized ball and then coated with chocolate - much like a truffle, but lighter and airier. One bite is pure heaven!
I was browsing through the summer brochure for the Viking Cooking School when I noticed several Cake Ball class. I also noticed that every single Cake Ball class was sold out! I immediately went online to research this new sweet treat.
These small cake balls are edging out the trendy cupcakes and mini desserts that we eat to satisfy our sweet tooth. How could I be out of the loop on what is hot on the culinary scene? These have been showing up in upscale bakeries around the country for months. They are even offered in the Neiman Marcus catalog (but they are currently sold out)! They also go by the name of "cupcake pops" and "cake pop", when the balls are mounted on a stick. Crafty people are even having 'Cake Ball Parties', where everyone comes with a variety of undecorated cake balls, and then gets creative with the dipping chocolates (you can make many colors with white chocolate and a little food coloring) and colorful sprinkles and toppings.
They are super easy to make. You bake a cake, usually from a mix, but you can bake one from scratch, if you prefer. Crumble it all up, mix up the crumbs with canned frosting, roll it into balls, and dip it in melted chocolate. You can eat the balls with your fingers, or put them on lollipop sticks. Best of all, the varieties you can make, are endless. Red Velvet cake and Cream Cheese frosting, German Chocolate cake and Coconut-Pecan frosting, Lemon cake and Lemon frosting, Strawberry cake and Vanilla frosting. Maybe even a white cake and cream cheese frosting dipped in white chocolate or a Carrot Cake ball.... For my first attempt, I decided to go with Devil's Food cake and Cream Cheese frosting.
As you can see, my cake balls, although they taste decadent, could use some improvement in the "looks" department. I could have easily fixed the presentation of this batch by rolling the balls in some coconut or sprinkles or crushed nuts, but I was lazy, and just wanted to taste them. Plus, I always allow for a 'margin of error' when trying a new recipe for the first time.
To start with, prepare your cake mix according to package directions, in a 9 X 13 pan.
Allow the cake to cool completely. I stuck my cake in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. It was cool enough for the next step in 30 minutes. You could also bake it a day ahead. Like I said, a can of prepared frosting is 100% fine in this recipe. That is what most home cooks use. I had the ingredients for my cream cheese frosting already in the house, and it takes 5 minutes to make, so I just whipped up a batch. Here is the recipe, but feel free to skip this part, and use canned frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. butter, softned
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whip all ingredients together with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.
Back to the Cake Balls: Crumble the entire cake, gently using 2 forks, into a large bowl.
Stir in the frosting with a fork, gently, until well blended. If using a jar of frosting, start with 3/4 of the jar.
I know it doesn't look attractive, but it tastes really good. Only add more frosting if the cake is not binding into a ball.
Set this bowl aside and melt your chocolate in the microwave. You can use chips, or a large bar...whatever you are comfortable working with. Place the chocolate in a glass bowl, and microwave in 40 second intervals, stirring the chocolate after every 40 seconds, until the chocolate is completely melted. If you are using a large bar, like I did, make sure to chop it up into small pieces before melting in the microwave.
Now let's start forming our cake balls. I used a small melon baller. You can use a small cookie dough scoop, or make the balls free hand. The important thing is to have every ball be the size of a walnut. I scooped the mixture from the melon baller into my hand, then rolled it in my hand, and placed it on a cookie sheet. You can line the cookie sheet with waxed paper, parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil.
YUM!!!!
Now stick the balls in the freezer for an hour. It will be much easier to coat them when they are firm.
Using two forks, dip each ball into the melted chocolate, thoroughly coating the entire ball. The forks will let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl. Then, very gently place the coated cake ball back onto your cookie sheet. If you were going to roll your cake balls in sprinkles, or nuts, or some other fun topping, now would be the time to do that.
Another wat to make these balls festive, is to buy a bag of Lollipop Sticks (Michael's sells them for $2). Before coating with the chocolate, stick a lollipop stick into the ball, and then dip in the chocolate. You can get really creative from here, using all sorts of premade cake decorating gels, colored frostings and mini candies. Check out these guys from Bakerella:
I have the perfect idea for 4th of July cake balls! Red Velvet cake, mixed with cream cheese frosting (or a jar of vanilla frosting). Roll the cake balls in white chocolate and sprinkle with red, white and blue sprinkles! Put them on a lollipop stick...they will be so cute! It will look like firecrackers, or sparklers. If anyone makes these, send me a photo! Jamie will be in the hospital on July 4th, so I probably won't get to make them this year :(
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