Thursday, October 22, 2009

Less Fashion, More Cake Balls, Part 1

Last night I stated the two day long process of making cake balls for the Dallas Swap (This Saturday!~ Please see Monday’s post if you are interested, we would love to have you). Cake Balls are kind of like a truffle, but the inside is a mix of cake and frosting.

Let’s begin with proper baking attire…

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The vintage Spice Girls tee is not required, but recommended if available. We ordered this back in 1999, in our first year of marriage, from a catalog. It was $24.99, which was an outrageous amount for us to pay for a tee shirt back then, because we were living off my work study money, but even then I was very devoted to my pop groups. I remember thinking that this was a “fitted” tee. Isn’t that crazy?

The vintage apron was my grandmothers. I love aprons.

I gathered my materials…

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Basically, I went with a sort of hybrid of two recipes. But they all start with just a cake. Any cake. I went with boxed cake mixes. I used one strawberry and one carrot cake. My pictures are all of the strawberry cake.

I don’t have a mixer. Well, I will now. My hand mixer, which is an endless source of amusement for my friends has always been fine. But last night it sort of gave up on me during the carrot cake. Which means I need to replace it and I think I will go with a hand held electric this time. I so do not need a big ol mixer like most people have, since I almost never bake. But here it is, one last time for all you kids, my hand mixer…

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So you make the cake the same as always. And then you let it cool. I let the cakes cool for about an hour. This way they were still a bit warm, which comes in handy in a bit. After you let them cool, you crumble them up into cake crumbs.

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To the cake crumbs, you add one jar of frosting. It helped for them to be warm, which made the frosting stir in easier, I think. I used strawberry for the strawberry cake and cream cheese for the carrot cake, which is not terribly creative, I know, but like I said, I don’t bake.

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Just stir it all up.

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Now that mixture goes into the fridge. We (Nathan and I) let it sit about an hour and a half.
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Then we ran our finger along the frosting jar to make sure we didn’t miss any, and we licked that sucker clean.

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P. Bitty helped.

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Once the mixture is firm and cold, scoop out melon baller sized pieces and ball them up, just like a meatball. In fact, the mixture itself looks like meat. So did the carrot cake mixture.

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Once we had balled up all the mix, we put it back in the fridge. We let it sit overnight and at noon today Nathan will move it to the freezer so it will be nice and cold for the next step, which is when we coat them with melted chocolate for the hard outer shells. Stay tuned!

20 comments:

Kendra said...

Wow! I have seen these sold, but never thought to make them myself. I am more of a cook than a baker as well, but I would love to try these and bring them to work for the next office birthday.

Also, I love the T. I have been thinking of buying a King's of Leon T.

Lastly, your dog is freaking aodrable!! You should let him show up on the blog more often!

Anonymous said...

These look YUMMY already!! I want to just grab one right off the baking sheet. I have never heard of cake balls, but I really want to make them now. Can't wait to see the final results! :)

xoxo
Amy
thebargainhunterextraordinaire.blogspot.com

Jasie VanGesen said...

Yay! cake balls!!

http://www.bytheseatofourpants.com/2009/06/dude-theyre-like-balls-balls-of-cake.html

These are pretty much my favorite thing on earth to make.

Anonymous said...

I have made the same kind of deal before, but with Oreos and cheese cheese filling (Oreo truffles, we call 'em). Cake sounds way fun, I think I'm going to try it soon!

Unknown said...

I'm going to have to try these :)

K said...

My stomach is growling now! I've never had those but they look so so yummy.

Kelly said...

Jealous! The one and only time I tried to make cake balls, they did not turn out so hot.

I love your hand mixer, my mom had one when I was growing up but somehow it has slipped my mind for the past few years!

Oh, and your baking attire is fantastic ;-)

Linda said...

Hi! Can you please fedex me some? I'm sure there are strict rules on fedexing perishible food items but I care not! Thanks!
Fatty McCakeeater.

Goober said...

Yummy, yummy, yummy. I can't wait to see the finished product.

A said...

Wow, I would die for carrot cake balls!!

I LOVE your vintage SG shirt! I can't believe that was "fitted". Ah ha ha. The apron is adorable! Before I paged down to see the whole picture, it looked like your apron was pants and they were pulled up too high and were really baggy I was wondering what the heck was going on! It's much cuter once you see the full picture.

myedit said...

I shouldn't be reading this right before dinner...
These would make any clothing swap worthwhile.

C said...

Oh. em. gee. SPICE GIRLS T-SHIRT!! I'm so jealous.

Lorena said...

i am totally new to cake balls.... really... wow... i cant wait to see the final results.

Jodie said...

Best baking idea ever and I imagine it might work ok with pre bought cakes (I'm lazy)?

Boutique Girl said...

Oh, oh, oh! I am going to have to try and make these! They look amazing! I can not wait for the next installment!!

Jess said...

Totally rockin' t-shirt!

I have never had cake balls, but they look like they can be nothing other than delicious.

Eyeliah said...

cute spice girls tee! I say fashionable.

Tina said...

I WANT THAT APRON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Cake balls? Couldn't they find some other part of the cake to eat?

Danielle said...

Oh yes, I will be making these! No frosting mess like with cake or the revived fave cupcake!

Spice Girls t-shirt also could be worn if you make Spice Cake cake balls. I thought that's what this recipe was going to be! : )