I’ve been fascinated by the whole idea of cake balls since my friend, Fran, made them for a gathering a couple of years ago. I finally decided I would try to make them when I read the recent posts on The Pioneer Woman’s cooking blog. She hosted the uber-baker,Bakerella, along with several other ladies, to a day at her place where they made scrumptious cupcakes and an assortment of cake balls.
Here’s a short retelling of my attempt to make cake balls.
1. Bake a Red Velvet cake. Mine came from a box because I didn’t want to fool with getting out every ingredient to make it from scratch.
2. Let it cool and crumble it up into a large bowl.
3. Add nearly 1 tub of icing. Mix well, and roll into balls. I used my small scoop, then after chilling for 20 minutes rolled them into balls. (And this picture, by the way, demonstrates why I selected this new refrigerator/freezer – it will hold a large baking sheet.)
4. Yum. Cake balls. I returned them to the freezer for two hours in order to firm up for the coating process.
During that two hour wait, I played with my 50mm lens, trying to figure out the depth of field. I stayed in the same spot, and focused on my dog’s tail, front leg, and then his nose. Then he gave me the look that said, “Mom, will you please knock it off.”
And I did.
Then came the tedious part of trying to coat the little cake balls. This was NOT an easy task. I tried using the melted candies that Bakerella used, but they came out looking like a big gloppy mess. Not pretty, and it certainly didn’t look like good eats.
So, I decided to call Fran and ask her what she used to coat them, because the gloppiness was just plain ugly. She let me know she used a chocolate bark, a hand full of chocolate chips, and a smidge of shortening to thin the melted mixture. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of this, because if I had tried to take pictures my camera would surely be covered in chocolate this very moment. Getting the little suckers coated was a chore. Drop a ball into the melted mixture, fish it out with a fork, let the excess coating drain off, move cake ball from fork to baking sheet without messing it up.
Once they rested for a moment, and the coating firmed up, I used a small ziploc with a snipped corner to pipe initials and designs on them. That was the part I truly enjoyed. As for the whole of it, this was a messy recipe, and I am not a big fan of mess – so this might be the last time I make cake balls. However, I am glad I tried it. They did turn out fabulous.
I’m linking this post to Blessed with Grace‘s Tempt My Tummy Tuesday post.
I made them and had trouble dipping them…BUT then I did some on lollipop sticks and they were a ton easier than trying to get the balls off of the fork. They looked nicer as well. There must be a trick to getting them off of the fork without sticking although I don’t know it. I used the candy melts and a Wilton Chocolate melter.
Oh, I made these during the Christmas holidays. They were a hit but I agree they were very messy.
These look like the kind of treat I would enjoy if someone else made them for me!
i want to try this, although it will be hard because i have ocd/perfectionistic tendencies!
i may try using sticks to dip then standing sticks up in styrofoam. what do you think?
it all looks yummy!
The cake balls sound great. Thanks for sharing your recipe and linking up to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.
I want to try these too– I dip candies at Christmastime, and this is quite similar. I usually use tongs–they work better. I’m just not too picky.
These cake balls look absolutely delicious. I am definitely going to try these. I am not a fan of mess either, but I am willing to try everything once. Thank you for the information.
you are much braver than me! they turned out great looking!