Browse: Home / Recipes / Baking / Love-Heart Cake Balls

Menu

Skip to content
  • THE SHOP
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Home

EatsporkjewLogo

Funny food and travel stories and foodie recommendations

Menu

Skip to content
  • THE SHOP
  • Restaurants
  • Recipes
    • Baking
    • Beef
    • Breakfast brunch
    • Cocktails & Drinks
    • Desserts
    • dinner
    • Fruit
    • Healthy
    • Poultry
    • Salads
    • Side Dishes
    • soup
    • Vegetarian
  • Travel
    • Austin
    • Belize
    • Brussels
    • Florida
    • Hong Kong
    • Iceland
    • Israel
      • Best Restaurants in Tel Aviv
    • Las Vegas
    • London
    • Massachusetts
    • New Orleans
    • New York
    • Oregon
    • Panama
    • Paris
    • Phoenix/Scottsdale
    • San Diego
    • San Francisco
      • Bay Area-East Bay
    • Thailand
    • Washington DC
    • Wine Country
  • Interviews
  • Best of Lists
    • Best things to do in Iceland
    • Best Restaurants in Tel Aviv
    • Two Bay Area Distilleries Worth Visiting
  • The Brisket Evolution Stops Here
  • Homemade Nachos Recipe
  • Passover Cake You Can Eat All Year
  • The Best Schnitzel in Dresden
  • Vegetable Kugel with Matzah
  • Feeling Old is Fleeting at Rich Table
  • Roasted Whole Red Snapper with Cilantro Serrano Pesto
  • Dead fish and triangle-shaped cookies
  • Love-Heart Cake Balls
  • Guy Savoy & the Lost Art of Storytelling
  • Driving to Seydisfjordur
  • Flying from Reykjavik to Egilsstaðir
  • Dog Friendly Wineries Sonoma
  • NOLA Bike Tours | Culinary Version
  • Cranberry Sauce Makes Me Think of Sperm
  • The Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe
  • St Germain Cocktail for Halloween
  • The 80-Pound Sweet Potato Pie
  • Bobbi’s Infamous Apple Cake
  • It’s all Greek to me! Kokkari Estiatorio

Love-Heart Cake Balls

Posted by eatsporkjew on February 14, 2018 in Baking, Desserts, Recipes | 183 Views | Leave a response

img_5770

I…like millions of people I’m sure, hate Valentines Day. I know that’s an intense way to describe a holiday meant to commemorate the love we share for our family, and friends, but “hate” is the best way to express my feelings on the subject.

It’s not because I don’t have someone in my life who I love and want to celebrate it with either , because I do (pan left to Jonathan, my salt and pepper haired pajama-clad boyfriend with his hand tucked in his pants a la Al Bundy….sexy, right?). It’s because there’s so much pressure to do something “special” on this one day and that’s supposed to signify our love and affection for the people we care about most….and if we screw up or fail at dazzling each other….our love is somehow tainted. It’s an evil test, and one that I seem to fail year after year.

Where is this coming from? Well I haven’t had the greatest success in the past. It’s true I’ve been bad about ordering flowers before the shops have sold out of everything but random dyed carnations and wilted lilies. And yes, I’m guilty of trying to make a reservation at the last minute when there’s nothing left but a seat at the Olive Garden in South San Francisco. But it’s not about screwing up on V-Day. It’s about taking a stand against the ridiculous societal norms of February 14th.

Why should we make ourselves crazy this one day just to say “I love you” when we can do it for free and without the exorbitantly high pre fixe menus.

With that caveat, I’m going to try and be less of a curmudgeon this year and embrace the celebration, because clearly I don’t seem to be winning this battle. So I’m sharing this new recipe with you all, especially those of you who DO have an appreciation for V-Day. These heart-shaped cake balls are made with white cake, shredded coconut and maraschino cherries. I chose to cover them in semi-sweet chocolate, but I think a darker more bitter chocolate would probably compliment the sweet centers better.

Oh, and if you can’t tell, I struggled with coating these delicious morsels. I tempered the chocolate but it wasn’t as gooey as I would have liked and it didn’t melt and fall down the sides of the hearts like I’d planned. Oh well, I guess I have another year to perfect it. Regardless, they taste amazing…enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of Duncan Hines Classic White cake
    • ¼ cup vegetable/canola oil
    • 1 cup water
    • 3 egg whites
    • 1 cup shredded and sweetened coconut
    • 1 cup of maraschino cherries chopped
    • 12 oz tub of Betty Crocker whipped cream cheese frosting
    • ½ tsp almond extract
    • 24 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (I used Nestle Toll House)

*Special equipment needed for this recipe is a heart-shaped candy or cookie mold of whatever desired size you’d like your end product to be.

Preheat the oven to 350° and follow the instructions on the box of cake mix for baking the cake. The only difference is that you’re going to add the almond extract to the batter before you finish mixing it and pouring it into your baking pans.

img_5730

img_5732

The cake will be done baking when a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean (IE: there’s no wet batter stuck to it). Let the cake cool for about 5 minutes before you move on to the next step.

When the cake is cool enough for you to handle it, begin breaking the cake up into chunks and place them in a large mixing bowl. Try to avoid using any pieces of the cake that are crunchy or hard, like the edges because those will cause irregularities later on.

Drain the cherries of their juices and chop them up.

img_5734

To the bowl of the broken cake pieces, add the entire contents of the frosting tub, the chopped cherries, and coconut. Mash everything together with a large fork until everything is well combined. The mixture should feel moist and hold it’s shape when pressed together.

img_5742

img_5745

Roll/press the mixture out in an even layer on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. You can easily put it in the freezer too if you have the space.

img_5749

Once cooled, press your heart shaped cookie cutter into the cake mixture and pop the molded pieces out onto a wire rack. Press the remnant dough together and repeat the process until you’ve got the desired number of pieces. Place the pieces in the freezer and let cool once again for at least an hour.

img_5753

img_5754

There are many ways to temper chocolate but one of the easiest is to just place ¾ of your chocolate pieces in a medium glass bowl and microwave for 20 seconds. Stire the heated chocolate and then heat it again in the microwave for another 20 seconds. Stir the chocolate again and microwave it again. Repeat the process until the mixture is silky smooth, glossy, and there are no lumps left. Then add the remaining ¼ of chocolate to the hot mixture and let the heated chocolate melt the last few pieces. The chocolate should be about 87° when reading a candy thermometer.

img_5766

img_5767

Now this is where I need some more practice, but I poured the chocolate over the cake-ball hearts and hoped the chocolate would melt down the sides and fall through the rack like a ganache would off the side of a flourless cake. But that didn’t happen. So I’m thinking it might make sense to just dip the hearts into the chocolate and then let them cool and harden on a parchment paper lined sheet in the fridge.

img_5768

img_5769

img_5771

Once the chocolate is hardened you’re done!

Tid Bits:

  • I sprinkled a little clear crystal decorative sugar on these while the chocolate was still warm….you could use anything to add a little decoration to the top of these. Maybe some edible gold, red sprinkles, pink sprinkles, whatever you’d like.
  • The almond extract is a great compliment to the cherries, but if you don’t like that almond extract or marzipan taste, then you could leave the extract out completely or try coconut extract in the cake batter.
  • Might consider drizzling the chocolate over these and cover most of them surface area allowing some of the pink interior to show through. That might be a prettier way to apply the chocolate then drowning them like I did.
Posted in Baking, Desserts, Recipes | Tagged almond extract, cake balls, classic white cake, coconut, desserts, maraschino cherries, semi-sweet chocolate, valentines day

Related Posts

Dead fish and triangle-shaped cookies→

guy-savoy-resturant-las-vegasGuy Savoy & the Lost Art of Storytelling→

apple cake sliceBobbi’s Infamous Apple Cake→

anitas gelato israel chocolate strawberryFather Attacks Israeli Ice Cream Cone→

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on InstagramFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on RSS

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

You May Also Like

  • “Jew eat?…No. Jew?”

    “Jew eat?…No. Jew?”

    Part 2 of 4 Part 1: Motion Sickness Part 2: ..

  • 10 Signs Your Food and Travel Blog Are Making You ..

    10 Signs Your Food and Travel Blog Are Making You ..

    Bending over to put on your shoes is ..

  • 5 Senses Tour of Bouchard Aîné & Fils

    5 Senses Tour of Bouchard Aîné & Fils

    Dating back to 1750 Bouchard Aîné & Fils ..

  • A Beautiful Galapagos Moment

    A Beautiful Galapagos Moment

    It’s been a year since my parents got ..

  • A Bread Worth Rising For!

    A Bread Worth Rising For!

    For me, most Saturdays start off the same. ..

  • A Clam Slam I Can Go For

    A Clam Slam I Can Go For

    Today I received an email from a woman ..

  • Popular
  • Latest
  • Tags
  • famous-pok-pok-chicken-wings

    Portland: The Perfect Bachelor Party Destination

    26999 views / Posted August 19, 2014
  • The Brisket Evolution Stops Here

    15594 views / Posted April 1, 2020
  • San-Francisco-yelp-cafe

    Barista Babes and the Yelpiest Cafe in San Francisco

    8356 views / Posted September 10, 2014
  • belinda-chef-pastry

    The Diary of a Pastry Chef

    8112 views / Posted December 19, 2014
  • oven-roasted-leg-of-lamb

    The Perfect Roasted Leg of Lamb

    4746 views / Posted November 28, 2016
  • The Brisket Evolution Stops Here

    April 1, 2020 / eatsporkjew
  • beef nachos-homemade

    Homemade Nachos Recipe

    March 25, 2020 / eatsporkjew
  • caramel sauce dairy free

    Passover Cake You Can Eat All Year

    March 18, 2020 / eatsporkjew
  • Dresden-Opera-semperoper

    The Best Schnitzel in Dresden

    March 17, 2020 / eatsporkjew
  • vegetable-kugel-with-matzah-passover-seder

    Vegetable Kugel with Matzah

    March 10, 2020 / eatsporkjew
baking basil beef beets brunch Burgundy butter calamari carrots ceviche cheese cheesecake chicken chocolate cilantro cinnamon cocktails desserts dinner duck eggs fennel fish france garlic goat cheese ice cream Jewish lemon lunch mushrooms New Orleans octopus Paris potatoes restaurants salad San Francisco scallops seafood shrimp sweets Thailand travel vegetables
 

Categories

 

Archives

 

Social Media

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on InstagramFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on RSS
 

©2014 Eatsporkjew

Menu

  • THE SHOP
  • Restaurants
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Interviews
  • Best of Lists
This site uses cookies: Find out more.