Red Velvet Cake Truffles

This one was inspired by a colleague of mine who shares my love of red velvet cake. She sent me this link: http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/ and I couldn't agree more--one of the best ideas EVER. This also happened around Valentine's Day and right before I was sent on a business trip to visit coworkers, so I thought why not make some for everyone? Determined to wow and please my boyfriend, friends, and coworkers (that's just how I am with my food/baking creations), I set myself up for a long and arduous journey. It took me several hours for two days to perfect this one. It's pretty clear from her photos and lack of explaining techniques that Bakerella is obviously a much more experienced baker than I am. So let me just put a disclaimer here: this recipe is not an easy feat... but I'll try to explain everything I did wrong and right so it'll be easier for you. :) Here we go!


Let's start with Trial 1.

I used this cake recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Velvet-Cake-III/Detail.aspx with a box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake mix. (I couldn't find the red velvet cake mix.)

I also used this frosting: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx, that I made in an old blog post because I love, love the cream cheese frosting recipe and I didn't want to take the pre-made store stuff for an answer.

Tips:

Get a deep mixing bowl or prepare for splatter.

Get a nice mixer. Otherwise I hope you have a good strong spoon... stronger than mine.

When I mixed the two together, I got this:

And immediately I knew something wasn't right. It was too mushy and I PANICKED. I had only so much time to make these and I knew I had screwed something up! (I'm talking about mushiness to the point where the mixture felt like cake mixed with a lot of water.) My thoughts were that maybe the mushiness would settle once I put it in the fridge to cool. I went ahead and let it solidify but even in that state it just looked wrong. I thought maybe I could still salvage it and it could taste good (the cake recipe was pretty good) so made 3 truffles with it anyway, albeit doubting that it would turn out ok.

When I ate them I couldn't bring myself to being satisfied. They tasted pretty good, but the texture was off (too mushy for cake) and they left a horrific aftertaste that I can only describe as being similar to the taste of aspartame (the fake sugar they use in those diet products). And I could not, for the life of me, stand that kind of taste!


So on to Trial 2.

This time I searched and found the red velvet cake mix from Duncan Hines.


I figured since I loved the cream cheese frosting from the carrot cake recipe, it had to be something in the cake recipe that was causing the terrible taste and texture. (Vanilla pudding, maybe??) And here are the results of the cake:


Just looking at that beautiful red color in comparison to the terrible pink, I could already tell that I had done it right this time.

When I mixed it with the cream cheese frosting this time, it didn't turn mushy. I also opted to use only about 8oz of cream cheese frosting, perhaps less. I was careful with the amount I put into the cake because I didn't want to make it too sweet or mushy. I don't agree with Bakarella's 16oz of cream cheese frosting, but that might be a difference of her using store-bought and me using homemade.

I also bought all three types of chocolate chips (white, milk, and dark) for every type of chocolate fan (I had in mind serving about 20+ different people). Bakerella used chocolate bark, but I couldn't find this at my local grocery store. (I used Guittard dark and milk, and Ghiradelli white chocolates, by the way. Delicious San Francisco Bay Area local chocolates. :D) First attempt was white chocolate, and from my next mistakes I messed up most of the white chocolate that I had bought.

I used a double boiler set-up in my kitchen to melt the chocolate, but somehow it seemed to have dried out the chocolate. I started adding heavy whipping cream to it, and it made it a little clumpy. (My bad, I forgot you're not supposed to add cold liquids to heated chocolate.) With the curdle-y chocolate I somehow thought water would thin it out, but it didn't. Complete disaster. It was hard clumps of chocolate now. And to top it off, I threw it in the microwave to try to melt it again. I don't know why I was so stubborn with this one to try to get it to work, but in the end it only led to burnt chocolate. I suspect that white chocolate, because of its contents, has a different temperament than the others. Double boiler using dark chocolate has never given me such a hard time, as proven again with my "truffitizing" (yes, I made that up) my earlier messed up cake.


On to Trial 2.5.

See those pretty criss-cross chocolate lines Bakarella used on her truffles? I wanted to do that, and I was going to try with a some melted chocolate in a ziploc bag with a small bit of the corner cut off. Unfortunately, after messing up I didn't have enough white chocolate and ended up using the remainder to instead be melted for truffitizing. This time, instead of melting in a double boiler, I decided to do it the right way: read the instructions on the back of the package. I went with the microwave option and I'm pretty glad I did--this is WAY simpler than trying to use a double boiler, and I'd recommend it for anyone using chocolate chips.

Next was getting down the right technique. First, it's easier to handle the cake balls in chocolate when they are small, so make sure yours are relatively small and bite-sized. I ended up resizing twice before I got the final rendition. Bakarella says she made about 40-50, but I made probably around 60. Besides, you want to keep them small so your guinea pigs--I mean, friends, keep wanting more. :)

Second, I used two spoons to coat the cake in the chocolate. I coated both spoons with chocolate, generously, and used the spoons to toss the cake ball back and forth between spoons, evenly coating each ball and only picking up more melted chocolate as necessary. This step requires a lot of patience. If you're too hasty you'll want to try to coat quicker, but that will pull the cake away from itself and into the chocolate. I tried to let the cake gently fall into the other spoon as it wished, and it made a very even/smooth coating. Don't overcoat because it'll drip off and make a large, flat base for your truffles. I like to think of the most perfect truffles as round, without a base. :)


After they set a bit, I took it off the wax paper and put it into ziplocs and into the fridge. The ones I wanted to keep longer I froze. I found that, at least for ~65 degrees (maybe higher) indoors, these don't sit too well at room temp. I also found that they're best served right out of the fridge for a crispy chocolate coating. So recapping, was all this trouble worth it in the end? Yes. They were so delicious that I ate plenty (and I rarely do that with my own baking)! And unless people find pleasure in lying to me, I'd say it was a very successful hit all-around. Enjoy!

Pictures courtesy of my borrowed Nikon D90 (with the exception of the first & last photo, taken with a Canon 870IS point & shoot.