After making tons of cupcakes, I, not surprisingly, had some leftover frosting. In the kitchen, scraping out the bowl of the enormous mixer in my house, I was torn with what to do with my frosting. Meanwhile, next to me was Scott, one of my housemates and another of the dessert makers for our Special Dinner mentioned in my Coconut Cupcakes post. He was, rapidly, assembling his delicious berry trifle and said offhandedly that he had a lot of cake and didn't know what to do with it. He'd already cut the cake into small squares so simply frosting it was out, and then suddenly an it occurred to me, it was obvious. Extra cake, extra frosting, make cake balls! All I needed was the chocolate for the coating. We were all out of chocolate chips in my house so I hunted around and managed to find some extra bars of Hershey's Dark Chocolate. Perfect. Though the texture was a little bit odd because of the kind of cake I used, I wasn't sure how they would turn out. Much to my surprise, however, the reviews were awesome because according to my roommate, Joanna, “of course they'll be good, they're cake and frosting dipped in chocolate!” Good point.
A note about the recipe, I discovered it last summer when I was on a huge baking spree and decided to make some cake balls with leftover red velvet cake that didn't turn out so well (I over baked it) but in the end, the cake balls were delicious. So my conclusion, cake balls are a perfect and delicious way to correct or recycle a botched cake. Or just fun to make.
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Cake Balls (adapted from Bakerella)
One 13 X 9 cake
16 oz of cream cheese frosting (see the frosting recipe from Coconut Cupcakes)
2 cups of chocolate, separated (milk, white, or dark chocolate)
Parchment paper
Directions
1. Cool cake completely and crumble into a large bowl.
2. Add 16 oz of cream cheese frosting and mix with the cake. (Even though it's messy, it's easier to mix it with your hands)
3. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls (as though you're making meatballs) and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (It should make 45-50 balls)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Using a double boiler, melt enough chocolate to dip half of the balls in chocolate, about a cup. Then, melt more chocolate for the rest of the chocolate balls. (I like to melt it in two batches because the chocolate firms up pretty quickly and it's difficult to work with)
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on cookie tray with parchment paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate)
