We try to make sweets just once a week, and I was craving something lemony and cakey, so I thought I would make these. I used Bakerella's Red Velvet cake balls recipe as a guide.
Lemon Cake Balls
1 box lemon cake (cooked as directed on box for 9x13 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (I made lemon cream cheese frosting minus the food coloring)
1 package white chocolate bark
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl or into a gallon ziploc bag.
2. Mix thoroughly with frosting. (If you use the ziploc bag you can just squish the mixture without getting your hands messy)
3. Roll mixture into small balls and lay on cookie sheet.
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm.
I found it difficult to coat the cake balls. It got very clumpy for me and thick. When it hardened, it was very hard, unlike my bakery's smooth and soft coating. Also, I don't like the taste very much of the almond bark. So if I do this again I would want a different sort of coating for the outside. I'll have to figure that out. It also seemed like the lemon cake needed additional flavor. I was thinking maybe a drop or two of coconut extract? All in all, it was a fun thing to make and fun for the fam to eat. I could only eat a couple before I had my fill. They are incredibly sweet and rich.
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6 comments:
I completely agree. I had a hard time with the coating. I'm looking for some way to make it more user friendly. Someone told me you could add oil, but I don't know if this is true. Also, the lemon isn't very lemony. Perhaps if you added lemon extract.
Make sure the balls are very cold--I put mine in the freezer. Stick a toothpick in the frozen ball and then dip into the coating. No mush. Pull out toothpick when coating has hardened. Drizzle with decorative icing if you want to hide the toothpick mark.
I've always added lemon extract to a lemon cake mix to increase the lemony flavor. It seems to do the trick. Maybe start with a 1/2 teaspoon and go on from there until it's to your liking.
If you're using a box cake mix, the lemon cake usually calls for about 1-1/3 cups of water. I squeeze out lemons and replace anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of water with fresh lemon juice. It gives a richer lemon flavor and adds a bit of tartness. Don't add more than 1/2 cup of lemon juice or you'll have one heck of a pucker party!
In my comment above, I missed adding the "cup" after how much water I replace. It's replace 1/3 to 1/2 CUP of water with lemon juice. Sorry! :)
I used lemon curd instead of the cream cheese with the lemon cake to form the balls. Really nice lemon flavor without being too tart. Also, I have found that adding 1-2 tablespoons of shortening to your melted chocolate or almond bark will do the trick. It not only thins it out a little so that the coating is not so thick but it also stops it from hardening as it cools so that you can get all of the cake balls coated without having to remelt your coating.
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