Cake Balls, Practice Run: Completed

Cake Balls

Practice Run

+5 skill points -> 155/400

The practice cake I made on Sunday yielded some high domes that had to be leveled off.  Originally these were saved for my husband to snack on, but he's too busy playing video games to notice.  Instead, I decided to do a few cake balls!

I crumbled the cake and mixed in about 2 Tb of cream cheese tub frosting.  One post on the cakecentral.com forums said that the mixture should look like cookie dough.  When I achieved that consistency, I scooped some out with my cookie dough spoon!

The scoops were rolled into a ball using the palm of my hands and were then placed on parchment paper.

I let these set in the refrigerator while I did some chores, maybe <20 minutes.  Then I popped them in the freezer while I microwaved some chocolate.

I've got a ton of chocolate left from a failed attempt to run a chocolate fountain.  Have you ever seen a chocolate fountain?  It's one of the most beautiful sights ever :)  This chocolate was for a baby shower, but once we got all the chocolate in, the fountain quit working after only 5 minutes.  So I definitely have chocolate to spare.  There's a significant amount of vegetable oil in this chocolate, so it has a very thin consistency (necessary for use in a chocolate fountain).  I really can't use this chocolate for anything else except dipping things in or drizzling on to stuff (like my practice cake).

I stuck a toothpick in a ball and dipped it in the chocolate, covering every part of it.  I held it up and let some chocolate run off, then I transferred it back to the parchment paper.

There was a hole left where the toothpick was, so I drizzled some chocolate in it to cover it up.  They are now sitting on the kitchen table ... I'm going to go try one ...

Hmph, the chocolate hasn't set yet.  You know, this chocolate might not be solid at room temperature with all the oil in it.  I'm putting the balls in the fridge.  Perhaps I should leave one out to test ...

UPDATE:
Let's call this a fail, but I learned a lot.  My cake balls were way too mushy.  I suppose I put too much icing in?  Here's what the mixture should have looked like (and if it were red velvet cake):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pioneerwoman/2984701665/

I am determined to try again!  I want to make some yellow covered spice cake balls for Halloween.  I'll let you know how it turns out ... it should NOT look like cookie dough.