Friday, December 10, 2010

Holiday Cake Balls!

So I had a few leftover cupcakes from my holiday baking the other day, and what better way to use leftover cupcakes and frosting than to make cake balls!
I usually make cake pops, but decided this time to omit the pops. These look like little truffles, but are really cake, and are a bit easier to make than cake pops, since there are less steps.
I made two kinds, chocolate peppermint and gingerbread, both with vanilla frosting. I dipped them in dark chocolate, and garnished with either crushed up candy canes or holly berry sprinkles.
I was concerned with the dipping technique, since I usually have problems with this. The candy was smooth enough, and I followed the instructions in the Cake Pops book exactly. I found a good method, dip the cake balls, spoon chocolate over them to cover, and lift them out with the spoon. I used 2 spoons, the other one to take the ball off the first spoon and to drop it on the wax paper. I found that cut down on the amount of extra chocolate on the cake ball, so it didn't get too messy.

You have to decorate these immediately, since the chocolate starts to harden after only a few seconds. I learned that with the first one I did.
I packaged them up in little mini cupcake liners to bring to a friend's holiday party tomorrow. So cute! I'm thinking about making more next week to send with my xmas packages to family.
Super cute and yummy!

2 comments:

Joanne said...

These look yummy, but one question..(i'm not a baker so please excuse my ignorance.) Did you just cut up the cupcakes and dip them or do you smash them and roll them into balls? I would like to try this. Joanne 10minutes2breathe

Tania said...

Joanne- you crumble up the cake and then mix the crumbs with frosting, then roll that mixture into balls, then dip them. It's a bit messy, but worth it!