Cake Balls!

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

1. Bake cake according to package directions.
2. Allow to cool in the pan for ten minutes, then remove to baking rack, and cool another twenty minutes.
3. Crumble cake into a mixing bowl, in fine pieces (no large clumps).
4. Soften frosting in the microwave (about 20 seconds on high).
5. Using hands, or a mixer on low speed, combine cake crumbs and frosting.
6. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate four hours or overnight.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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).
12. 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.