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| Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, dipped in melted Ghirardelli 60% cacoa bittersweet chocolate chips, and decorated with red cookie frosting hearts |
I've been hearing a lot about these treats lately, made popular by Bakerella. They're genius, really. I love cake, and I get really frustrated when I go to turn it out of the pan, and it breaks. It's a waste of a perfectly tasty cake to throw it out, but I've tried "gluing" it back together with frosting, and it never quite turns out well. These little treats are a great way to put that broken cake to use.
My company's annual Valentine's Day Chocolate Buffet was the perfect opportunity to try my hand, since I didn't want to lug a full-size, decorated cake along for my commute.
The flavor combinations are endless, and these can be decorated for any occasion. They're the next generation of the petit fours!
Cake Balls
Source: AllRecipes.com
Ingredients
- one (18 ¼ ounce) box cake mix of your choice
- one (16 ounce) tub frosting of your choice
- one (12 ounce) bag bittersweet chocolate chips
- one teaspoon shortening
Directions
- Bake cake according to package directions.
- Allow to cool in the pan for ten minutes, then remove to baking rack, and cool another twenty minutes.
- Crumble cake into a mixing bowl, in fine pieces (no large clumps).
- Soften frosting in the microwave (about 20 seconds on high).
- Using hands, or a mixer on low speed, combine cake crumbs and frosting.
- Cover bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate four hours or overnight.
- Using a ⅜-ounce disher (size 100), scoop out cake mixture, and using your hands, roll into a ball. Use food-grade latex gloves, if desired. If not, expect to get messy.
- Place rolled balls onto wax- or parchment-paper covered cookie sheet. Once all balls are rolled, place cookie sheet in the freezer. Freeze at least 1 hour.
- Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil. Turn off the heat. Place chocolate chips and shortening in a clean, dry metal bowl, and place over pot of water. Stir until melted.
- Using dipping tools, or two forks, drop balls into chocolate, and coat. Remove, tapping tools to remove excess chocolate, and place back onto cold cookie sheet.
- Continue dipping all the balls, re-freezing the un-dipped balls (and the cookie sheet) if necessary (this helps to make the chocolate harden faster).
- At this point, the balls are done, but you can decorate them if you wish. Drizzle with melted white chocolate, decorate with sugar flowers - the possibilities are endless.