Halloween Cakeballs, AKA the Horrors of Overheating White Chocolate

So, I had this idea to make Halloween-themed cakeballs by dipping half in dark chocolate and half in orange chocolate - that is, white chocolate dyed with orange food coloring. Maybe I would do a drizzle over the top of each with the alternating color. What a lovely idea!

I got my white chocolate, my gel food coloring, metal stirring utensils, everything wiped free of even the merest drop of water. 

And then I overheated the chocolate.

Silly me, putting the white chocolate in the microwave for 20-second intervals rather than 15-second ones... few things are more horrifying in the kitchen than stirring your molten chocolate only to realize - wait, is it getting thicker?? Why yes, because white chocolate is literally satan.

Basically, count me in for the double-boiler crew in the future. Thank goodness semi-sweet chocolate is so much more forgiving. I had to give up on my orange-dipped idea - although not without trying some of those tips online for salvaging (adding fat, cooling then gently reheating, stirring a lot...) but eventually I had to come to terms with the fact that even if I used a blender to force emulsification, that coating was not going to look pretty once it had solidified.

My poor solidified chocolate, reduced to crumbles... and I had achieved just the right shade of orange, too!

In a last-ditch effort to not waste the whole bowl of white chocolate, I popped it in the fridge for a while and then scratched the surface with a knife repeatedly after it had cooled (in retrospect, perhaps a fork would have been easier.) There, festive orange crumbles to top my chocolate cakeballs!

Admittedly, not the aesthetic I had originally intended, but I ended up liking it all the same.

If you've never made cakeballs before, here's the first post I made with instructions outlined from Bakerella's site. Basically, (1) bake a cake, (2) crumble it, (3) mix in frosting, (4) roll into balls, (5) chill, (6) dip and decorate! It's time consuming - I like to split the process into 3 days (step 1, then 2-3-4-5, then 6) - but not difficult. Believe me, it's great fun to bake a cake without having to worry at all about if you can't get it out of the pan in one piece, or if the edges are too dry, or if it rises unevenly.

Also, for this batch, I tried out a new cake recipe that was much, much lighter than the one in my first cakeball post. You can find that one here. I halved the sugar, which I recommend when making cakeballs, since you'll be adding both frosting and chocolate to each bite.

Go forth, and make cakeballs!