Cake Balls or Mini Nightmares?

Cake balls. What can I say about them other than the fact that when you look at the recipe, all you can think is, "I got this!"? The truth is, they require very few ingredients and in theory are very easy to make, but usually end up taking more time than they're really worth.

Given the level of effort associated with this dessert, I propose to change the name to Cake Truffles.

Here's the recipe that seems to catch many peoples' eyes and lead them to believe that they can whip up a cute dessert in less than an hour and look like a rockstar at their next office party.

Ingredients:
1 can frosting
1 box of cake mix
1 bag of chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli for everything)

Method:
1. Bake cake as directed on box.

2. When cake comes out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes. Proceed to crumbling to dust.

3. Mix entire can of frosting into crumbs.

4. Roll into balls.

5. Melt chocolate over double broiler. Let's get real here... most of us will probably do this in the microwave and forget that chocolate burns easily. It'll probably sit in the micro for two minutes on high before the kitchen begins filling up with smoke and the fire alarm starts going off. The family dog will start barking and the baker will run into the kitchen repeatedly muttering, "OH sh*t!' under her breath. I don't judge. This happened to me once. I was five.

6. Coat the balls in chocolate and decorate as desired. If you want to decorate with sprinkles or anything comparable, do this while the dang schweddy balls are still wet, otherwise you'll have a mess and will be stammering the SH word once again.

Okay, so this sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! Do you know long the process of actually rolling out seriously like... 100 balls takes? I usually do 15 before I give up. So after I've rolled 15 balls, I realize that I still have to coat them in chocolate. I usually do one before realizing that I'm tired and this process sucks royally. I then proceed to spooning the melted chocolate over the top, which looks just fine and usually earns me a few compliments at what ever function I serve them at.

MY ADVICE TO YOU:
Do not make these. You can clearly taste that the frosting is from a can, and the time you put into it is just not worth it. Oh, so you're ambitious and want to make your own frosting, huh? Please leave my blog and never come back. For real... it is not worth it. If you want something chocolate-y and special to bring to a casual party, make brownies (recipe to come soon) instead. Your time is better spent trimming the grass blade-by-blade with a pair of safety scissors. Pin It