Cake Balls Disaster

Today I had an epic baking fail. I decided to make Jessica's Cake Truffles, also called Cake Balls. I've seen different versions all across the blog world and wanted to make them. I decided the combination of St. Patrick's Day and Jake's birthday would be a good time.

First up, bake a cake. I used a red velvet cake mix. No problems. I baked it last night to get a start on the whole process (and it is a long process). Then you mix in the frosting and put it in the fridge for at least two hours. No problem, except the kitchen looked like a murder scene with all the red smears. Then you have to roll the balls. TWSS.

Then came dipping in chocolate. This was the major fail. The recipe said it would make about 40 cake ball - I got over 60. It said I needed 6 oz of chocolate, I started with almost ten. Once it melts, you gently roll the balls in the chocolate and place them on a parchment. The chocolate seems really thick. I was using around .5 oz per ball. After struggling through 4 balls, I thought to myself, "why not make a ganache instead of just melted chocolate?" I have made ganaches before with no problem. Today, I got this.


That doesn't look delicious at all! Lame. I threw that out and grabbed the last bag of chocolate. I started again. An entire bag of chocolate covered 10 more balls. Obviously I need more practice with the chocolate enrobing.*


I have 45 balls of cake/frosting left. Any suggestions what I can do with them? I sure as hell am not enrobing any more. To make matters worse, they aren't even that good. Jake tried one and was like "eh. I'd rather have the real cake." I will not be making these labor-intensive balls again. Sad face.

*It's the actual technical term.