Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Pantry Pick of the Month: Dipping Chocolate/ Cake Balls

My reach into my pantry this month yielded this half-used bag of dipping chocolate.  It immediately made me think of those fun, little cake balls that were wildly popular a few years ago.  I made them once or twice then, but haven't made them since, so I thought that would be a fun idea.  They are cute and fun, but they were a bit of work.  I think one of the words I use the most when describing my recipes on here is "easy."  These are time consuming, so not in the "easy" category.   But, like I said, they were tasty and very cute.   You actually don't need dipping chocolate for these.  Any baking chocolate- semi-sweet or dark, or white chocolate will do.


Cake Balls
1 cake mix, baked according to directions (eggs, oil, and water)  Any flavor.
1 tub frosting, Any flavor
Chocolate for dipping (Baking semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate)
Sprinkles or other decorations, if desired


Crumble the mostly cooled cake into a large bowl, making a fine crumb by rolling it between your hands.  You could also use a food processor for this.  Add a couple of large scoops of the frosting and, with your hands, mix together.  Try forming a ball with a Tablespoon or so of the mixture.  If it makes a nice, moist ball that doesn't crumble apart, you probably have enough frosting.  Add frosting until you can form nice, moist balls.  Put the mixture in the fridge for about 15 minutes while you melt the dipping chocolate.  Put the chocolate in a narrow, deep bowl, so that a whole cake ball can fit down in it.  Form the cake into balls and put them on waxed paper.  Dip each one by using toothpicks or skewers and place them on the waxed paper.  Before the chocolate sets up, decorate with sprinkles, oreo crumbs, crushed candy bars or hard candy.  Then put them on the waxed paper to harden.  Again, you can put them in the fridge for this if you'd like.


The popular thing these days is to put these on a sucker stick and wrap and bow them for a nice favor.  I really think this would be easier because you wouldn't have to mess with the toothpicks.  They'd have their own dipping stick.


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