I've seen some pictures of some cake balls on here that are soooo smooth. How do you dip cake balls (or anything) in chocolate and have it come out smooth? It always seems like mine come out "lumpy" or just not perfectly smooth.
Do you mean truffles? I have been trying to get a receipe from someone but nobody has gotten back to me.
Do search for cake balls. There are lots of recipes on here. It's really easy. Just use cake scraps or any cake, crumble it up and use something as a binder that compliments your cake flavor. (flavored coffee creamer, frosting, etc) Roll them into balls and dip them in chocolate, white chocolate, ganache, whatever. Cute, easy and soooo yummy. 
As for getting them smooth, I notice a couple things. The surface of the ball has to be smooth to begin with and the thickness of the melted chocolate sometimes makes a difference. I'm sure others on here could help more than I have.
my recipe includes raw egg as a binding agent, would you use raw egg?
eww... nope. Most just use icing of some kind.
If you are looking for a perfect ball then get yourself a half round mold and use that to help shape them. Those who dip or spoon over the chocolate spin the pops gently while the chocolate hardens. The centripetal force helps the chocolate to smooth out as it cools and hardens. There is a great tutorial on YouTube.
I think freezing the balls before dipping makes the chocolate harden quicker so it's smoother.
I use 1 tsp. of shortening per cup of melted chocolate it helps to thin it a little for dipping and gives it a nice shiny appearance.
Then I freeze the cake balls and use a skewer or a toothpick and stick in the cake ball and then dip into the chocolate.
Then I take my cooling rack and prope it up about 12" off the counter using fondant buckets or you could use coffe cans/shortening cans, whatever........and just set the cooling rack's edge on either side of the cans and put a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper underneath to catch drips.
After I dip the cake ball, I turn it right side up and feed the bottom of my toothpick/skewer through the grates on my cooling rack and grap the bottom of it with the other hand from underneath the cooling rack and let the cake ball rest on the cooling rack and slowly twist and pull the toothpick/skewer out of the cake ball. Then the excess can drip and your cake ball will be nice and smooth and the only marks it will have will be one or two lines on the bottom from the cooling rack....but I stick mine in little cupcake liners so nobody sees that anyone.....but it keeps it from puddling up under the cake ball which can leave a rin around it like saturn.......not pretty.
HTH
I wouldn't add a raw egg. I add thinned out icing, simple syrup or liquor to bind the cake (or a combo of actually).
It maybe that your chocolate is too thick. Like the previous poster, I add a touch of shortening to the chocolate right after melting to make it smooth and more workable. Freeze the cake balls first and it helps as well.
I do a quick tap, tap upon dipping. If they still are a bit lumpy, I usually will melt chocolate with some color and then drizzle over the cake balls to hide it. Looks a bit fancy too. 
bakerella has some great recipes using cream cheese and then you can add whatever you want. cookiesn'cream are great. I'm going to make some "cake pops on sticks" pumpkins and ghosts for Halloween and give them to my grandson's preschool.
I also had trouble with both almond bark and Merkens wafers being too thick and as soon as the cold cake ball went in, the coating hardened up and did not look pretty or smooth. I added a bit of solid shortening and it helped thin out the coating so I had more time to play with it.
KHalstead - what a fabulous idea! And I never knew about adding the shortening either! Is that the same as parafin (or however it is spelled?)? What about leaving the toothpick/skewer in the cake ball after dipping, but sticking it into a piece of styro foam covered in parchment so there aren't ANY marks at all. Do you think that would work?
Any preference on chocolate that you use?
I do them the same way revel. I cover my styrofoam with wax paper dip the cake balls, stick them in and let the excess chocolate drip off on to the wax paper. I use paramount crystals in my chocolate, keeps the chocolate from breaking apart when you bite into it. Before I got paramount crystals I used to use shortening which made the chocolate thinner and easier to coat the cake balls. I hope this helps a little.
Great ideas here! I've tried cake balls twice and each time i was less than pleased with how they looked. I tried freezing the cake balls first and still i got cake crumbs mixed up in the chocolate..dunno if i didn't freeze them long enough or not enough binder? I've thinned my icing with shortening prior to dipping and gently tapped them on the side of the bowl before placing them in the styro to cool..BUT>>the chocolate still drips off the bottoms of the balls leaving cooled drippings of chocolate on the balls. If i tap to much i don't get enough coverage.
Then i tired making those cute little cake pops that bakerella makes, and adding the little sprinkles etc.. but the chocolate either cooled too quickly or the sprinkle/mini choco chip just slid down the ball. very frustrating.
I've not done them since. When i see the perfect ones on here i am so discouraged and am embarrased to make them for any function. They taste good, but look less than professional.
Any ideas why i'm having issues?
Chocolate chips are not the best choice because they have a higher melting point than melting wafers or chocolate baking bars. They are meant to hold their shape in cookies so they don't melt as smoothly. Though if you are going to use shortening, you may find it works ok.
I've just found that the melting wafers make such a smoother product. HTH!
KHalstead - what a fabulous idea! And I never knew about adding the shortening either! Is that the same as parafin (or however it is spelled?)? What about leaving the toothpick/skewer in the cake ball after dipping, but sticking it into a piece of styro foam covered in parchment so there aren't ANY marks at all. Do you think that would work?
Any preference on chocolate that you use?
Paraffin is a wax, shortening is different. I have used paraffin in my chocolate before for that nice shiny look. But I do use shortening in my chocolate as well. I like chips best. I made cakes balls tonight and used the wafers and they are fine in a pinch but I just don't like the flavor as well.
When I do them I put a toothpick in the cake ball. Dip the cake ball, and tap tap tap...then set it on wax paper to harden. Once hardened pull the pick and i do a little dollop of chocolate on the hole to seal it up.
I also will use a silicone pastry brush and brush it on if my chocolate is too thick. I don't like to put it so thick on mine.
Wow, that sounds delish! never thought of it. let us know if you try it, how it works
If you don't take the plastic off your styrofoam (I use the large, flat discs) dripping chocolate is way easier to clean-up. The toothpicks or sucker sticks leave holes, but there is certainly enough plastic left intact that you don't get chocolate dripping into the styrofoam surface.
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