Cake Balls

This past Sunday, I had a little mishap while driving to my cooking class to learn the techniques on how to decorate cupcakes and make cake balls. As I was driving to my class I heard my car started making unfamiliar loud noises. I thought perhaps I had a flat tire.  Being cautious, I pulled over on 85 South going towards Buckhead. I was so relieved that it was a Sunday and not Monday morning otherwise traffic would have been a nightmare.  Fortunately, after checking my car, I did not have a flat. I got back into my car and continued driving. Darn it! There's that noise again.  Since I was pretty close to my destination, I kept driving until I made it there.

Once I had parked the car, I got out and did an inspection.  I could smell the strong scent of burnt rubber and also saw the water leaking from the A/C (I think). After further investigation, I saw a piece of black plastic that covers the bottom of the car hanging underneath the hood.  Aha! The noise that was coming from my car the car as well as the awful smell was from the plastic rubbing against the road. Happy to say after calling my husband Jonathan, all I have to do is replace the cover underneath the hood. Hooray!

Despite the incident, I'm happy that I was able to learn how make these delicious little cake balls.  I wanted to share them with you. By the way, they were a hit with my friends, sisters,  and of course, my Jonathan. I can't wait for you to try them.

Before starting, have your favorite flavored cake baked, cooled, and ready. The recipe below is for cream cheese icing and dipping. The directions will walk you through how to put everything together.

Cake Balls

Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins

Prep: 1 hour

Cook: 15 mins

Yield: Up to 35 cake balls

Level: Middle

Ingredients: 

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, brought to room temperature
• 1 sticks unsalted butter (8 tablespoons), brought to room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

• The following ingredients will be used for dipping the cake balls into and will make 1/2 white chocolate and 1/2 semisweet chocolate. If you prefer one chocolate over the other, then make sure to double the amount of the particular ingredient. 
• 8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons zero-tran fat solid vegetable shortening (1 tablespoon for each 8 ounces of chocolate)

Directions:

1. Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment about 1 minute. Low speed add sugar slowly, then add vanilla extract on high speed until fluffy (set aside).
2. Crumble the cake into fine crumbs, discarding any hard edges. Place the cake crumbs in a large mixing bowl - you should have 4 cups of crumbs. Spoon the icing into the bowl and mix gently with a spatula or very clean hands. Note: You may not need all of the icing depending on the moisture content of the cake crumbs. The crumbs and icing should be evenly mixed, but gently so as not to compact the crumbs anymore than necessary.
3. Using a measuring tablespoon to scoop out the cake mixture for each cake ball, then lightly roll between the palms of your hands to form round balls. The balls should hold their shape well and be solid, but handle gently. Place the cake balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Cover with plastic wrap place in refrigerator until chilled for at least 1 hour.
4. Place the white chocolate and 1 tablespoon of the vegetable shortening in the top of a double boiler; set aside. Fill the bottom portion of the double boiler one-fourth full with hot water; place over high heat and bring to the boil. As soon as the boils, remove the pot from the heat; place the upper portion of the double boiler containing the chocolate on top of the hot water. Stir occasionally while the chocolate and vegetable shortening melt, then stir until smooth.*
5. Remove half of cake balls from the refrigerator. Use a wooded skewer to dip each of these balls into the melted white chocolate. As you dip each, pause, holding the dipped cake ball over the bowl of melted chocolate, allowing any excess chocolate to drip back into bowl.
6. Place the chocolate-coated cake balls onto parchment-lined baking sheet. If the chocolate in the dipping bowl starts to thicken (set) while coating the cake balls, reheat over the double boiler as needed. reserved any remaining melted white chocolate.
7. Use a wooded skewer to dip or roll cake balls into your favorite color sugars.
8. Repeat step 4, 5, and 6 using semisweet chocolate to coat the remaining cake balls.
9. Allow the chocolate to set, then serve or store in an airtight container at a cool room temperature. The cake balls will keep for up to three days. Do Not Refrigerate, or the chocolate will sweat.

Let me know how they turned out. 

Enjoy!

Machana