In case you were on the edge of your seat as to whether the Pioneer Woman’s cake balls are any good, I’ll cut to the chase: Fair-to-Middling, with (just) a Hint of Creativity.
I was hoping they’d be the answer to my competitive Christmas baking needs: cheap, easy, and STUNNING, but, unfortunately, they were cheap-ish, WAY HARD, and (honestly) kinda yucky.
Luckily, I tried them out with my new friend Chrysanthemum, and she had two great ideas for making them that could be used for any number of other, better-tasting holiday treats.
First, whenever you need to shape something into a ball, use an ice cream scooper or melon ball thingie and keep your hands marginally cleaner.
Second, if you need to chill a few cookie trays worth of goodies, use short cups to build a pyramid o’ trays for efficient stacking.
I was disappointed by how much harder it was to coat the balls in the dipping chocolate than Pioneer Woman made it look. Despite freezing for over an hour, we had serious crumbs. We switched from white Milton dipping chocolate to regular semi-sweet chocolate chips for the second batch, and those turned out much better, taste- and looks-wise.
To be fair, Tara tried the cake balls the same day, using strawberry cake and cream cheese frosting, and she said they were a big hit at her son’s soccer practice. Also, Chrysanthemum’s husband said that ours (made with yellow cake and fudge frosting) were the tastiest thing he’d had in a long time.
And the best part was that the kids enjoyed decorating with the red and green sparkle gel frosting. Here’s Chrysanthemum’s son getting ready for some serious work.
Basically, children, husbands, and small furry animals will be ecstatic if you make these. Those women you want to impress at work or in the neighborhood? Not so much. Plus, you’ll be wishing you’d made Duncan Hines brownies for your own midnight snack.
So, melon ball scoopers and freezer-cup pyramids, not to mention pint-sized helpers, work for me.
Cake mix cake mashed up with canned frosting? Not going to win even Honorable Mention.
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i beat you! neener neener!
Memarie Lanes last blog post..The Frugal Mindset
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I was wondering if those were too good to be true. Still, you’re making me very hungry…must go find chocolate chip cookie dough.
Betty Beguiless last blog post..Love Doesn’t Cost a Dime
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Those are so cute!!! I’ll have to try that with my kids, they’d have a blast doing that.
Joannas last blog post..Works For Me Wednesday
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love the cup idea for stacking… As long as I keep it well out of the reach of little hands, it will work great!
Kathys last blog post..The Proper Way to Eat a Peanut Butter Sandwich.
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[...] « Pioneer Woman Will Sigh [...]
There is a much better and tastier way to make a similar treat, and it tastes very similar to truffles without all the hassle of stirring and watching temps that regular candy making takes.
Same idea, bake a cake, but then stir in a stick of melted butter and whatever flavoring you want. I would make it with a bit of orange marmalade or cherry flavoring if I was making it with a chocolate cake.
Then, same step, make into balls and freeze. But with the butter in the mix, they freeze very hard and colder than I imagine they would with the frosting.
I always used real chocolate and not those candy pieces too for smoother melting and easier coating.
If you still have some of those candy disks left, and you still want to make a fun and impressive looking treat.
Buy the jumbo sized preztel sticks, dip half into the chocolate or candy coating, and sprinkle crushed peppermint candies, or other sprinkely things on top. Wrapped in cellophane and tied with a festive ribbon, they make a great gift!
Tina
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All I want to know is, how on earth do you have a whole section of your freezer free for freezing goodies???
I’m having a freezer compartment inferiority complex – either we freeze waaay too much or ours is smaller than yours! Either way, I’m jealous!!
Kirstys last blog post..Teething much?
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Great ideas on freezing multiple trays! I actually love cake balls and find them great to do with the kids as you said. I use the Bakers chocolate in the little cup and dip the cake ball in with a fork. Rather than decorate the top we just do a little decorative swirl.
Amys last blog post..WFMW – Missing Sock Bins
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I’ve been thinking about trying those… I like the earlier commentors suggestion about using butter – of course I’m not sure where I’d find room in my freezer for that step!
A Frugal Housewifes last blog post..Works For Me – Don’t Forget the Gift Receipt!
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Those seem like they’d be a great idea for the kids at school. Do you think they’d care if they didn’t taste so good? lol
Jen @ Mommay’s Mayhems last blog post..Elf on the Shelf
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I am the one person who doesn’t read Pioneer Woman so I hadn’t seen these. But, the whole idea doesn’t quite sound right! There’s got to be a better way.
debbies last blog post..Teaching Gratitude and a Giveaway
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Seriously, WHO has that much room in their freezer? Are you starving your family? Or just boycotting a Sam’s Club membership?
My cake pops (we put them on a stick) seemed to be a hit with parents at soccer practice. I think the white chocolate reeled them in. I thought they were okay. And of course, a cookie scoop is a must when forming the balls. Any well-equipped kitchen will have a couple sizes.
Well, mine does. But I had the same problems as you when dipping & the coating ended up way too thick. One of my friends said when she dips chocolate she uses a small crockpot. Supposedly it keeps the temperature even & the chocolate free-flowing. I will try this next time with my cookie dough truffles.
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not sure if you did this or not, but it helps a TON to add some crisco or oil to the melted chocolate. it’ll thin it, which helps get rid of the crumb problem and improves the finished product’s outer coating texture. also, take care not to add too much frosting. 3/4 of a can is perfect, so you end up with CAKE balls, and not mush balls. i don’t bother putting them on sticks, either. the best ones i’ve made were with: white cake mix, lemon frosting, and dark chocolate chips melted for coating. drizzle with white chocolate and you have some impressive truffles.
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Thank you for sharing friend. Not to completely hijack your post, but this EXACT topic brought me to the point of establishing a NEW BLOG today! It’s called PW Super Fans, and it’s a place for readers of PW to comment and INTERACT. I was, in fact, wondering if anyone had actually made her cake balls, and how they turned out. Also wondering if there were any tips/pitfalls.
And, must say, your assessment of the cake balls is exactly how I thought I’d react – sounds gross to me, but men and children would probably rave. I think I’m going to go ahead and make them for the church cookie walk in a few weeks.
Go to the new blog! Comment!
http://www.pwsuperfans.blogspot.com/
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These were easy until the dipping part and then they were trickier than I had expected, too.
Totallyscrappys last blog post..He’s a Smart Boy
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Okay, how about cheesecake pops?
http://www.picky-palate.com/2008/04/daring-bakers-cheesecake-pops.html
These look REALLY good. You’re either a cheesecake person or you’re not, though.
Either one is way too much work for me. Our favorite Christmas treat last year was pistachio biscotti dipped in white chocolate. Yum!
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For all of you concerned that we have no food in the freezer to, like, EAT, this is Chrysanthemum’s freezer. We both just moved out here, and are stretched with the moving expenses, and she hadn’t been to the grocery store yet this week –
So, “new” freezer plus poor plus haven’t shopped in a week = space in the freezer.
I am so eyeing the classifieds for a second freezer for the garage!
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It looks like bad kid food. . . they love to help make it and no one really wants to eat it! I visit Pioneer Woman every now and then so I missed these. Thanks for filling me in and sharing.
Kathys last blog post..First Light
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I love the cake balls.. I make them often for my husband to take to work.
Taras last blog post..Elf on a Shelf Giveaway
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Hi…
I make cake balls alot for my kids school day treats….the kids just seem to love them. I have two tips that help with them.
First…you know those little wire things that come with the Easter Egg dying kits….I have about 12 of them and I took some and closed the big end down a little and use it for dipping the balls into the coating. Works really well for me. (I make Marth Washington Balls for Christmas gifts and that was how I started using the wire egg dipper things.)
Second….you can use plain white cake mix and plane white frosting and a package of Koolaid or jello to give it an ‘exotic’ flavor or color. Orange, green and blue are really popular at school here. I have made some with Hawian Punch flavor too….and that was well liked.
I have put crushed peppermints and crushed lifesavers into some. I make egg shapes at Easter, Heart shapes for Valentine’s Day, and a turkey for Thanksgiving… but it used oreo cookies and candy corn too.
I like to thin out the coatings a little too. I like for them to be a solid smooth coating, but not real thick. I find that freezing them rock hard works great for me. I keep the coatings in a bowl that is set over hot water. Then if things start getting too thick, I just heat the water up and stir till I like how thick it is again.
Between Cake Balls and Rice Crispie Treats…..I have every Holiday covered when the teachers call for Snack donations.
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Do you remember when a certain person in Egypt wouldn’t share her cake ball recipe? (It was a “family secret”) We have been on a mission to duplicate her recipe ever since. We found something close, but we’ll have to try this one and compare.
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I’ve always wanted to try these. Do you follow Bakerella’s website? She does awesome versions of these little cakepops!
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Pioneer Woman makes all cooking and baking look lovely, doesn’t she?
I have to say that I LOVE the name of your blog! What about Bob is my favorite movie and I will think of it every time I visit here. Baby steps….;)
Randis last blog post..recipe box swap
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Okay, I have to laugh at this because I just posted a few days ago about my experience trying to make cake balls. They were a WRECK!!! Ha!
Doves last blog post..Recipe Box Swap
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Oh my, that looks so yummy!
Christys last blog post..Holiday recipe box swap
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[...] girls and I spend most Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Chrysanthemum and her kids. Chrysanthemum is lucky enough to have one of each, a girl and an alien being from the [...]
This is a little late, since you posted this 8 months ago, but I think freezing for 1 1/2 hours was actually detrimental. The cake balls were probably too cold and caused the chocolate to set up immediately instead of flowing nicely over the cake ball. I froze mine for about 15 minutes and they worked pretty good.
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