Christmas Cake Truffles!

Ah the Cake Truffle….   Delicious bite size delights of moist cake and sugary frosting covered in a hard chocolate shell!  If your mouth isn’t watering yet, stay with me.  At the Wine Loft, downtown Kalamazoo our Cake Truffles have become a staple on the dessert menu and with good reason.  These intriguing little morsels are more than enough to satisfy even the biggest sugarholic in your life.  My gift to you this week, the recipe for our delicious gingerbread cupcake turned into a Cake Truffle.  The truth is any kind of cake can be turned into a truffle but I always try to keep the Cake Truffles special and unique so we only offer up to 5 flavors at a time on the menu.  I promise you the lucky recipient of this gift will not soon forget it.  While a bit labor intensive these are fun and once you get the hang of it, easy to make.  This recipe should yield around 60 mini truffles at around .35 per piece!

This recipe could be made much easier by using a store bought cake mix and frosting in a pinch.  I highly recommend however that you put the extra time in and make your cake from scratch.  Using this particular truffle will be easier to do just that because the cake itself is so moist and flavorful that we don’t even use a frosting : )

What you’ll need:

• Square or round cake pan
• Parchment paper – optional
• bags Wilton white chocolate melting wafers (found at Meijer, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels
• Chocolate dipping tools (optional but gets the job done much quicker!  Found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels for $2.99 a set.  You can also use a spoon and a fork
• wax paper
• food processor or children willing to shred the cake : )
• candied ginger or yellow decorating sugars , or yellow decoration of your choice (Be smart when shopping for candied ginger!  You can often find small affordable amounts at your local health food store or World Market.  The most expensive we’ve found – Meijer!)

The Recipe:

• 1 and 1/2 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 2 sticks unsalted butter (soft at room temperature)
• 1 and 1/4 cups granulated or beet sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
• 4 large eggs (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon PURE Vanilla Extract
• 1 bag Wilton white candy melts
• Candied ginger pieces (optional)

What to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees for atleast 1/2 hour.  Either grease the bottom and sides of your cake pan or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together your all purpose flour and spices.
3. In a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer cream the butter and sugar on med-high speed until light and fluffy
4. Add the molasses to your  butter blend and beat until just combined.  Next, add your eggs one at a time beating until each is just incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Beat in the Vanilla extract.  Reducing your speed to low gradually add the flour and spice mixture beating until just combined.
6. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean (different ovens will require different cooking times.
7. Let your delicious homemade cake cool completely.  It is perfectly acceptable to eat pieces of this cake you’ve worked so hard on!
8. This would normally be where I tell you to make the frosting but because this cake is so moist and delicious all on it’s own we don’t event need to mess with it.  This will save you time and money!
9. When your cake has completely cooled place by pieces in the food processor and shred it.  With almost any other cake the cake would turn into millions of tiny crumbs but because of the moisture in this cake the food processor will blend it into sort of a moist dough making the next steps much easier.  Note – If you do not have a food processor simply shred the cake with your hands in a large bowl as best you can into small crumbs or pieces
10. Remove your cake dough from the food processor and transfer to bowl.  You will want to have a sheet pan lined with wax or parchment paper ready!
11. Using your hands take small pieces of the cake and roll into a perfect little ball (the smaller the balls you make the easier they are to dip and the more your recipe will yield.  Continue rolling the cake balls until there is no more cake left.  Note – If you are shredding your cake by hand and you’re finding it difficult to roll into perfect balls simply add water a teaspoon at a time until your cake is moist enough to work with.
12. Take your sheet pan with your cake balls and refrigerate while you prepare your white chocolate coating.

Coating your truffles:

Coating truffles for the first time can prove to be a challenge.  Throughout the steps I will provide tips to make it easier.  Be sure to have all of your ingredients ready to go!

1. Line a new sheet pan with wax or parchment paper.
2. In a double broiler (Saute pan of boiling water with a glass bowl in the middle.  Place your white chocolate in the glass bowl one bag at a time  and slowly melt) or a microwave melt your white chocolate pieces.  Note – White chocolate is a tricky thing to work with.  It is very easy to overcook white chocolate making it completely unusable.  The name of this game is SLOW!  Whether your using a double broiler or a microwave carefully follow the directions on the white chocolate wafer package to the T!  Also, be sure not to let any water touch the white chocolate because it will seize making it impossible to work with.
3. Once your chocolate is melted you’ll want to work quickly (ignore that phone ringing : ) Have your dipping tools or kitchen fork and spoon ready.  Remove your prepared truffles from the refrigerator and one at a time drop into the white chocolate.  Using your tools quickly turn your truffle towards you at least once to completely cover in white chocolate.  Once covered remove from the white chocolate gently scraping the bottom of the truffle on the sides of the bowl to remove excess white chocolate.  Transfer your coated truffle onto the lined sheet pan and move on to the next truffle.  Note –  Less is more when coating your truffles.  If you turn your truffles too many times you’ll find that either the truffle will look sloppy or the cake will start to break off into the white chocolate ruining your other truffles.  If you find that your chocolate is becoming difficult to work with simply reheat in the same manner as you did to begin with, slowly.
4. Once you’ve dipped 2 or 3 truffles you’ll want to add your decoration before the chocolate completely hardens making it impossible to add any decoration.  If using candied ginger simply add a small piece to the top of your truffle.
5. Once your desired amount of truffles are complete place the sheet tray in the refrigerator for atleast 15 minutes until completely set.  Once set you’ll want to take a very sharp knife and carefully trim around the bottom edges removing any excess chocolate.

See, that wasn’t so bad!  Once your truffles are complete you can either package them as they are or use cute mini cupcake liners to display them in.  Have fun with packaging.  I find the best packaging method is using small gift boxes found at any store this time of year.  If you are not using cupcake or candy liners be sure to line your gift boxes with either tissue or parchment paper to avoid the boxes getting greasy.  Store in the refrigerator for best results!

Happy Holidays, Enjoy!