Cake Balls the New Candy Truffle
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Ever since I read about Cake Balls in Wednesday’s paper, I couldn’t WAIT to make them and share with you!
Cake Balls are the New Candy Truffle. They are a rich treat that should be served at all baby showers, wedding parties, and of course, the holiday parties ahead of us. They are made by combining crumbled baked cake with frosting, scooping the mixture into balls, and dipping them in melted almond bark.
Variety is as large as your imagination, almost any cake and frosting will work. The real thrill is in combining flavors and colors for distinctive results.
Check out this homemaker’s story with cake balls from the Dallas Morning News, Taste Section, September 10, 2008.
“The cake balls that Dallas home maker Robin Ankeny made drew such raves when she began making them 18 months ago that she decided to turn pro. Starting with recipes she got from her mother in South Texas, Ms. Ankeny developed a line of confections, acquired licensing and opened THE CAKE BALL COMPANY, a custom baking and mail-order business.
‘We sold them for showers and wedding favors, and as new-baby and get-well gifts,’ Ms. Ankeny says.
One of her customers shared a sample with staff at Neiman Marcus’ gourmet food department, and the company approached her to add the balls to its direct-mail collection.
‘Neiman Marcus has become a significant part of our business, especially for the holidays.” she says.”
Later on in the article it shows what the sweet treats are selling for:
The Cake Ball Company
$13.95 for 6 pieces, $23.95 per dozen
FOR GIFTS:
Neiman Marcus Direct
$75 plus shipping for 18 pieces.
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ARE YOU READY TO MAKE CAKE BALLS?
- 1 (18.25 ounce) boxed cake mix
- 1 (16 ounce) can prepared frosting
- Almond Bark Coating or Confectionery Wafer Coating
Prepare and bake the cake mix according to package instructions. While warm, crumble the cake into a bowl with a electric mixer to a fine texture. Mix in frosting to make a paste, using a 3/4 to a full can of frosting, according to taste. Chill the mixture for at least 2 hours.
Using a melon baller, your hands, or a 1 inch scooper, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place the balls on wax paper; freeze at least 6 hours.
Working in small batches, remove the balls from the freezer and fip the balls into warm, melted almond bark coating or confectionery wafer coating, using toothpicks or forks or a dipping tool to manipulate the valls. Remove the balls. Place balls on wax paper to harden. Makes about 30 balls.
Almond Bark Coating
In a double boiler, melt one (20 ounce) package vanilla or chocolate flavored almond bark, stirring constantly. Or, in a tall, narrow container, microwave bark for 1 minute at 70% power. Continue to heat in 10 second intervals on high, stirring between intervals, until melted; be careful not to scorch. If there are still small lumps, continue stirring and allow them to melt with the remaining heat in the melted almond bark.
When the almond bark is melted, stir in 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. If desired, stir in oil based coloring drop by drop until you achieve the desired color.
Now for those of you who love the pictures.
Note: I’m not a fan of can frosting. So, I made cake frosting from scratch and kept on with the steps.
HERE ARE A FEW COMBINATION TO GET YOUR IMAGINATION KICK STARTED
For the kiddos: white Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix, white frosting and rainbow-colored sprinkles. After mixing the cake and frosting, gently fold in 2 tablespoons rainbow-colored sprinkles. Immediately after coating the ball, sprinkle more sprinkles on top of the ball before the coating sets.
For Chocoholics: Devil’s food cake mixed with cream cheese frosting, coated with teal colored almond bark.
For Girly Girls: Strawberry cake mix and strawberry frosting. Coat with a mix of half almond bark, half milk chocolate chips melted together. Save back a little melted white almond bark and color it hot pink or red to drizzled on top.
Fun Fall Color Combinations
Devil’s food cake with fudge icing and dark chocolate coating.
Yellow Cake with buttercream frosting and orange-colored vanilla coating with green and black accents.
White cake with white frosting mixed with orange and yellow sprinkles and chocolate coating.
German chocolate cake with coconut-pecan icing and milk chocolate or light cocoa flavored coating.
Spice or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and vanilla coating.
Lemon cake with lemon frosting and vanilla frosting.
Chocolate Cake with vanilla frosting and mint-flavored coating with tinted green.
WHEN IT COMES TO COLORING CHOCOLATE, USE AN OIL BASED FOOD COLORING.
That little 4 pack of food coloring you find in the spice section of your grocer is water based and WILL cause chocolate to seize up. That’s not good.
You can easily find oil based food coloring on the baking aisle of major craft stores, online, or specialty food shops. But don’t misunderstand me, it’s not a “specialty” item. Everybody knows the name Wilton for decorative baking tools, Wilton makes oil based food coloring.
ANOTHER TIP from someone who had to learn the hard way.
DO NOT attempt to flavor almond bark with extracts. Extracts will cause the coating to seize up and become useless.
Just so it’s very clear, I did not create this recipe. I read about it in the local paper, lived through it, photographed it and now, I’m passing it to you. The suggested list of flavors are from the paper, not me.
Stay tuned for another candy truffle recipe I made a few years back that put spending money in my pocket.
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Comment by Amanda on 13 September 2008:
I’ve been making cake balls for a while now too. They are truly fabulous. I’ve made red velvet cake balls for the fourth of July, we just posted Eyeball cake balls for Halloween, Pumpkin cake balls for fall and we’ve made bunches of varieties besides those. I make mine a little different from yours. I take the cake from the oven, dump it right into a bowl, add frosting, combine, roll into balls and freeze. After they are frozen is when I dip them in the chocolate coating. At any rate, they are absolutely delish and ALWAYS a hit every time I make them
You can see the eyeball cake balls on my blog if you are interested. I’ll add the link here, if it’s not permissible please delete it out http://amandascrafts.blogspot.com/
Comment by Jill on 13 September 2008:
Oh Amanda! Your Eyeball Cake Balls are AWESOME! Can I feature them here?
and hey, I’m totally new to making these cake balls. I’ve made truffles in the past and knew that the steps were the same. I’m totally open to other folks ideas and recipes for them.
I used lemon cake with lemon frosting and the family totally grooved on them.
I’ll confess something here, they were a little to rich for me. They were good! but too rich for me.
I want to try a cake and cream cheese combo next and find a winner for me.
Comment by Amanda on 13 September 2008:
Hi Jill! Since the eyeball cake balls just went up I can’t grant full reprint until 3 months has past, but if you want to feature the photo and a short write up with a link to the actual instructions that would be great!
I actually was going to make the lemon but ended up using the lemon cake for some other recipe… oh yeah, it was Pink Lemonade Cake mmmmmm.
I’ve used chocolate cake and frosting with chocolate coating, those are absolutely the best in my opinion. I’ve used red velvet cake with vanilla frosting and white chocolate coating, those we made for 4th of July (I’ll include the link, but you can remove it if it’s not allowed) http://amandascrafts.blogspot.com/2008/07/catching-up.html and the pumpkin cake balls I think are totally adorable.
There’s also something called an Oreo Truffle which is made with Oreo cookies crushed in a blender, cream cheese and coating. Here’s a recipe http://www.recipezaar.com/87967 I haven’t made these, but a friend of mine did and they were also divine!
I also saw a recipe that used Nutter Butter cookies instead of Oreos. I would imagine those would be good too!
Comment by Jill on 13 September 2008:
Oh Man! The Oreo Truffle was the next candy truffle recipe I was going to write about. A few years back when Max was in Kindergarten, my aunt turned me onto Oreo truffles. I thought they were too rich too, so I twisted the recipe a bit.
I created an addictive treat that I could sell by the half dozen to all my friends, church family and the staff at Max’s school. From halloween to Valentine’s I rolled and dipped countless truffles. Ah, the memories and the sweet bankroll. That was FUN!
Comment by Amanda on 13 September 2008:
Wow, I think I need to be watching for that write up! Will you be sharing that bank roll recipe?? Inquiring minds want to know!
Comment by Jill on 14 September 2008:
I will indeed. It was a great experience.
Comment by giz on 14 September 2008:
Now how much fun would these be.
Comment by Amanda on 14 September 2008:
I will be waiting!
Comment by Lisa P on 14 September 2008:
Variations/flavors:
• White cake mix and mint chocolate chip icing - Dipped in chocolate confectioners coating.
• French vanilla cake with white chocolate almond icing. – Dipped in chocolate confectioners coating.
• Red velvet with cream cheese icing and vanilla confectioners coating.
• Red velvet with cream cheese icing dipped into milk chocolate coating.
• Chocolate cake, milk chocolate icing, dipped into chocolate bark.
• Lemon cake with lemon frosting and dip them in whit chocolate.
• Lemon cake mixed in white chocolate chips and lemon frosting, dipped in white chocolate.
• Spice cake with cream cheese frosting and coated them with white chocolate coating.
• Cherry chip cake mix and cream cheese frosting dipped in white chocolate.
• Fudge cake, mixed in peppermint chips and fudge frosting. Dip in dark chocolate.
• Chocolate fudge cake mix and coconut pecan frosting dipped into chocolate.
• Chocolate cake, butter cream icing, and dark chocolate coating.
• Chocolate cake/chocolate icing and dipped into raspberry/chocolate chips are melted with a bit of oil.
• German chocolate cake mix with coconut pecan frosting & dipped in melted semi sweet chocolate chips.
• Strawberry with vanilla frosting, dipped in chocolate.
• Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, dipped in white almond bark.
• Chocolate cake, chocolate icing and Andes candy bits. If you like Girl Scout Thin Mints you will love these.
Comment by Jill on 15 September 2008:
WOW!!! Lisa P, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Everyone give it up for Lisa’s extensive list and the time she took to share it with us.
The next ones I want to try…
1. German chocolate cake mix with coconut pecan frosting & dipped in melted semi sweet chocolate chips.
2.Chocolate cake, chocolate icing and Andes candy bits. If you like Girl Scout Thin Mints you will love these.
3.Spice cake with cream cheese frosting and coated them with white chocolate coating.
Lisa, do you make cake balls as a business? I’m totally curious.
How can I thank you enough?
Comment by Comfortcook on 16 September 2008:
Hello Jill!
These Cake Balls look delicious and so professional! I noticed you used a tube pan and wondered if that was for a particular reason and also, did you use regular cake mix or an Angel Food type batter?
These really look great. Thanks for all the great ideas and I can’t wait to make these for all the holiday get togethers coming up. Lisa (Comfortcook)
Comment by Nicki on 18 September 2008:
Very great recipe! I tried it last night. cost me less than $40 and was able to make 50 balls! So sweet! They are so sweet, I can only take one at a time…even though I want more! Very pleased. An elegant treat at a very inexpensive price!
Comment by Nicki on 18 September 2008:
That is suppose to be less than $4!
Comment by Jill on 19 September 2008:
Good morning Nicki!
You’re right - these cake balls are elegant, sweet and inexpensive - the best kind of dessert!
Which flavors did you make?
Last night, I made a fresh batch of my favorite cookie truffles and I’m entering them in our local Fall Festival Household Arts contest (all for fun of course).
Be on the lookout for, uh…I don’t have a name for these sweet treats, uh…Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles?
And from Amanda’s suggestion above, I made a small batch of Nutter Butter Truffles. They turned out very pretty!
Comment by Amanda on 20 September 2008:
Oooo yum! Are you going to share your secret recipe of altered oreo truffles?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Comment by Becky on 22 September 2008:
I was so excited to see cake balls featured in the newspaper and I tried them out. They are yummy!!! I can’t keep out of them.
Can anyone give me pointers on dipping techniques? I was using a fondue fork and had difficulty removing the ball from the fork and having them dry nicely.
I need help! I’m making them for my sister’s bridal shower and I want them to look as fantastic as they taste!
Comment by Jill on 22 September 2008:
Hi Becky!
I know your pain. I had the same trouble until I started making smaller balls (1 inch size). And since you’re making them for a wedding, head down to a big craft store with a large candy supply aisle and buy yourself a dipping tool with a ROUND HEAD. Like the one I have in the photo above.
You’ll probably find it in a dipping set with a dipping fork. BUY METAL TOOLS.
I promise you the plastic ones break.
No matter what it costs, buy it! You will have an easier time working and flipping the balls onto the wax paper. Also, the rounded tip helps you put a finished touch on the top of each candy.
See my photo of the Peanut Butter Chocolates and you’ll see the fun you can have with the tool.
http://simpledailyrecipes.com/peanut-butter-chocolates/
Comment by Jill on 22 September 2008:
Oh I almost forgot, Becky. Piping colored almond bark will cover any imperfections you have.
Don’t be deceived by the photos, I’m showing the best sides to these truffles and cake balls. Cake balls and truffles are NEVER perfect, I don’t who you are or how many times you’ve made them.
So, don’t sweat it Becky. You can either quickly sprinkle some sprinkles of them before the coating sets. OR Squiggle thin lines of melted chocolate over the balls AFTER you’re finished dipping all of them.
Comment by Lori on 6 November 2008 (3 weeks ago):
Can you freeze these? If not, how long will they stay fresh? I wanted to make bunches of them for Christmas gifts.
~Lori
Comment by Jill on 7 November 2008 (2 weeks ago):
Hi Lori!
“YES, yes we can” freeze them BEFORE we dip them in the chocolate coating.
Just be sure to store them in good air tight freezer containers. I would bag them in freezer bags, then drop them in a good plastic container just for good measure. If I ran out of plastic containers, I would double bag them.
Remember, where there’s air there will be ice crystals.
GREEN TIP: Don’t toss the freezer bags after your done. They can be washed with dish soap and hot water, hung to dry out, and reused again.
I DO NOT recommend recycling if the bags were originally used to store meat.
Comment by Kellie on 15 November 2008 (6 days ago):
I’m wondering about the answer (that I didn’t see) to why the angel food cake pan was used!
Was an angel food cake mix used or does using one with a regular cake make the recipe easier?
Thanks!
Kellie
Comment by Jill on 15 November 2008 (6 days ago):
Hi ComfortCook & Kellie!
About that bundt/tube/angel food cake pan, honestly, that’s the only ‘cake’ pan I own.
I’ve had that one bundt pan for ?YEARS, it’s a solid, dark, nonstick that rarely fails me. It makes a pretty cake with or without icing. So, I’ve never bothered to buy the traditional round pans.
There you have it.
Comment by Jill on 15 November 2008 (6 days ago):
I used a regular yellow cake mix. I’ve not read anywhere that an angel food cake has been used.
All the combinations listed are using regular cake mixes & canned frosting or homemade frosting.