Sunday, February 28, 2010

Red Velvet Cake Balls


Do you have heaps of things that you want to make, but just don't seem to get there? For ages, I have wanted to try making Bakerella's cake balls, but just never got around to it. However, my butt was put firmly into gear when I thought that red velvet cake balls covered with white chocolate would make an elegant morning tea treat for Yan's wedding tea. Yan recently was married in China, and tomorrow, her first day back, we are hosting a morning tea for her at work.


My execution may not have been as elegant as I had hoped, and they took a little longer (and used much more chocolate!) than I expected, but I got there in the end.



I decided to use
Bakerella's recipe for red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting for the balls. (I used her old cream cheese frosting recipe, which only has 4 cups of icing sugar instead of 6, and it worked fine.)


Here is my red velvet cake, which looks like a worn leather handbag for some reason:





The next step was to crumble the cake with my hands - a very therapeutic exercise:




After making the cream cheese frosting in the food processor, I mixed just enough frosting into the cake crumbs so that they would bind together into balls (and had quite a bit leftover):




The balls went into the freezer for an hour, and were then dipped in chocolate (half white, half dark) and topped with silver cachous:




I found the dipping part quite tricky, as if handled too roughly, the balls fell apart. They also tended to stick to my hands and the utensils I was using. I eventually found that the best coating method for me was to place a cake ball on a spoon, then holding it over the bowl of melted chocolate, use a second spoon to pour melted chocolate over the ball. I then tipped the ball out onto the parchment lined sheet, and covered the "bald" patch where the ball had rested on the spoon with extra chocolate drizzled over with a spoon.



It was a rather time consuming process to make these, and I used about 500g of chocolate (the cake weighed around 600g). It was fun to do and the balls tasted good, but I probably won't hurry to try it again.



Hope you all had a good weekend!

22 comments:

Susan @ My Wholefood Family Essentials said...

So funny, I just looked at these on Bakerella's site today! I'm sure they were very well received. What was the flavour of the red velvet cake like on its own?

Beck said...

How fun! I've been wanting to make red velvet cake forever. It's so red! Chocolately right?

Anonymous said...

Interesting - cake cooked first then frosting as a binder. A bit of work, particuarly with the icing, so good job. Love the mad coloured leather look!

Finla said...

Wow love dthe idea of making the balls with teh cake.
Looks so so dleicous.

Mr. P said...

I would love to crush a cake with my bare hands!

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

I love how ur red velvet looks red and not reddish with a brownish tint...lol...

what color did ya use/

Pam said...

Oh, I love that red velvet cake and would like to have a fork right now! It looks delicious!

Cakelaw said...

@ Susan - I liked the red velvet cake, It has an unusual taste because of the vinegar and buttermilk, hard to describe as it is unique, but good (especially with cream cheese frosting!).

@ Beck - sort of chocolatey (because there is one tablespoon of cocoa in it), but not very strongly - see my comments @ Susan.

@ Lily - when I first read about this, I had my doubts, but after they have fully set up, the combination works.

@ Happy Cook - they are good, but you need to wait until they set properly - I had one before that, and it wasn't that good.

@ Mr P - I can highly recommend crushing cakes!

@ Vanillastrawberry - Queen Pillar Box Red liquid food colouring (3 tablespoons!).

@ Pam - the balls are satisfying to bite into - the crisp shell shatters to give way to the soft cake underneath.

Anonymous said...

They look great! I like the silver decorations. Your whole cake looks very funky too. I've been wanting to make these for a long time but haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe I will have a worthy occasion someday. I appreciate the tip about these using more chocolate than you expected.

SilverMoon Dragon said...

My sister has gone out and bought the edible ink pens, so she can make Bakerella's Cakepops.

I love Red Velvet Cake. Once I finally get myself some gel colours, I'm going to try making a Rainbow Cake with a red velvet recipe.

Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella said...

They look fantastic! I've heard that they are quite time consuming which I can imagine they would be. Still, they look great! :)

The Caked Crusader said...

what lovely balls! (and it's not often I get to type that!)

Great idea to mix cake crumbs and frosting all in one!

Emily said...

I've always wanted to make cake balls. These look amazing! I love red velvet.

Jennifer said...

These are on my to be made list-and yours look incredible!

Red velvet cake is something my Mom makes a lot-and I've always loved it!

I'm so glad you made these so that I could see how they would turn out-that's always so helpful!

Cakelaw said...

@ Jill - that red handbag photo is pretty funky - I was worried about this cake!

@ Dragon - these would be neat in technicolour!

@ Lorraine - definitely time consuming. Next time I'll have to try your Tim Tam balls.

@ Crusader - LOL!

@ Emily - I thought they were very cool, and I'm glad I've hd the chance to make them.

@ Jennifer - I worried that mine weren't smooth and perfect (I'm a perfectionist!), but I noticed that Bakerella's earlier versions weren't either, which made me feel better about the result.

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

I'm torn about Bakerella's cake balls. On the one hand it seems such a waste of energy to make a perfectly nice cake then crush it to smithereens and it seems like so much work, but on the other hand they look really cool, are a nice surprise, and they're BALLS. OF CAKE! Your version of them is swaying me to liking them :D

TLC said...

whoa that looks phenomenal... *drools*

I am dying to try red velvet cake!

Cakelaw said...

@ Conor - I was the same - I thought how much easier it would be just to slather the frosting on the cake. But then I thought - they're dipped in chocolate as well!! Then I was sold.

@ Lazy Cook - I was fascinated by red velvet cake when I first learned about it too. I don't think I'll ever love the armadillo cake out of Steel Magnolias though.

Johanna GGG said...

they look so cute and so professional - I am in awe - they are something I have seen and wanted to try - but now I have a new to do - I recently saw a green velvet cake which I really really want to try - and I still haven't tried a red velvet cake - at least I get to see how others such as yourself go with it

Cakelaw said...

@ Johanna - a green velvet cake - now that sounds fascinating! Would love to see it.

Nutmeg Nanny said...

These are so cute! I love them :)

Maggie said...

I love these, they would make a great talking point.
I can see that they would be very difficult to coat but you still did really well.