Cakeballs!

So it's been a while since I posted. Do I say that a lot? Probably.

Anyway, I made cakeballs! Not the first time I've made them (huge Bakerella fan here), and I was a bit rushed for time because I was bringing them to be shared the next morning, but I saved a few to photograph. I went with a drizzle on the white chocolate ones and a dusting of cocoa powder on the semisweet ones. I used PioneerWoman's chocolate sheet cake for the interior and chocolate chips [with a little shortening for workability] on the outside.



I used 1.5x the cake recipe, and I ended up getting all these and a bit more. I only made 1 portion of frosting sans pecans, and there was still pretty much left over.

Cake Recipe
found here

Ingredients

• FOR THE CAKE:
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  
• FOR FROSTING:
• ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1-¾ stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together.

Cakeball Instructions
paraphrased from here

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with frosting, gradually increasing the amount until the consistency looks good to you and balls can be formed from the mixture without falling apart (Bakerella recommends 1 can of frosting, but when things are from scratch, I just add frosting by the spoonful and see how it goes.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet.
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate (with shortening if necessary.)
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.) Drizzle with more chocolate for decoration or use sprinkles if desired.

Both ladies have lovely picture instructions if you haven't made cakeballs before, so I suggest checking the links out!

(These pictures were taken after the balls had hung out in the fridge for a couple of days... just explainin' the outside of the semisweet coated ones.)

Anyway, these are always a great sweet treat! I've never had anyone try and dislike a cakeball, and they're so versatile - I plan on using white chocolate with icing colors to see if I can't make some pretty pastel ones :) So if you've never made these before, definitely go for it! Be warned, though: these little truffles can get extremely addicting :x