My Adventure with the Cake Ball

So, I am horrible at baking cakes. Seriously. Even out of the box, they are lop sided, fall apart, crumble, whatever. Well, I love eating the cake ball (and I just ate one of my own!) and you have to be able to crumble a cake to do it, so it sounds like the perfect new dessert to add to my kids parties, holidays, events, etc. After researching at least a dozen recipes, tips, techniques, I set out to experiment with the cake ball.

Thank god I was making cake balls cause my cake seriously broke in half putting it on the cooling rack (see, I told you!). I went with the technique of mixing the cake with the frosting while it was warm. I tried a couple different methods on when and how to make the balls and the best one seemed to be letting the mixture cool in the fridge for a couple of hours and then using your hands to roll the ball. The melon baller is a pain to keep floured and the balls came out too small and took forever to dip. Next time I am going to just scoop a glob out with a spoon and hand roll them, or maybe even an ice cream scoop for some big ones. I did a batch after the cake balls were in the freezer for about 2 hours, and it seemed like they weren't cold enough so I let them freeze all night and they were really easy to work with this morning. I played with four different dipping methods. The whole toothpick method is just annoying, having to go back and fill in the hole, it just doesn't look pretty. I ended up settling on using a chocolate dipping tool I found in my many drawers of random kitchen utensils. It had a circle on the end, making to easy to coat the ball.

It is definitely time consuming, but more because of the waiting. It is really easy though and I am not trying to sell them or anything, but for the occasional treat at home or dessert to a party, there are endless possibilities. This batch definitely was not the prettiest, but are actually really yummy!! I might only use 3/4 of the frosting can next time cause it is a bit overwhelming, but gooey is good.