The cakeball post

I have an obsession. Cakeballs.


Cakeballs were made famous by Bakerella, and she does some pretty incredible things with them. 

My obsession started when I made cakeballs after reading about them for a party back in January, and after that I started obsessing just a little bit. I wanted to figure out how to make them look better. So then we got a lot of snow, and I spent a lot of time in my apartment by myself. That's when I went a little nuts and made some heart-shaped ones and took them to an Olympics party. (I will confess that there was a failed attempt to make Olympic rings.) And after that it was all downhill. Anytime an invitation comes up, I start to calculate if I have time to make cakeballs and what I can try when making them. And I may not have anything to make for dinner, but I always have everything I need to make cakeballs.

What makes this slightly crazy is that it’s not so much that I love eating the cakeballs, although they are very good. But I enjoy the process of actually making them and then getting to share them with friends.
 
Here’s the progression of my cakeball-making ability:

(The photo at the bottom right were the ones I made for the party.)

I am definitely still a beginner in this (go here from some really impressive ones), but I’ll share the recipe here.

What you need:

• Cake (Bake a 9x13 cake from a box mix and let it cool. Red velvet tends to be the crowd favorite, but I’ve also made devil’s food cake.)
• Can of cream cheese icing
• Melting chocolate or candy melts

1. Once your cake has cooled, crumble it. I use my food processor for this part (I only do a couple of pulses and about a fourth of the cake at a time), but a fork also works.
2. Mix the crumbled cake with 3/4 a can of cream cheese icing or enough to make the crumbled cake stick together. You want to mix in the icing completely, so there is no white left.
3. Roll the cake into balls or you can use a small cookie cutter to make shapes.
4. Let the rolled balls chill in the refrigerator or freezer. You want them to keep their shape when they go in the melting chocolate.
5. Once the balls have chilled, dip them in melting chocolate.  You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.
6. Use a toothpick to go around the ball as the chocolate starts to harden to get rid of the excess chocolate. Sticking the balls on a lollipop stick also limits the collection of chocolate around the ball.

The recipe makes about 60 quarter-size balls, and I’ve found they keep pretty well in the refrigerator.

I’ve made a variation using crushed up mint oreos, mixing them with one package of cream cheese, instead of icing, and then following the same steps. I dipped these in white chocolate and loved the mint/white chocolate combo.

Now you all know my secret and can make them yourself. But I’ll still be happy to bring them to the party because I'm still obsessed. (And Bakerella's forthcoming cookbook is not going to help my obsession.)