Please share your tips for keeping cake crumbs from getting into the chocolate.
I do freeze my cake balls and then only work in small batches, but currently, I am debating coating them in a simple syrup and then freezing and then dipping. Any thoughts??

Can we please discuss refrigeration? Of course something made with just cake and buttercream, coated in candy, should be fine out of the fridge...but what about things with cream cheese and coffee creamer? I imagine these need to be stored in the fridge (I'm just thinking ahead for holiday shipping purposes and storage directions for gift recipients).

Is it just a better idea to make 'shelf stable' cake truffles for shipping?

Great thread, everyone, thanks for your ideas so far!!

I too am wondering about refrigeration---if someone wanted a cake truffle tree to be a center piece how long could it sit out? I know from my experience b/c my cakes are moist that it doesn't require much binder at all, especially liquid creamer. A lot of times what I will do is take a small amount of buttercream & strongly flavor it so they are shelf stable.

Eszilla, personally for shipping I would do "shelf stable" just b/c you never know the temp on trucks when they get shipped. But pack those babies well or they'll get crushed

Anyone have the answers for these ladys??

I refrigerate all because I dont know the answers. The only ones I havent is my brownie ones

I refridgerate the ones with cream cheese, have not done any with fruit - but I would do those, too. If made of just icing and cake, there's no need to refridgerate - it's just like have a cake with BC only. The chocolate doesn't need refridgeration.

auntginn, how exactly did u make the ones with the baked apples??? what type of cake did you use and how did you use the apples and the caramel. They sound amazing. I can't wait to try them.

Also for those of you amazing people who made those beautiful trees, what do u charge and for what size?

I know the sleeves of fruit filling don't require refrigeration so those could be used. I'm going to try the strawberry w/ a chocolate cake I just pulled out of the oven since I've never used fruit as a binder.

Another thing is you can use flavored oils to flavor your chocolate & just use buttercream as a binder. I don't know why I've not thought about using cream cheese icing---I use the decorator's crusting bcream here on cc. May try that next time.

I put a little bit of parafin wax in the chocolate (instead of shortening) like I do when I make buckeyes. Worked great.

This was my first attempt at cake balls, still working on the texture. My DH said they we too creamy, and that I should use a dryer cake. Will try that next time.

What should the consistency be like? I have only tried them once and evryone said they were too soft but not enough flavor. I used chocolate cake with coffee creamer.

Can i coat them with the wiltons chocolate i make pops with or is there a better choice??

So the oreo ones are just crushed mixed with a binder then covered in chocolate?



Thanks for the thread..ive been wanting to make them again.

stashie- sounds like you used too much binder, I use moist cakes, it all depends on the amount of binder IMHO.

Shanille21- I find they are best when they are like sugar cookie dough (HTH) Also I prefer using real chocolate, if you want colours, use white and add the colour you want.

After visiting Bakerella's site ...again...I just had to try to make something other than balls. Granted, these would look sooooooo much better if given some decorative details and if the cookie saucers were iced smoother but I just had to see if they'd work and what they'd look like...I shared how I did them...maybe someone else would like to make some more elaborate ones?

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1514382

All4cake - those are just too cute! Love them.

I have never made these scrumptious cake balls and would love to try to make them, however, I never have crumbs to use. I will have to make a complete cake and just crumble it so I want to know what are the steps to making cake balls.

My understanding is that you crumble your cake and then need some type of binder like frosting or a flavoring to get them to ball up. How much per cake do you use so that they will not come out sticky?

Then you freeze for a few hours and dip into white or regular or dark chocolate.

Did I miss anything? I need to make these for Christmas gifts for family. Instead of buying gifts we bake goodies for each other. I want to try these this year.

Thanks for any help.

Thank you TNTFundraiser!

Those are Adorable!!! I may steal your idea if you don't mind. I just made some last night, but haven't dipped them yet. I may try these if I have time, if not another time!

I would absolutely love it if you did!

I was just thinking, I bet they could be made as lollies too...if anyone was interested in those...make the hole in the cookie saucer larger and skewer the 'cup' with a lollipop stick instead of a toothpick...if dipped and slid into the hole quickly, the chocolate would glue the two together...oh, they would be too cute in a gift basket for a coffee lover! Oh! Oh! and instead of the swiss meringue buttercream topping, one could either pipe ahead and place on tacky chocolate or pipe directly on top and allowed to dry before packaging, a homemade marshmallow or royal icing swirly to finish it off.

Can someone please explain what the texture should be like for a cake ball? I had some scraps from a chocolate wasc and it was so moist I didn't even need a binder to roll them in a ball. When I bit into it, there was nothing "cake like" about it. Then I tried it with a doctored red velvet mix, they weren't as moist and I did use a little cream cheese icing but it still seems to have the texture of "wet cake" to me. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be using a less moist cake?

I understand what you all are saying, and I agree... It took me a long time and several tries to find some I liked. I don't care for any cake mixed with the creamers.... I do like a few that I have experimented with though; like German Choc cake w/ coconut pecan icing mixed in, just enough to hold it together. Spice cake w/apple filling, carrot cake w/cream cheese icing.. You get the idea, something with nuts and texture in it. Even brownies work well with a little chocolate icing.

Today I made pumpkin spice cake with cc frosting as a binder and then dipped them in dark chocolate. Also tried it with bc. They got rave reviews. I also tried eggnog cake and soaked it in eggnog as binder and dipped in milk chocolate. My husband said it was good but wished the eggnog was stronger, not sure how I could make it stronger. Last but not least I made chocolate cake with pepermint bc dipped in milk chocolate then crushed a peppermint for the top of them. Wish I had taken pictures.

This is EXACTLY the trouble I had with the first batch of cake balls. Too moist and not enough flavor. If the cake were drier-it would need more flavored oil/extract, meaning more flavor. I am going to make some tomorrow with some cake that has been crumbled and set out overnight to dry...we'll see.

I would appreciate any advice on how best to cover cake balls in chocolate where there are no flat bottoms and no marks from dipping utensil. Last night I tried using just a skewer to insert into the cake ball when dipping in chocolate, but I still get marks and the obvious little hole on the bottom of the ball. Is it possible to get a perfectly smooth cake ball with no flat bottom and marks from whatever utensil you are using to dip in chocolate? I find myself drizzling chocolate on the finished product to hide imperfections. I guess I am a bit of a perfectionist. Please help because this is really bothering me!!!

Sorry for being such a pest on this topic, but I plan on making one of the cake ball trees today and am a bit nervous about putting the tree together. For those of you who have done this, what type of tooth pics do you use to secure the ball to the styrofoam? Did you have any issues with the balls falling off. Also do you insert the tooth pic into the styrofoam and then attach the ball or vice versa?

I too am doing a tree today. I was wondering if they would be able to be attached w/ just chocolate (barely melted so it's thicker) & maybe popping in the fridge between the levels to help the chocolate set quicker.

If you're going to use toothpicks I would suggest putting it in the foam first & then put the cake ball on it. If you put it in the ball first I would be afraid of damaging it if I met resistance when putting into the foam. But someone on this thread or another I read said they put a dab of chocoalte on the bottom of the ball even when they used toothpicks.

CakesbyLJ, I do hope you mean $1/ball not $1 for the entire tree. These are my expenses so far (just ingredients rounded off); cake mix & ingredients ($2), chocolate ($3.50), fruit, buttercream (minimal but about $.50). Plus the $2 for the foam & not including utilities or time. I got about 70 out of 2 9" pans (just regular pans from walmart) but would have probably had a few more had I not had beggars around .

I am wondering about cake pops like Bakerella. How would you dry them?