Little Chocolate Devils

I've been doing a lot of baking lately (and apparently not a lot of blogging). February and March have been full of birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays. I've learned a few things over the past few weeks:

1. I still love baking. I don't do it often, but I do love it.
2. Baking is still a great stress release for me. One night I couldn't sleep, so I went to store, came home and baked.
3. I had never made a traditional birthday cake before last week. I was going to make one for a friend's party and realized I didn't own round cake pans. I've made tons of ice cream roll-up cakes, cheesecakes, angle food cakes, sheet cakes, oh the list of cakes, but never just a plain old round layered cake. I made my first. And if I do say so myself. It looked good.
4. I love Magnolia's Banana Pudding. Not only because is it good - it is! But also because it will always remind me of making it with these girls and of NYC.
5. Ice cream roll-up cake is the standard birthday cake at the Brooks house. But Caisa and Shannan bought me a cookie cake pan for Christmas so I made "Smart Cookie" cakes for their birthdays. It's definitely a new favorite.



6. I am in love. I mean LOVE with Cake Balls! They are so good, but too easy to pop in your mouth making them also so very evil.


I'll share the Best Darn Chocolate Cake Balls recipe with you, but I'm warning you they are dangerous. So dangerous I made them twice in two weeks. And my friend Paul told me I could never make them again for him because he gained 6lbs in one night. So of course I made them again for the next party he would be at too. Enjoy.

The idea for Cake Balls is from Bakerella, and the chocolate cake and frosting recipe is from The Pioneer Woman (it's basically Texas Sheet Cake). My instructions are below but you can find their detailed instructions on the links.


Best Darn Chocolate Cake Balls

FOR THE CAKE:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
2 sticks Butter
1 cup Boiling Water
½ cups Buttermilk
2 whole Beaten Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla

FOR FROSTING:
1-¾ stick Butter
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
6 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

PREPARATION:
1. Make the cake.
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
2. While cake is baking, make the frosting.
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together.
3. The frosting needs to be cool so it doesn't melt the cake as you make the cake balls. I put the frosting in the fridge overnight, but just make sure it's cool.
4. Once the cake is completely cool, crumble it up.
5. Mix the frosting with the crumbled cake. I only used about 3/4 of the frosting recipe, just enough so it sticks and you can forms the balls.
6. Roll into balls. I used a tablespoon.
7. Stick the cake balls in the fridge for a few hours, or in the freezer for a while if you're in a hurry. They will coat better cold and more solid.
8. Melt chocolate (don't use chocolate chips).
9. Roll the balls in chocolate and lay them on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap the spoon against the bowl to let the extra drip off.)
10. Once the chocolate has hardened, I've found that if you use a different color chocolate to drizzle it covers up the imperfect chocolate coating.

Enjoy! And try to stop yourself from eating them all yourself!