Triple Chocolate Cake Balls

Happy New Year, everyone! Can you believe it’s 2012 already? 20-frickin-12. That means it’s been 20 years since I came to America, 15 years since we left Texas, almost 10 years since high school, a little less than 7 years since Dan and I got together, 5 years since college, 2 years since I left the warm cocoon of higher education/student life forever, and a little over a year since Dan and I successfully navigated the murky waters of home ownership. Yikes! Where does the time go?

I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a good year though. New job, new fiance, new furniture (Dan’s uncle gave us a gorgeous Queen Anne hutch over the holidays), new power suits (necessary evil) and, of course, new recipes to be tried! Or, you know, old recipes that have been bookmarked for ages and need to be cooked soon before my “to try” list gets too ridiculous.

I’ve been meaning to make cake pops/balls for a while now, but I’ve never had any loose cake or frosting on hand that I wasn’t already using for other eating purposes. But, after making mini Kahlua trifles a couple days ago, I had most of a 13×9 chocolate sheet cake leftover, as well as a whole tub of chocolate frosting (unrelated to the trifles; I just couldn’t pass up discounted frosting at the grocery store). So, I could either eat the cake/frosting plain, or…I could make cake balls!

These cake pops were so easy to make, and so yummy. Turns out chocolate cake mashed up with chocolate frosting tastes exactly like really soft, decadent fudge. And, when you roll it into balls that get dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkled with chopped nuts? Oh. Em. Gee. Thank god I was making these as a belated Christmas present for my friend Emily, or else my wedding diet would be irrevocably derailed before it even really got started!

Triple Chocolate Cake Balls (Adapted from Bakerella’s recipe)

Ingredients:
– 1 baked and cooled chocolate box cake, crumbled into pieces
– 1 15.5 oz tub chocolate frosting
– 1 cup milk chocolate chips
– 1/2 cup heavy cream
– Chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Steps:
(1) In a large bowl, mash together crumbled cake + frosting until you get a uniform mixture.
(2) Using your hands, roll dough into quarter-sized balls. Place balls on wax paper-lined baking sheets.
(3) Chill balls in fridge for 30 min to 1 hour.
(4) In a double boiler on medium heat, melt chocolate chips. Add cream and stir chocolate mixture is until smooth and liquid.
** I had a discussion about this with Dan’s mom over the holidays. She tried my Oreo Truffles recipe but ran into some problems with the chocolate ganache. For whatever reason her coating chocolate was thick and lumpy and refused to smooth out. She tried adding more cream, but found that adding parafin to the mixture fixed the problem right away. I’ve never tried that before, but it’s definitely useful information. If you don’t have parafin on hand, I suggest lowering the heat on your double boiler (or stove, whatever), then slowly adding cream and stirring constantly until the mixture smooths out. You may need more cream than you think, and you have to be patient. Adding a smidge of butter to the mixture helps things too. If the mixture gets too liquidy, just add more chips.
(5) Dip chilled cake balls into the melted chocolate mixture, and turn to coat. Use a fork to lift each ball out, and allow excess chocolate to drip through the tines before placing the coated cake ball back on the lined baking sheet.
(6) While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on some chopped nuts, if desired.
(7) Stick in the fridge or freezer for a few hours, or until ready to serve.
(8) Enjoy with a big glass of milk!

For other great chocolate ideas, click here.