Perfect Party Treat - Cake Balls

Last year, I discovered Bakerella's blog and cake balls.  Now I see them everywhere!  I have visions of dessert buffets with cute little candies filled with cake of various colors and flavors.  Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Mint, Red Velvet, Oreo, Pumpkin Caramel, Apple Caramel (okay you get the picture).   Cake Balls can be made with cake scraps but since I tend to not level my cakes before icing, I never have scraps.  But when I decided to make the extra tall Strawberry cake last week, I saved a tier to try them out.  I am so glad I did.

I crumbled the cake in a bowl and mixed in about 3/4 cup of cream cheese frosting.  Mix the frosting a little at a time.  You don't want it to be too wet, just enough frosting to bind the cake crumbs together.  Then I formed little cake balls. 

I put the cake balls in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.  Otherwise, the balls will come apart when dipping in the chocolate.

For chocolate, I recommend candy melts or chocolate bark.  I made a couple of cake balls with regular chocolate chips and not only was the chocolate a little too thick, but it also took over an hour to set.  The candy melts set in less than 10 minutes.  I purchased my candy melts at Michaels and they come in a wide variety of colors. 

The cake balls were WONDERFUL.  The strawberry cake enrobed in white chocolate was just like biting into a fruit flavored chocolate truffle.  This is definitely something you should add to your holiday buffet table. 

Have you made cake balls?  What's your favorite flavor combination?

Southern Style Strawberry Cake

I first discovered this cake on Joy the Baker's Blog.  Strawberries, cream cheese frosting and coconut?  I'm in!  I've made it a couple of times and it is always a hit.  But before I get to the cake...

Do you remember last week when I mentioned that if you are going to make an edible image for a cake or cookie, you should make more than one because they are so easy to break?  Well mine cracked and... no back-up.  Yes I am so stubborn I don't even take my OWN advice.  =) 

But I was able to put the pieces together on the cake and it still looked cute.

Back to this cake.  This cake is SOOO good.  Make it.  Trust me.  Oh and since we've bonded over my umbrella crack, I'll share a little secret.  This cake comes from a mix.  Yes my friends - I love to bake from scratch but why fight the mix?

Southern Style Strawberry Cake

from: Sweets Soul Food Desserts and Memories

These instructions make two 8 layer cakes.  For the baby shower, I doubled the recipe and made 4 layers.  What, the cake only has three layers you say?  I froze the 4th layer to make cake balls.

1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding) - I used Duncan Hines.  Note both Betty Crocker and Pillsbury use pudding in their mix.  I've never used those brands so I'm not sure how it would impact cake.
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry jello
1 Tablespoon self rising flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced.  (Strawberries are a nice touch, but the flavor and color comes from the jello so you can omit if they are out of season.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake, combine to cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the water and strawberries and mix well. Divide the batter evenly into 2 8-inch round baking pans that have been oiled, floured and lined with parchment paper. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the layers pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer the layers from the oven to wire racks. Let them cool, still in their pans, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of each pan, then unmold each layer onto the racks to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting - I cannot tell you how much I love this frosting!

1 (8 ounce) block cream cheese, softened
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
2 lbs powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
pink food coloring
4 sliced strawberries (for decoration)

To make the frosting, in a bowl combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat until soft and pliable and no lumps remain. Add one pound (one box) of the powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Beat until incorporated. Add the second box of sugar and mix until incorporated. If you would like a smoother consistency, and a slash of milk. If you would like a thicker consistency, and a bit more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is achieved.

Put the coconut in a small bowl and sprinkle with two or three drops of pink die. Mix with hands to distribute the color and wash hands immediately. Once the cake is frosted, decorate the top of the cake with the shredded coconut and sliced strawberries.  For this cake, I put the shredded coconut in between the layers and omitted the strawberries.   
 

This is the tallest cake I've ever made - I just love the dramatic height!

Sorry I didn't save you a slice.
 
What is your favorite "doctored" mix recipe?

So many recipes!

After making my apple filled oatmeal cookies, I had 2 apples left over. I'm trying to be good and not throw away groceries so I scoured my recipe folder an apple recipe.  I have a folder full of recipes.  This isn't a physical folder in a kitchen cabinet.  My folder is electronic.  I think it is easier to organize and edit than a handwritten one.  My mother is all about electronic recipe files but she does have a recipe book that she has kept for over 30 years.  When I'm home baking, I often go to that book for recipes.  Many are written by her but some by my aunts and seeing their handwriting takes me to the holiday when they were sitting at the kitchen table watching Momie make a dish and recording it for her.  Looking at a printed piece of paper doesn't bring me back to a favorite memory but it does keep me sane.   

Many of my electronic files are recipes I've picked up from the many food blogs I subscribe to.  I've made some, but most are just sitting there waiting to be used.  I have a subfolder for appetizers, cookies, cakes and other desserts.  I like to remember where I got the recipe so I always make sure to type the baker's name under the title. Some bakers I know.  Other bakers may just take really good pictures and not so good food.  =)   If it's from a trusted source, I can make it for company without testing it out (which doesn't always work out but at least I know it's not the recipe's fault).  If I've never made anything from this person, I like to test it out first. 

One recipe was for apple cake that looked like coffee cake with apples.  I love coffee cake - recipe score!  I didn't have enough apples for a whole cake so I made a loaf.   Muffins would have made more sense but I have a new loaf pan that I haven't used!

To get the recipe (and a better picture of the cake), visit Smitten Kitchen. 

Do you keep your recipes electronically or do you prefer the them handwritten in a recipe book?

Food Network Cake Challenge, Here I Come

JOKING!

But seriously, I made this.  Can you believe it?

I was given the opportunity to learn how to make this cake and couldn't resist.  Part of me thought, I shouldn't do this. 

I'm a baker, not an artist and outside of my Wilton courses, I've never decorated a cake let alone carved one. 

This is going to be way over my head.   But the thought of making A Wild Thing was too good to pass up.

So I went for it. 

Little old me, who has only worked with fondant 2 other times...
Who didn't even know how to make modeling chocolate*... 
Who only puts a knife to cake to cut a slice... 

Created the cutest little Where The Wild Things Are cake.

This is my inspiration.

Image Source: beatcrave.com

Pretty good eh?

The legs are fondant.  I mixed a little food color gel with vodka to pant his pants and shirt.

We (oh did I not mention that I took a class to learn how to make this?) were told to use modeling chocolate for the arms because fondant is just too heavy.  I also used modeling chocolate for the teeth and nails (I LOVE the nails).






The hair is black royal icing.

The OH SO TALENTED Chef Janet Ben-Ami of Hey!Cookie taught lucky members of The New York Cake Decorator's Meetup group how to make this masterpiece.  This group ranges from cake novices like myself to professional cake decorators.  The thought of being in a class way over my experience level was intimidating.  But I'm so glad I did it.  First of all, Chef Janet is the greatest.  Janet was the best teacher. You can tell she loves what she does and she was so encouraging throughout the entire process.

The class was 4 hours and well, let's just say I didn't get very far in class.  If I would have been on the Food Network Challenge, Kerry Vincent would have shook her head and said, "You really need to work on your time management skills.  We would have loved to judge your piece, but well, its just pound cake with buttercream." 

But I learned enough to have the confidence to finish the project at home.  And by finish, I mean - color the fondant, roll it out, add the arms, legs, teeth and nails.

He is so cute, no one would cut him.  I think my family was a little turned off to learn there is a PVC pipe acting as his spine (I totally cleaned the pipe before adding cake which isn't even touching the pipe.)

So we took my Aunt Melva's famous pound cake out of the freezer, added some of my leftover buttercream, and ate it while we looked at my Wild Thing.  I love him - he's like a little kitchen gnome.    

What have you been afraid to try in the kitchen but are so glad you did?  Are you going to see the Where The Wild Things Are movie?


* So easy -- For white modeling chocolate, just melt 14 oz of the Wilton white candy chips and then add 1/4 cup of Light Corn Oil. Mix but don't over mix. Lay on a heavily parchment papered cookie sheet for an hour or two.  A lot of oil will ooze out during this time, don't worry.  Once "dry", wrap tightly with saran wrap.

I didn't eat the Daisies, but I did eat cake!

The daisies I posted last were part of my final project for the Wilton Fondant and Gumpaste class which I just "graduated" from yesterday. If you are at all interested in learning how to decorate cakes, I highly recommend Wilton. They offer classes across the country, mainly at Michael's stores. For this class we learned how to do fondant and gumpaste designs. Fondant is a sugar icing which you roll out like a pie crust and put on top of your cake. I had never eaten fondant (I LOVE buttercream) but wanted to learn how to use it. Many people use fondant on cookies and while I believe my icing tastes great on cookies, there are many designs which would be easier to do if I knew how to work with fondant.

You can make fondant from scratch, but I used the ready made Wilton fondant and just added food coloring. Unfortunately, you need to add a LOT of food coloring to get chocolate brown which caused the fondant to dry out a bit. If I ever use fondant again, I will stick to light colors or purchase ready made fondant in the color of my choice. Don't get me wrong, I'm a scratch baker and proud of it. But I don't think I will use fondant enough to learn how to make it. Both fondant and gumpaste have a texture similar to playdough so they are really fun to work with.

When I came home from class, I decided the cake needed a little something else, so I added silver luster dust to the pearls. Note - if you want the luster dust to just stay on the pearls and not the cake and cake board, I recommend "dusting" prior to assembly. =)

I like how the cake turned out but I'm no artist, I'm a baker. And to me, this decorated cake lost a lot of its taste appeal. When I frosted the cake (even though fondant is icing, you must frost with buttercream or some other sticky substance like jam prior to covering with fondant), I wanted to eat it. When I decorated the cake, I wanted to take a picture of it.

This was an important discovery for me because I am hugely addicted to tv shows showcasing sugar artists like Ace of Cakes, Amazing Wedding Cakes (LOVE the cake girls), Cake Boss (I am from Jersey) and I'm sure I've seen every food network cake challenge. When I see their work, I'm truly humbled. As I am when I peruse my new secret addiction, cakecentral.com. There are some talented cookiers on this site that put my little cookies to shame. As I improve my craft in decorating, I must remember, I don't want to be an artist. I want to be a great baker. When people see my cookies or other sweets, I want them to want to EAT them, not just take a picture.

This cake? I took tons of pics (LOL). So did my friends when I brought the cake over for a friend's birthday cookout. There was no way I was keeping this cake in my apartment. Because this cake is good enough to eat... for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What kind of cake was this? I'll save that for another post.