I would recommend adding flavoring to the cake mix before baking. Some flavors are more potent like almond. Or you can use Lorann's flavoring, which are more concentrated and will use less

I havent been receiving updates on this so had to just read 10 pages - heres some random thoughts:

dandelion -read you got sick from eating so much -laughed outloud -sure it was worth it though

for those who cant taste raspberry and chocolate....try making a thick raspberry puree or use seedless raspberry preserves blended in a mini food processor.

heres a great site to spark boxing and packaging and displaying all our cake trufffles:
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=20495

new one I've recently tried - caramel cake (baked with butterscotch chips - WBH recipe) mixed with their idea of dulche de leche - yum - covered in dark chocolate.

I dont know about you all but I've really been getting into food, designer, wedding blogs - one of my new favorites is:
http://www.amyatlas.blogspot.com/
I love her color coordinations and fresh design ideas. You can always grab inspiration from the smallest thing and turn it into our line of work/play.

A recent idea that I had to get a more concentrated flavor in the middle of cakes and cake truffles is to use and oral syringe (the kind you get at target for those liquid medicines). I did this with one of my last tiramisus and had great success. And it comes clean in the dishwasher.

[quote="wrightway777"]I havent been receiving updates on this so had to just read 10 pages - heres some random thoughts:

dandelion -read you got sick from eating so much -laughed outloud -sure it was worth it though

for those who cant taste raspberry and chocolate....try making a thick raspberry puree or use seedless raspberry preserves blended in a mini food processor.

heres a great site to spark boxing and packaging and displaying all our cake trufffles:
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=20495

new one I've recently tried - caramel cake (baked with butterscotch chips - WBH recipe) mixed with their idea of dulche de leche - yum - covered in dark chocolate.

I dont know about you all but I've really been getting into food, designer, wedding blogs - one of my new favorites is:
http://www.amyatlas.blogspot.com/
I love her color coordinations and fresh design ideas. You can always grab inspiration from the smallest thing and turn it into our line of work/play.
quote]
Wow ~ Just checked out the amy atlas website - it is awesome!!! She's got some great cake and cake pop ideas - love the ghost pops! Not that I needed yet another website to obsess over.. I have GOT to get off the internet!! Thanks!

[QUOTE="Sherry1030"]

Sherry, would you be able to post or send me that Caramel Cake recipe and the Dulce de Leche? That sounds soo good!

What is a cake ball? Can someone please explain?

cake crumbles up, with different icings, creamers, or anythign wet, as a binder to make it into a dough, then you roll it and dip it in chocolate

Cindy ~ Sorry, I did a bad job 'quoting' Wrightway - it was her post that mentioned the caramel cake!

Hey Cindy - The Caramel Cake recipe is on page 79 of the book, "Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse." Its actually a cupcake recipe. Personally I followed it to a T and they turned out a bit dry by themselves the ladies have them baking at 350 degrees which personally I think it should say 325 degrees. Nevertheless a simple syrup came to the rescue. The leftovers mix fine with dulce de leche.
Her dulce de leche is on page 101. Its literally three different ridiculously easy ways to literally cook a can of sweetened condensed milk (brazilian stovetop method with the can, stovetop method w/contents poured into double boiler, and oven method w/contents in a pie plate resting in a bane marie (simple waterbath)). Its very creamy but lighter tasting that caramel - so be warned dont expect a huge punch of flavor.
Note: Their methods dulche de leche is just part of the recipe for their german chocolate icing which is so yum and yes......its super easy to make and its not preservative laden like those tubs of frosting from the grocery.

If you dont have the book; make a run to your local (call first to see if they have it) Barnes N' Snobles

I have recently tried crumbling the cake and drying in a 250 oven for about 20 min-continuing to crumble (with a pastery blender) and stir, while drying. What I have found is that to add back enough moisture-it takes a couple cups of icing for binder and then the flavor is off-too sweet not enough flavor. The crumbs were not that dry (not like bread crumbs, etc)

I really prefer just bake, cool and crumble. Definately flavor the cake before baking to get enough flavor. Just my recent experience!!

Has anyone ever said that your cake balls were mushy? How do you describe them to people when they ask? Also...does anyone have a GOOD and Flavorful Vanilla cake recipe

Thanks
Kerry

If cake truffles are mushy then too much binder has been used. They shouldn't be mushy.

OH!! I forgot to mention that on you tube The Cake Ball Co. has an infomercial type thing and they show them dipping their balls with toothpicks!
(sorry if that sounds bad )

Wow! That is interesting to see how they dip those. Thanks Kerrym!

Kerry - My favorite yellow (comes out more white than anything - due to there is really not a true naturally yellow cake...everybody is just so used to the yellow dye that goes into the mixes).....is the "Vanilla Butter Cake from the Mermaid Bakery" look up this title in the recipe section on this site. I have done hours of reading/researching the most popular: Mermaid bakery vs Toba's vs Whimsical Bakehouse and comparing that to WASC. Mermaid's seems to have won out with these minor changes:
- the recipe has you souring your regular milk or you can substitute it for 1 cup buttermilk (theres no real difference)
- No Creme bouquet around? No problem just sub that out for almond
- sub out the AP flour and use Cake Flour - now BEWARE that is not a 1 to 1 sub so you have to add 2 TBS per each cup so that means measure out 2 3/4 cup and then an extra 5 1/2 TBS of cake flour.
- stick to the 350 degrees on this recipe dont be tempted to lower it to 325
- gotta have that yellow color? Just add a couple of drops of yellow
- definitely use the flower nail method for large cakes 10 in and above
- in the directions when you first cream the butter and sugar...do this at medium speed
- the directions say to "mix" the dry ingredients together just use a whisk
- even though the directions say to add the ingredients in two parts...I do it the traditional three parts starting with dry and ending with dry. Be careful not to overwork your batter!! The last addition of flour can be gently done by hand even.

note: yield is about 6 cups. This cake is great. The cake texture is even and has a wonderful crumb. If you need it to be more moist then make a simple syrup (they are ridiculously easy to make).

if your not a from scratch baker....then do the WASC there is a huge post on WASC with great flavor extender recipes let me know if you dont know what I'm talking about and I'll send you the link.

This has probably been asked before, but what's another way to thin out Wilton candy melts besides using vegetable shortening? I think I read somewhere that you can use vegetable oil or canola oil, but I wanted to ask the cake ball experts.

I took a batch of cake balls to work because I thought they were too mushy. The staff loved them and some said they tasted like Lindor Truffles! I didn't think that was too bad!
Candy melts-I have thinned them with shortening. I don't think they coat well, especially the white. The white ended up looking greasy and coated unevenly. I like almond bark, or candy quick. It is sold as a pound pkg (I think) I block shapes (like unsweetened choc).

Thanks bobwonderbuns I'm putting another order in to GSA this week and thats what I am out of....wheres your cape? Save the day...all in a days work for you!

small cute idea: I was just looking at all the spaghetti meatball cupcakes on CC and thought it would be cute to do cake balls on each one instead of the chocolate nut idea...well I guess you could do the cake balls (dark choc) and then sprinkle with finely chopped nuts...dry....add sauce......and thats post 500

Well, I *tried* to make it through the 70 pages before asking a question, but my 11 month old daughter just makes it too hard (and I'm too impatient to read for days at a time when these look like so much fun).

Can you use something besides chocolate to cover the cake balls? I saw someone ask about poured fondant, but I didn't see a reply. I also saw a bunch of ppl talking about Candy Melts. Sorry if it's a stupid question, but are candy melts non-chocolate? Or are they just colored chocolate disks?

I never have neard of people using anything but chocolate. You can use cany melts (which are the discs), almond bark, high end chocolate, or even a combination of those to get the flavor and consistency you like

i am actually going to be trying yogurt coating too!

nice! let us know how that goes...and tastes!

i will! its for some people i know who dont eat chocolate, Im going to try it with banana cake!

I have rolled cake balls in chopped nuts (especially good using pecans or walnuts with banana or spice cake), or flaked coconut with dark, chocolate cake is really good, too. Or some colored jimmies can also be yummy and pretty. Cake balls to me are so moist, the addition of rolling in chocolate can be a bit like gilding the lily, so to speak.

YIKES! DId I just date myself using THAT term?? LOL

I was messing around last night and made these. Let me know what you all think.

It might be hard to see, but I cut out a flower and taped it to the bottom for a different effect. I may use flower wire next time, instead of a toothpick.