Chocolate Cake Truffles

I made these chocolate cake truffles for a women's evangelistic event at my church. It was a great night of chocolate feasting and hearing about what the bible and God had to say about the topic of forgiveness.


For these cake truffles be sure to use couverture chocolate and not compound chocolate for a more luxurious taste. Also, be careful to not overheat the chocolate when melting it otherwise it will be clumpy and gluggy making it difficult for you to coat your chocolate cake balls evenly. However, if that does happen, try adding a bit of vegetable oil and it should thin out a bit making it a bit easier to work with.

Warning! These chocolate cake truffles are very rich and not good for the waistline!

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake Mix)

1 tub chocolate frosting (I used Betty Crocker chocolate frosting)

375g milk chocolate (couverture)

375g white chocolate (couverture)

shredded coconut

chocolate sprinkles

piping bags

icing pens

styrofoam box or old egg cartons

skewers

electric fondue pot (if you can afford one)

Method

Bake the cake mix according to package directions. Once the cake has been cooled completely,  process it in a food processor until fine crumbs form. I usually bake the cake overnight.

Transfer to a large bowl and stir in half of the frosting container. You just want enough to get the crumbs to stick together when you roll them into balls.  Do not add so much that the mixture becomes soft and mushy! (The chocolate frosting is what acts as a glue to hold the cake balls together). Use your hands to mix the frosting evenly throughout the crumbled cake mix until the cake mix is well moistened. Your cake mix should be moist enough to shape into a large mound and keep its shape.

Line a tray with non-stick baking paper. Roll 2 teaspoonfuls of cake mixture into a ball. Place on the prepared tray. Repeat with remaining cake mixture. You should be able to get 45-50 cake balls from a single batch of cake mix.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. I usually do this step the day before and then dip them the following day or for same day results, leave the balls to set early in the morning and dip later in the afternoon.  Do not freeze them before dipping or it may cause the chocolate to crack after they are dipped.

Place the milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Stir with a metal spoon until the chocolate melts and is smooth

or

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook on medium for 60 seconds. Stir. Repeat until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

Use a skewer or truffle dipper to dip truffles, one at a time, into melted chocolate to coat. Gently tap the skewer or dipper on the edge of the bowl to allow excess chocolate to drip off.  

Immediately cover with chocolate sprinkles/toppings before the chocolate has a chance to set, then insert in a Styrofoam block or upside down egg carton to harden. (I wrap my Styrofoam board in plastic wrap to keep it clean so I can reuse it).

Notes & Tips

·     Make sure you process the cake to fine crumbs; if there are chunks of cake, the mixture may be hard to roll and your truffles may be uneven and lumpy.

To turn these chocolate cake truffles into cake pops, simply insert a lollipop stick into the base of the cake truffle (the flat bottom end), dip into the melted chocolate, decorate as desire, then once set package in clear cellophane tied with a ribbon. 

You can also pipe patterns onto the top of the chocolate cake truffles if you wish.