My cake ball experience- with tips

You may have heard of cake balls, a sweet treat which is basically a chocolate covered ball of cake.  They have become increasingly popular from sites like Bakerella. Cake ball companies are popping up all over the country as these yummy little balls find their way into our tummies.

For Valentine’s Day I wanted to make my darling something special and that he could take home on the plane without much problem.  So, I made cake balls and they were a huge success!  Sweetie loved them and I did too.

My finished cake balls, ready to be eaten

In case you are thinking about making these yummy treats, I’ll share a bit about my experience to help you along.

First, the basic recipe for cake balls:

1. Make a cake- any kind!

2. Smash the cake into crumbs

3. Add a tub of icing (again, any kind, think of all the possibilities!) and mix together

4. Roll mixture into little balls and refrigerate for a bit

5. Cover balls in chocolate (I used Kroger “bark coating” which is what most people have used with great success.  Any candy coating will do)

6. Let chocolate cool and enjoy!

So now about my experience:

These were the most complicated thing I have ever made! I am a novice baker, by far, but in all my experience of cooking and baking, this was the most complicated thing.  It wasn’t difficult, but just complicated.  Making a cake is hard enough, but then smashing it to bits, mixing it with icing, rolling it into little balls (probably the hardest part) and then dipping that in chocolate (second hardest part) was a lot.  Rolling it into the little balls was hard because the mixture was sticky.  I tried an ice cream scoop, but it didn’t help. Rolling it by hard worked out, but my hands got really sticky.

Cake balls are definitely worth it and I plan on making them again!  Just plan a lot of time aside for making them.

Plus it made making baklava seem a lot easier after making cake balls

Use a boxed cake mix and one regular cake pan (not Bundt) I love baking and therefore thought I could make my own cake for the balls and it would turn out even better than a box.  I was wrong! I tried to make my own red velvet cake which tasted pretty good, but the consistency just did not work for forming into balls.  Plus I used a Bundt pan which added all sorts of edges that did not want to form crumbs. I read something about Bundts not being big enough too, so I got paranoid and used two pans.  Another bad idea which just itnroduced more hard edges to the mix.  I had to throw these guys into the trash which made me sad, but I was determined to have something great for my sweetie!

Here are some pics of my red velvet cake ball fail:

How not to make cake balls, no Bundt pan, use a boxed cake and only use one pan!

See the remnants of the Bundt pan? That does not want to become crumbs!

The correct way to make cake balls! Use a boxed cake mix and one rectangular pan

If you have one, use a pastry blender to make the cake crumbly. Just make sure it is super crumbly! A tip I got from another website.  I think some people used their food processors too.  This is definitely the most fun part!  But part of me feels morally wrong smashing up a cake.

It was fun though

My pastry blender in action! Thanks Matt for the Christmas present

To let the cake cool or not to cool? Online there is such mixed feedback on this from different bakers.  I think the cake is easier to crumble when cool, but the icing does mix in better when slightly warm.  When I crumbled it and added icing it was only mildly warm, plus I used whipped icing, which might have helped.  Some bakers have warmed the icing and added it to a cool cake.  The choice is yours

I used whipped icing, just because it's what I had. I think it helped in mixing it together though

Ball forming tips? I don’t really have any. Just have patience and enjoy licking the crumbs off your hands when you are done because there will be a lot there!  I did try the ice cream scoop, but it wasn’t making it “ball-like” enough for me, although some bakers have had success from this.  One baker on All Recipes recommended keeping your hands moist and having a bowl of water to dip them in helped.  Next time I’ll try it!

Refrigerate or freeze the balls before dipping them in chocolate: It will make a difference in helping the balls stay together when dipped in chocolate.  I read that from another website and I think it really helped.  When I rolled the balls I thought, “There is no way these will hold up in melted chocolate”.  I had them in the fridge 1-2 hours, more wouldn’t hurt too.

Putting them in the fridge helped firm them up to go in the chocolate. (I'm glad the coffee creamer is there to keep them company, they could get lonely!)

Chocolate time: This is how I dipped the suckers in chocolate: I chopped up a few bricks of the bark coating and melted them on medium heat on the stovetop in a small saucepan and turned off the heat.  I took a cake ball and rolled fit around in the chocolate pushing it around with a fork, before spooning it out (with the fork, so the excess chocolate dripped down) and placed them on a covered sheet to cool.  This method worked out very well for me, except that I had to work quick with the chocolate (this was also my first time melting chocolate for dipping, so that was an experience itself). Also, I had to google how on earth to get the hard, burnt chocolate out of my saucepan (answer: boil baking powder in it). I melted more chocolate as well needed so the balls were easily rolled around in it, not drowning.

Most people have had problems at this point, but I think my method worked pretty well. Other solutions I saw involved toothpicks and breaking a plastic fork.

Decorating?I told my friend Sarah about my cake ball experience and how good they were and she made them as well.  Her main issue with them was their appearance. I added sprinkles and dark chocolate goo to mine, but I do need to work more on decorating them, so they look like this someday:

This is from the Austin Cake Ball Company, so beautiful!

For now I will be satisfied with mine, after all my sweetie sure was!

Tags: Baking, cake ball, cake ball experience, cake ball fail, cake balls, cake balls tips, call ball tips

This entry was posted on March 15, 2010 at March 15, 2010 and is filed under Baking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.