Cakeballs III

Well, here we go again....Cakeballs III. I had to try these again after my hasty words night before last. If you remember, I was really "down" on the concept until I ran into a friend in the hall at school and she set me straight! I was using the wrong ingredients for the treats. So after work, I trudged to the grocery store and bought the following:

1. Carrot Cake Mix

2. 8 oz. Cream Cheese (replaced the icing in the first try)

3. Pecan pieces (instead of sprinkles)

Here are the adjustments from the first Cakeball fiasco. Read about Cakeball I here.

I followed the directions on the cake mix and baked the cake in a 9x13 pan. I let the cake cool slightly and then I really "crumbed" it up...last time, I had big lumps of cake which led to lumpy cakeballs.

This time around, my crumbs were very fine. And this time, instead of using canned icing as the binding agent, I used cream cheese. I wore gloves and really worked the cream cheese into the cake crumbs. The result was a play dough-like consistency rather than a dry ball. I rolled the dough into nice neat balls. Also this time I used all the cake except the pieces around the edge which were a little dry. Last time I only used 3/4 of the cake.

Into the freezer they went.

After about an hour, I skipped the sucker sticks and dipped the ball directly into melted almond bark. This time they looked more like truffles. When the bark hit the frozen ball it hardened quickly...that's fine if you aren't adding anything decorative to the top, but if you want to add sprinkles or pecans, you must work quickly.

Look, how pretty. And the taste, you ask? OH, MY!!!

WONDERFUL!!

As a side note: I hate to have to admit that I took the strawberry Cakeballs to work today. My two male library workers will eat almost anything (except pecans) and so I figured I could get rid of the overly sweet treats quickly...which BTW I did! Most people who tried them really liked them...maybe I'm losing my sweet tooth in my old age, I don't know, but they were just too sweet for me.

Now today's result.

Not only are they delicious, they are pretty. Think of the possibilities! Red velvet cake, spice, pumpkin, white with tinted bark....I will not sleep tonight thinking about it.


Why O Why did I jump to conclusions?!! This proves something my daddy has always told me, "If you want to do something WELL, go to an expert for advice!" Why invent the wheel, really?! Thank you, Nichole for setting me straight! I admit it, I'm eating my words....better yet, I'm eating a cakeball in your expert honor right now!!!

May all your cakeballs taste like truffles,

Cakeballs Revisited

As I was pontificating on the negatives of cakeballs yesterday, I ran into a friend who enjoys entertaining and decorating as much as I do. "Oh, I've found something you must NOT try!" I implored. "They are called cakeballs...oh, hahahaha, they are just awful...blah, blah, blah!" She exclaimed, "No! I love them! I made them this fall and at Christmas and they were wonderful!"

"Surely you jest," I retorted.

And here is why hers were wonderful and mine were not...she used cream cheese instead of icing to hold the concoction together! When the balls were dipped into the white chocolate, she had a nice melding of flavors instead of the overpowering sweetness I encountered. She used a pumpkin cake mix with the cream cheese mixed in and dipped in white chocolate and red velvet cake with the same cream cheese introduced and then dipped. Well, duh!! That makes sense.

So before we all summarily dismiss these maligned little treats, I will try them again and report back to you! It's the least I can do after almost ruining their collective reputations on the blog.

I'm not afraid to say I MAY have made a mistake,

Cakeballs, Anyone?

Ok, sometimes I find myself ahead of the curve and many times I am behind the times...but cake balls?! I don't know. I kept hearing about them and so I did some research and found that they are trying their best to usurp the cupcake as the "new OLD treat". So I decided to try them myself. Here is my unbiased opinion.

I gathered my ingredients (strawberry everything for "you know who".) He did the shopping and did pretty well considering his penchant for not using a cell phone and buying all types of weird stuff when he's not sure what specific ingredient to purchase. Read here for the Green Bean episode! Notice only TWO types of sprinkles were purchased! Yay!

Bake the cake according to package decorations (or use slices of a bought iced cake). Let the baked cake cool slightly and crumble. I used a 9x13 pan and only used this much of the cake.

I kept this much and iced it because I KNEW "the hub" would thumb his nose at anything called "cake balls" and sure enough his response was, "What's wrong with a slice of cake?" Really?! Do I know him well or what?

Now, put the crumbled cake in a mixing bowl and add about 1/3 of the can of icing and mix with the mixer. That's right, just mix it in with the crumbles. Roll the mixture into balls...size? Beats me...I just made them larger than a Tootsie Pop.

Next, put them on a cookie sheet and freeze them for about 30 minutes or
so. This is a sticky job. 3/4 of the cake makes this many cake balls.
When they come out of the freezer push in a sucker stick (get them at Wal Mart) and dip in melted candy coating.




Make sure you coat right up to the stick. Why you ask? Because everybody said that and so I did it and I think you should, too. Who knows what may happen if you don't!

You must dip and sugar with sprinkles one at a time because the coating cools quickly when it comes in contact with the frozen cake. You can see that my blue sprinkles didn't adhere well because I took too long dipping. Let the sprinkled concoction harden on the cookie sheet.

Next, you will have to figure out how to "present" them...on a cake plate?


In a candletree? I don't know..here you'd have to reach in and pull them headfirst out of the cup. Sort of messy, if you ask me.

Then I got fed up with all the dipping and sprinkling, so I decided to add a little melted coating on top and be done with it...sounds good in theory, but when they begin thawing they become very sticky and messy. (They also look a little like meatballs...ugh.

Sometimes when I try new stuff like "cakeballs", I wonder "Why on earth did I try that?" and then I remember that Edison made tons of errors before he finally hit it right with the light bulb and Bell with the telephone. (Not that my cakeballs will lead to anything earth shattering like world peace or lower gasoline prices!) I've decided to stick with the original intent of cake and make it, ice it and yes, like "you know who", eat it in slices!!

May all your cakes be iced properly,