What I'm Cooking: Cake Balls...A Love Affair

Several months ago Fefe's introduced me to some cake balls her sister had made and it truly was --- love at first bite!!!  They are cake and icing encapsulated in a chocolate-y coating.  The hardened coat of chocolate locks in the moisture and it is just heavenly.  Since then, we have been engaging in this secret romance.  Our paths cross occasionally and I can't get enough.  They are one of few guilty pleasures I indulge in while on my fairly restrictive eating regiment.  I had been contemplating taking a stab at making my own ooey, gooey, oh-so delectable cake balls after gaining some tips on the web.  Sounded simple enough.  I had all the ingredients already so when a girls' "catch up" luncheon was on the agenda, I thought that this would be great opportunity to flex my housewife-in-training muscles. 

Here's what I came up with:

Not the prettiest things but I'll tell you why when you read on....

Let me start at the very beginning....

1) Take a box of store bought cake mix and cook it as directed.

2) Once cake is fully baked, crumble completely in a mixing bowl and let it cool to room temperature.

3) Mix the crumbled cake with 3/4 can of store-bought icing (I chose Cream Cheese flavored).  I used the whole can which I think was just too much.  I used an electric beater on low to stir and mix evenly. 

4) Set the icing-cake mixture in the freezer for at least 1 hour to let firm up.

5) Take the mix out of the freezer and roll into balls, placing them on wax paper over a cookie tray .  I made them about the size of a medium meatball.  I then stuck the tray and cake balls back in the freezer  and left them there overnight.

6) When I came back to them, they were firm but not rock hard which was perfect for sticking a toothpick in to dip in the dark chocolate.

7) I brought water to a boil in a pot.  Then, I put the dark chocolate in a glass bowl and reduced the temp.  The chocolate needed constant stirring and attention but started to melt fairly quickly.  I made the mistake of adding splashes of soy milk to soften the chocolate up.  This led to the chocolate not re-hardening to it's original state, therefore, they turned out more like goo balls than the bon-bon like cake balls i've tried.  Lesson learned!  I also ended up using a large pot of water than pictured below but you get the point.

8) I topped half the cake balls with a generous sprinkling of Trader Joe's English Toffee (a gift from my Mama) that I used a hammer to crush up and left the other half plain.  Once they were all coated in chocolate, I set them back in the freezer until they were ready to go. 

 

They didn't transfer to the glass dish well

So it wasn't a total disaster but I made some amateur mistakes.  I kept referring to them as poo balls which luckily didn't detour people from eating them.  They were even more squishy after sitting out on a counter for a few hours.  Definitely, don't add milk to the chocolate. 

The next time around, I am going to use less icing and of course, no milk.  I'm also going to be more adventurous with the cake, icing and coating flavors.  These are wonderful for luncheons, bridal showers, gifts, etc.  Stay tuned for Cake Balls...A Love Affair 2!!!

If you've tried these before, what flavors did you use?