Cake Truffles

I heard about these fantastic little delights while visiting in Dallas last month in a newspaper article and just had to try them and share them with you. I was surprised how easy they are to make and how scrumptious they are!

Cake balls are made by combining crumbled baked cake with frosting, rolling the mixture into balls, and covering the balls with confectionery coating to give the bite-size desserts a glossy, crisp exterior. VALERIE JARVIE

If you're a coupon clipper, sometimes you can find a coupon from time to time for both the cake mix and frosting...
Ingredients:
1 box cake mix, any flavor (I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla )
1 container of ready to use frosting (16 oz.), any flavor (I used cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate for coating the truffles, any type. It's best to use almond/chocolate bark as it is made specifically for coating candy. (I used just a little more than 1 lb. of white Ghiradelli chocolate and added some shaved Gulf wax. This really helps it to set up quickly and stand up to handling)

Directions:
1. Bake cake as directed on box. Allow to cool completely. I colored mine a beautiful purple because we are making a few hundred of these for a wedding in July, and this is one of their colors.
2. Crumble cake finely, I used my hand mixer.
3. Stir in frosting, at room temperature, until well distributed through cake crumbs. Put this mixture in the fridge for 2 hours. This will help it to set up and make it easier to roll into balls.
4. Shape cake into small balls, about 1" in diameter (I made mine similar to the size of Lindt truffle balls). Place balls on a cookie sheet and chill for 6 hours in the freezer (I did mine overnight). You can free these ahead of time in an airtight container (freezer ziploc bags) until ready to use if you need to make a lot of these.

5. Melt chocolate in the microwave a couple of ounces at a time. I highly suggest using good quality chocolate, and if you can find it, use chocolate bark, which is best for candy coating. The most important thing about melting the chocolate is not to burn it.Make sure your bowls and spoons are dry. Use 50% power in your microwave, and do about 15 seconds at a time, microwaving about 2 ounces at a time in a heat-proof bowl. ** Note that since the cake balls were frozen, they will be very cold and will cause the chocolate to harden very fast. So work quickly as you are dipping and rotating the balls, otherwise the chocolate on your spoons will start to get stiff. I I used a cake tester, but have found that by using 5" long Doll Needles to finely pierce one ball at a time, dip the frozen cake balls into the chocolate to coat, and gently place them on the wax paper to allow to set.  I try to keep a cup of very warm water close by to put the needles in while not using them or in between truffle dipping.  the warmth helps the truffle to slide off more easily.


You'll need to put a dot of coating that you use on the spot where you pierced the truffle ball or the mixture will seep out and look yuck! Try to do this immediately after you dip each ball and the coating is still wet. You have to do this quickly.

If you want to put a design on the top, place some of the coating, in a coordinating color, in a ziploc freezer bag or a icing bag, made specifically for use with icing. You'll need to keep it warm to keep it from getting hard. I left this for last so I could do as many as possible at a time.
6.You can store your Cake Ball Pops in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Keep in mind if you store them in the fridge, you may have condensation issues when you remove them. Trust me....they will stay fresh for up to about 7 days if you hide them in a nice cool corner of your kitchen.

• Can be kept for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator

Variety is as large as your imagination, almost any cake and frosting will work. The real thrill is in combining flavors and colors for distinctive results. Jill at Simple Daily Recipes

WHEN IT COMES TO COLORING CHOCOLATE, USE AN OIL BASED FOOD COLORING.
That little 4 pack of food coloring you find in the spice section of your grocer is water based and WILL cause chocolate to seize up. That's not good.
You can easily find oil based food coloring on the baking aisle of major craft stores, online, or specialty food shops. But don't misunderstand me, it's not a "specialty" item. Everybody knows the name Wilton for decorative baking tools, Wilton makes oil based food coloring.

Just so it's very clear, I did not create this recipe. I heard about it while visiting in Dallas, lived through it, photographed it and now, I'm passing it to you. The suggested list of flavors are from the paper, not me.

Devil's food cake with fudge icing and dark chocolate coating.

Yellow Cake with buttercream frosting and orange-colored vanilla coating with green and black accents.

White cake with white frosting mixed with orange and yellow sprinkles and chocolate coating.

German chocolate cake with coconut-pecan icing and milk chocolate or light cocoa flavored coating.

Spice or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and vanilla coating.

Lemon cake with lemon frosting and vanilla frosting.

Chocolate Cake with vanilla frosting and mint-flavored coating with tinted green.

Lucy from Edible Memories made these fantastically beautiful truffles