Cake Balls

First off… HAPPY ST. PATTY’S DAY!!!  Cooper went to daycare today so that he could participate in the holiday festivities and one of “the guys” (that’s what he calls the other little boys at daycare) birthdays.  When we got in the car he said… “Mommy, Robin gave us cake… and it had ICE CREAM in it!!!”
His first ice cream cake…  now that’s a good day.

Now, on to Cake Balls.  I need to give you a little history on this whole cake ball thing.  For the past few months I have been addicted to The Pioneer Woman blog.  From the Pioneer Woman, I learned about Bakerella.

People.

I WANT TO BE BAKERELLA.

I told Otey that I think I’m going to give up this whole photography thing and just be a professional baker.

Do you think I need to learn to bake something that requires more than just adding 1/2 a cup of oil and two eggs to a boxed mix?

Nnnnaaaa….

Anyway… I WANT TO BE BAKERELLA.  This is her cake ball recipe.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not attempt to follow my cruddy instructions.  If you want to make some cake ball treats…. go over to her blog and learn from the pro.

Did I mention I WANT TO BE BAKERELLA?

So… what you need….

Your favorite Cake Mix (yes… from a box).  Mine happens to be Devil’s Food.  Your favorite tub of icing (yes… it doesn’t have to be home made).  Mine is of course, chocolate.  Chocolate Bark or those little melting chocolate like things (I told you that you’d need to see her blog for real directions).  Lollipop sticks, and some sprinkles.  Oh!  And M&M’s.

Here we go.  Bake a cake.  Please notice the LARGE crack down the middle of mine.  I said I wanted to be Bakerella, I didn’t say I was anything like her.

Now you wait for your cake to cool… completely.  That part is tricky for me.  I’m not so good at waiting.  You fetch yourself a big bowl, and then you crumble up your cake.  See… who cares if my cake has a big crack?  After you get your cake crumbled up in the big bowl, now you get out the huge bowl that you should have used in the first place and dump all the cake crumbles over in to it.  Now take the big bowl, put it in the dishwasher, and mumble under your breath.

Now is when it gets good.  Get out your tub of icing…

Chocolate Fudge… yum….YUMMMM…. YYUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMM….

Scoop the entire tub of icing into your bowl of cake crumbs.

Now use the back of the spoon and mix and mix and mix and mix some more until you get this…

Now you are ready to form the cake balls.  Don’t quote me on this (again… go look at the real recipe) but I make my balls about golf ball size.  You just roll them around in your palm until they form… well… balls.  That explains the title of this post… CAKE BALLS.  Now place the balls on a cookie sheet on wax paper.  Now, if you are a looser like me and have never owned a roll of wax paper in your life, use clingwrap as pictured.

Place the cookie sheet in the fridge to let the balls firm up.

Again… we wait.

Birds chirp.  Chirp.  Chirp.

Crickets.

Awkward silence.

Okay.  Now we get the balls out and stand at a fork in the road.  Plain old Cake Balls?  Cute little Cupcakes?  First, the cupcakes…

Cupcakes… perform the next four steps as pictured below.  No jokes about the first image.  Seriously.  Grow up.

Am I the only one laughing?

Roll ball to an oval, insert in to small flower cookie cutter, mush into a cupcake like form, admire your handy work.

Now is when I started dropping the ball on the photo taking.  I don’t have a photo, but it’s time to melt the chocolate, or bark, or little round melting things.  Use the color of your choice.  Today… I chose chocolate.  You dip the little cup portion in the chocolate and immediately dip the end of a lollipop stick in the chocolate and insert it into the bottom of the cupcake.  Place the cupcake back on the wax paper clingwrap upside down.

Oh my gosh those look soooooo messy.  PLEASE go look at the real deal.

Now, some more directions with no photos.  Heat up another color of dipping stuff (that’s not the technical name) and dip the top part of the cupcake.  You are supposed to just make the second color almost touch the first, but most of the time mine kind of overlaps.  Hold the cupcake right side up, and a M&M on top, the sprinkles of your choice, and WAH-LAH… CAKE POP!

Back to that fork in the road… Plain old cake balls.  In my opinion, just as tasty… AND WAY LESS TIME CONSUMING.  When you get to the “cake balls chilled on the wax paper clingwrap” stage, stick in the old lollipop stick, and totally dip the ball in the coating of your choice.  Mine… you’ll never guess… chocolate.  Gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl and rotate the stick to make the coat smooth and pretty.

I got all fancy pants and made little swirly things on them.  I waited until the dipped coating was completely dry, and then I took a (are you ready for this) big syringe and sucked up some melted chocolate and swirled the ball around and squirted it all around.  Not so fancy pants when I put it like that.  Here’s Otey’s to go pack to share at the office on Monday morning.

After they are completely dry, the shell is very hard so you can put them in a bag or dish.  While you are making them, use a piece of foam to help them stand up.

My Cooper?  HE WANTS ME TO BE BAKERELLA.  He loves cake balls, cake pops, cake batter, pretty much anything that has the word cake in it.

My Grady?  He wishes he was big enough for a yummy Cake Ball.