Recipe 1 - Cake Balls

Well, here we go. Some friends gave me this recipe because it is "idiot proof" and "if you can make grilled cheese, you can make cake balls." So, here goes nothing!

Cake Balls

1 box cake mix (red velvet is recommended)

1 can frosting

1 1/2 lbs. almond bark

decorative sprinkles

Mix the cake mix as directed on the package and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes in a well greased 9 x 13 pan. Cool completely. After it has cooled break the cake up into crumbs and small pieces in a large bowl. Then add the can of ready made frosting and mix very well with the cake. All the cake pieces should be moist with the frosting. Then roll into small balls about 1 inch in diameter and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and put in the refrigerator until well chilled. Melt the almond bark as directed on the package and dip each cake ball into the melted chocolate and coat completely and place on waxed paper to dry, apply the sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet. This makes between 50-60 cake balls.

I'm making these for my little brother's birthday (I mean what teenage boy wouldn't find the prospect of cake "balls" funny? Shoot, it makes me giggle and I am way out of my teens). I bought carrot cake and red velvet cake mixes at his request and cream cheese icing. My initial attempt at teaching myself to cook has already gone array. Not realizing that you need vegetable oil to make cake out of cake mix, I am already on trip two to the grocery store.

No problems with making the boxed cake mixes, nor with mixing in the pre-made icing. The problems came when I started trying to form the balls.

The carrot cake balls worked perfectly, the red velvet not so much.

The red velvet cake kept sticking to my hands and it was damn near impossible to make balls. Ultimately I lost patience and just plopped piles of red velvet stuff onto the cake pan with the hope that once they were chilled it would be easier to create ball shapes (I was right). So far so good.

And then came the melting of the chocolate. I bought white chocolate rather than almond bark because I couldn't figure out where almond bark was in the store. That was evidently my first mistake. Three pounds of scalded chocolate later, I finally figured out how to melt the chocolate. I added two tablespoons of crisco to two cups of chocolate and it finally got liquidy enough to dip the balls. Idiot proof my ass!

Still, they didn't look anything like I thought they would. They did taste good though, which I guess is all that matters.