I see everyone talking about and showing pictures of, cake balls. I don't have the SLIGHTEST clue what these things are, or how you make them. Could someone please enlighten me? They look really fun for school treats. TIA

I haven't done cake balls, but I do a chocolate covered brownie ball. I would think the cake ball might be similar.
I take brownies hand hand roll them into 1 1/2 inch ball- compressing them pretty tightly, if I am making them on a stick I slide a lolipop stick abput 3/4 way into it & put in the freezer for 1hr. Then I did them in melted dark, milk or white chocolate and sometimes roll in additional toppings.

search bakerella and look at her blog.

They are such a hot topic on this site. Some people hate them, others love them. If they are done right, I love them. They are made of cake crumbs mixed with a little frosting, rolled into balls, frozen slightly to help hold shape, then dipped in chocolate. There are a ton of different pictures on this site. People get really creative. Bakerella is known for her adorable designs.

If made wrong they taste like mush. You have to be careful not to over mix and not to add too much frosting. I personally don't add any. My cakes trimmings are usually so moist that they don't need it. My favorite is white cake with Oreo cookie crumbs mixed in and dipped in chocolate. Pure heaven!!!!

I just made my first batch last weekend... and am experimenting with what can be done.

Have seen many different recipes and suggestions on how to make them and this is what I have found worked for me.

Lot's of recipes called for cake scraps and frosting or creamer as binder for the cake crumbs... when I tried those recipes my cake balls were mushy and not something I would want to eat. Dont get me wrong they tasted great but the consistency was mushy and gross.

So I tried just using cake scraps and no binder...and just rolled them into tight little balls.

They tasted great and it was like biting into a piece of cake... so next I played around with adding flavors to them.

I took my frozen cake balls and used a flower mister I picked up and gave each one a misting of my favorite liquere and it worked out even better.

This weekend I am experimenting with what I can fill them will and dip them into....

Best thing to do is grab some cake mix, bake it up, crumble it all up and play with it!

It's a lot easier than you think and a ton of fun!

HTH

Miss Lizzy

Cake balls, Yum!!!!

I love the orange creamsicle cake from the gourmet flavors thread (kudos to macsmom as usual) with a bit of white frosting or ganache, dipped in white chocolate - they are delicious and I'm not even a big fan of white chocolate!

Bakerella is the best! She is such an inspiration for the cutest little baked goods ever. I bought this Cake-ball mold on Amazon, has anyone else used it? I tried it really quick one night with some leftover cake and it worked well. It's shaped like the famous cupcake. I just tried to find the link and I cant.

Need to try it again when I have more time to really make them cute..

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I tried some tonight. I just did chocolate cake (no frosting) and tried dipping them into melted white candy melts. I don't know if my candy is old or what, but it didn't get thin enough and would separate a little bit. Should I use something else to dip them in, like REAL white chocolate or almond bark? What works best?

I also couldn't get them smooth. They were bumpy. Do I just need to squeeze the balls and mold them a little better? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you, imagenthatnj. Very helpful!

You may want to try adding a little vegetable oil to thin you chocolate. It helps a lot.

I agree with the rest about Bakerella.

Though I did get a lot of advice from reading the forums here on CC. Do a search in the forum section for cake balls or cake truffles for tips.

But Bakerella's pictures and inspiration can't be beat. The ad here on CC is for her new book.

On a related note, with the holidays coming, my company gets the corporate gift catalogs and I see that even GODIVA is on the cake ball band wagon......

http://www.godiva.com/subcategory/seasonal-gifts/bakery-dessert-truffles/id/221.gdv

I don't use frosting in my cake balls. For chocolate, I add just enough chocolate syrup to make the cake stick together. I have also used caramel syrup & flavored coffee creamers. Like everyone else says, make sure not to add too much liquid or frosting to the cake. You only need enough to be able to form it into balls.

I made cake balls for the first time today and I've had trouble with my chocolate cracking. I could literally hear it "pop" as they were cooling.

I formed the balls - put sticks into them using a bit of chocolate - put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes - then took them out and dipped them.

What did I do wrong?? And how can I avoid the cracks? (I was using the Wilton melts.)

k-dub, I've heard that you aren't suppose to put in freezer.

K-dub, watch this video. I don't think you can leave them in the freezer for that long.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811876373/?tag=cakecentral-20

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,8831/?utm_source=BlogAdsCampaign1&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=CakePops_102110

Funny - I always freeze mine and dip them while they are still frozen. Never have trouble with the chocolate cracking. I even experimented one time to see if I could figure out why others have trouble with the chocolate cracking. (Added extra moisture, hand rolled instead of small scoop, etc.)