Blogging the Cake Balls

Ever since m friend Erin's birthday last weekend, I've been totally obsessed with sweets. We had some amazing petit fours from Clayton bakery at the winery. Later on that weekend I bought two cupcakes at the grocery store, and as soon as I finished those I wanted more. I've been wanting to try Bakerella's Cake Balls recipe for some time now, and an upcoming 30th birthday party gave me just the excuse I needed.

My Friday evening got going with this Facebook status update:

I followed the recipe exactly and refrigerated the balls overnight. I got up this morning ready to dip 'em in chocolate.

Now, the recipe suggests microwaving the chocolate 1-2 squares at a time, dipping a few, melting down a couple more squares, and so on. I did a bunch this way, and I got really tired of having to pull the chocolate bowl in and out of the microwave. Plus, I was having a hard time maintaining a good consistency with the stuff, and I ended up with a couple of kinda hairy-looking balls.


I decided to get tough and pull out the double boiler. Now let me stop for a second and explain why I even own one of these things. I definitely have never needed one in the past, and I didn't exactly purchase it with baking in mind. It's this ancient enamelware thing I picked up at an estate sale for a quarter, and I only really bought it because I like the color.


So. I put the water in the bottom half, threw the chocolate squares in the top, and turned on the gas. I am fairly successful at steaming veggies and I figured this wouldn't be too different.



Then the stove caught on fire a little.

I *think* that the water boiled over the top of the pot. I'm not sure what else exactly happened, but when I took the thing off the stove the water inside was pink. Unsure why.

At any rate, I managed to melt the rest of the chocolate and dip the balls. I'm not a pro at maintaining a smoothly melted pot of chocolate, but that just means I have more practice opportunities ahead of me. And the cake balls? Amazing!