Hi everyone,

I have made cake balls/cake bites a couple of times after reading posts on this and a couple of the other sites, but my chocolate coating always seems to be too thick and overpowering.

What do you all use for dipping chocolate? Do you use melts or chocolate chips with shortening added? If so, how much shortening?

I have very little experience with chocolate, so I am not sure exactly what I should be doing.

Thanks in advance!

Amy

I made these recently when I had a cake fall apart coming out of the pan!

I used 1 lb. of candy melts and a tablespoon of crisco. I melted it in the microwave then set the bowl of chocolate inside a bowl of hot water. It worked great.

This was the first time that I have not been completely frustrated trying to dip candies in chocolate.

Thanks Victoria,

I did use a double boiler. I remember seeing the crystals before, but I do not remember where. Do grocery stores typically carry them?

Can't wait to try them! Thanks!

Amy

I haven't seen the paramount crystals in the store, but I found them at the cake decorating store.

Thanks you guys. The closest cake shop is an hour away, so I'm going to go ahead and order some line.

Thanks again, Amy

I've been searching without luck to find how to make the cake balls. My memory isn't helping me tonight and I would like to find out how it is that you make them. Any help would be appreciated, thanks so much.

First of all, just wanted to say that if you use candy melts there shouldn't be any need to add shortening to them unless they have been heated several times and are not melting correctly.
Well there is a recipe on this site, posted, for the Cookieman's cake balls. The old standard is just using complementary cake levellings and buttercream icing. Ladycakes advised somewhere, that about 1/4 cup buttercream to the levellings that would make up about a 6 inch round cake is about the right ratio. I find this a good estimate. You just want enough icing in the cake to hold the balls together. I tend to mix up the icing with the cake levellings, I use an icecream scoop, because I like them to be fairly large, most folks use a melon baller scoop for smaller ones. So you shape them into a ball, Now at this point I freeze them. I have made them by dipping the frozen balls in the candy melts, or defrosted ones in the melts or just refridgerated the cake balls for an hour or two and then dipped them. You can use a sppon to dip them, Cookieman and others just remove the centre tongs from a plastic fork to use to dip. Once dipped in the candy melts, you can dip them into sprinkles at this point. I like to let them set and then use lustre dusts on them, gold or silver usually.
You can use any kind of candy melts you want. Some folks just melt chocolate chips for this purpose.
Some people sprinkle a bit of a liquer or rum into the mix before dipping.
What is really cute is to make the balls, and serve them in small icecream cones. Or you can use the icecream cones to make a party hat on top of the balls and use candies to make eyes and nose and a smile and put the hat on top. Sometimes I poke a hole through the tip of the cone and put some red liquorice shoelaces through, like fringe for the hat, etc!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Hhmn, just dawned on me that I read somewhere on this site that his posts were accidentally deleted when he took a temporary time out from the sites. I miss him!
Cookieman posted his recipe on another site, so I recopied it here for you. This is taken from his post and is the same post he originally had on this site. I hope that this is alright to do on this site, I know it was on here before.
2 cups crumbled cake scraps
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (if cake scraps are not chocolate based)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (or any other nut you like; or mini-chocolate chips; or mini M&MS...you get the idea!)
2 generous shots of amaretto (or any other liquer you may like--a good non-alcohol substitute is any flavored coffee creamer)

Put all ingredients in a mixer and mix on medium speed until the ingredients form a ball. If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit more of the liquid used to make it moist enough to form into balls.

I use a tablespoon cookie scoop to make the balls uniform in size. Roll the scooped dough in your hands to form a nice smooth ball. Allow cake balls to set on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for a couple of hours, then proceed as mentioned in my last post for dipping. You can also just roll them in confectioners' sugar or cocoa if you do not want to use chocolate. Makes about 2 dozen cake balls. (They taste great right away, but after a day or two they are even better as all the ingredients have had a chance to meld together.)

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but I melt 1 lb. of candy melts and add approximately a tablespoon of Crisco to make it a bit more smooth. Also, put the container (in my case, a Pyrex measuring cup) of melted candy melts in a very hot (I use almost boiling) water bath to keep the chocolate fluid. And don't worry if the dipped balls have a "foot" at the base after drying. You can break some off after they have hardened, and once they are in the little cake liners, no one will noitice. Also, you can decorate the tops with just about anything: sprinkles, candy confetti, candy confetti, chopped nuts, etc befor they dry. Or, after they've dried, pipe designs with royal icing or melted candy melts of different colors.

Thank you so much SquirrellyCakes, I knew I had read it and couldn't remember how they went together. I do have plenty of cake levelings leftovers to use and I don't want to waste them.

Joann

Hi Joann,
You are very welcome. I actually make up cupcakes or extra cake deliberately so I can make these. I must admit, they are deadly addictive! Have fun with them!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Forgot to tell you Squirrellycakes that I am glad to see you back from your break, you were missed! <hugs>
Thanks for posting this again, I thought I had saved it to my pc at home....maybe it was saved to my work pc...but anyways I saved it to my home pc and titled it "Cookieman's (formerly of CakeCentral.com) Cake Balls" that way I don't forget where I got the recipe from!

Thanks, MOuse, missed you too! Miss the Cookieman too, hopefully he will get back on in the near future!
Hugs Squirrelly

Thanks Squirrelly for posting the full directions for JSCakes. I had seen the post right before I had to go out last night and had no time to reply then, but planned to do it this morning.

I had wondered what happened to Cookieman. I also really miss his posts!

I'm going to go try to dip some now!

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

Amy

I have also tried the cake balls dipped in ganache, boy that's some good stuff. They have to stay cold so they won't melt. mmmmmmm mmmmm good!

Hi Amy, you are most welcome!
I am certain he will be back at some point in time, he is very busy in his personal life right now.
Anyway, I am glad I had access to a copy of his recipe!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

I have to make ganache this weekend, so I was thinking of trying that. I had suspected refridgeration would be necessary.

My last question for Squirrelly or anyone else is how big do you make yours? I have been using a Wilton Holiday Red cookie scoop. In the Wilton books it says that this is approximately 1 Tbsp. I really think they should probably be half this size.

What do you guys do?

Thanks,

Amy

Actually, ganache isn't supposed to be refridgerated. Now it can be or at least some kinds can be, but generally it is supposed to be ok at a room temperature of below 75F for 2-3 days.
Cookieman used a melon baller, I do believe, that is about half the size of some scoops, definitely half the size of an icecream scoop. Most people make them about the size of a truffle or chocolate about, oh, maybe 1 - 1 1/2 inches in diameter, I think. I don't have the scoop you are referring to, I had enough trouble finding a melon baller, haha! Maybe about the size of a rounded tablespoon?
Haha, I think I like the icecream scoop because they are faster and you get to pig out more, shows you why I am on a diet, haha!
But you know, I would think that you could also use a candy mold and make them up in different shapes prior to coating them.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes