Rainbow Cake Balls

Yes yes I know.  These aren't cupcakes.  But I just had to try this.  It also stems from a little "experiement" I'm doing in an effort to make my cupcakes more...available I guess is the word.  I've got people out of town who would love to try my cupcakes, but it's so hard to ship them.  No matter how many times I put  "This Side Up!" "Don't Flip!"  "Contains Yummy Cupcakes!"   "Keep Level Or Pay The Consequences!" my packages always end up tossed and turned and crushed.  I've come up with several ways to secure the cupcakes in their containers for shipping but....I still worry.  Sooooo as the name of the "business" suggests, I can make anything a cupcake (hence something is cupcakeable).  So why not the opposite?  More on that later.

Here are three pretty simple (but delicious) cake balls.  No, they are not perfectly round.  I still can't figure out how to get them nice and spherical.  I've been considering maybe a mold?  Suggestions?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyhow, these are as round as they get.  As nice as these may look it was the inside of the cake balls I was more concerned with.

HOW FRICKIN COOL IS THAT!?  I was so stoked at how these came out!  It took a little more effort but I got my rainbow stripes into the cake balls!  This is my Rainbow Cupcake recipe.  The cake is mixed with my Cotton Candy flavored frosting and then coated with white chocolate.

So having finalized this experiment with cake balls, I think I'm ready for the next phase.  But again, more on that later.  Stay tuned! Below are instructions on how to create this.

Cake Box Method (as always if you want the longer version, email me and I'll give them to you):

Makes 36 to 42 - 1 inch cake balls

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

Mix all ingredients together.  Divide evenly among 6 bowls and color each batter one color of the rainbow.  Fill six 6" cake pans (one with each color) and bake at 350 degrees for a bout 12 - 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Frosting

3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

2.5 sticks butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cotton candy flavoring

Cream butter.  Add confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix until completely incorporated.  Add vanilla and cotton candy.  Set aside.

Crumble each color cake into fine pieces and place in individual bowls.  Starting with 1 teaspoon of frosting, mix with the crumbled cake with back of a spoon (more like mash it in).

Take a small cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Here comes the tricky part.  In the palm of your hand, place about 1/2 to 1 tspn of the red cake mix, on top put 1/2 to 1 tspn  of the orange, then the yellow, green, blue and purple.  Stack them on top of each other.  Now gentle roll the pile into a ball.  Place on cookie sheet.  If the cake become too soft to roll, place in freeze for a bit.   Once you've rolled out all the cake balls you want, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 15 minutes (or until cake balls are firm).

While waiting, melt some white chocolate.  I use Almond Bark.  To me it was the easiest to work with, wasn't too think or thick and seemed to coat the cake balls well.  I am sure there is better chocolate to use but for now this is what I used. 

Place a small wire rack over an empty bowl.  Take the cake balls out and place one at a time on the wire rack with the purple side on the bottom (mine are inverted with the red on the bottom).  Using a spoon, pour the white chocolate over the cake balls and allow them to "dry" for about 5 minutes.  Remove and continue with remaining cake balls.  Sprinkle some rainbow sugar or glitter on top.

Enjoy!

Hunger Games Cupcakes - Red Velvet / White Chocolate

** Warning....may be spoilers **

I am a fan of what is called YA (Young Adult) Dystopic Literature.  Some of the things people can fathom in their mind and write about blow me away.   I've read a few really good books under this "genre": Unwind, Matched, Crossed, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games and so forth.

I picked up the Hunger Games and I think it sat on my shelf for three weeks before I gave it a chance.  I had a hard time getting past the name of the main character, Katniss.  But at the urging of a friend, I did read it.  In fact I read all three in two weeks WITH a college course load.  And so I am stoked for the movie to come out in March of this year.  So, in preparation for that I decided to make Hunger Games Cupcakes.

I also made the wrappers with a template I have on the computer.  I haven't seen much in the way of "decor" for cupcakes for this book series soon to be movie series so I made my own.

I decided on a red velvet and added some cayenne pepper to it to make it hot - like Katniss's fire dress and her designation as the "girl on fire".  On top is a white chocolate salted buttercream, toffee chips and gold sprinkles.  I added the toffee chips to give it texture and a 2nd flavor to the white chocolate in the buttercream.

President Snow and the mockingjay logo.....all the other cupcakes you'll notice...well the wrappers...are profiles.  Apparently they didn't have one of Snow but the forward facing image I think gives him a more "I dare you" kinda personality - much like the arrogance he portrays in the books.

Katniss, Peeta and Gale.  The wrappers have fire on the sides....there's a better picture below.  I'm not particularly happy with my laserjet printer....or maybe it's the paper I used to print on but.....these should have come out brighter than they did....grrr....yes I nit pick things like that.

Cinna, Effie and Haymitch.....I like the profiles.  Originally I was just going to make them all with the mockingjay logo....but then saw the profiles and thought they'd be cool too.

I don't typically staple them but for the love of Pete (Peeta?) I couldn't find the tape anywhere.  I like the flames, I think they look really cool on the black wrapper.  I might play with these a little bit more to refine the wrappers.

Mockingjay Logo wrappers available here Etsy Shop

Hunger Games Cupcakes (Makes 24)

(I don't usually use a box but I have so much trouble getting red velvet to turn red.  And since this was just an experiment of flavors, the box was easier)

1 box red velvet
3 eggs
1/2c oil
1 cup milk
1/4tsp - 1/2tsp cayenne pepper (depends on how hot you want it to be)

Mix all ingredients together and fill liners about 1/2 way.  Cook for 15 minutes or until  toothpick comes out clean.

Confectioner's Sugar Buttercream

3 sticks salted butter room temp
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
4 oz white chocolate, melted (I use Baker's squares)
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
toffee bits
gold sprinkles

Mix butter in mixer until light and fluffy.  On slow, add confectioner's sugar 1/4 cup at a time (mixing on high for 10 sec between each 1/4 cup).  When all the confectioner's sugar is mixed, on medium add the vanilla and mix well.  Then add the white chocolate and mix for 5 seconds on medium high.  Pipe on cupcakes and sprinkle with toffee and gold sprinkles.

Enjoy!  And may the odds be ever in your favor..........

Vanilla White Chocolate Overload Cupcakes

Since I made an all chocolate cupcake complete with chocolate mousse center, I wanted to try an all vanilla one with a vanilla white chocolate ganache center.  This is the end result.  It's very vanilla!  Below is the instruction for making the ganache.

The cupcake is a vanilla bean cake filled with a white chocolate vanilla bean ganache, topped with a vanilla bean buttercream and white chocolate shavings.

I am not a huge fan of vanilla but this was really really good.  And no I did not deep fry this one :)

The buttercream is my standard with the exception of 1/2 vanilla bean and 1/4 tspn vanilla extract.  The short cut version is one white cake mix with the addition of 1scraped vanilla bean and the scraped white chocolate for the top.  I've have had people ask for the short cut version so they could replicate.  If you ever want my version, the longer version, just let me know :)

Vanilla White Chocolate Ganache

1 tablespoon corn syrup

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 vanilla bean (scrape the seeds)

6oz white chocolate (chips or squares, just chop the squares up)

Place corn syrup, heavy cream and split vanilla bean pod and seeds in sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Place white chocolate in heat proof bowl.   Remove the vanilla bean pod and pour the hot mixture over the white chocolate.  Mix until smooth.  Place in refrigerator for 45 minutes.  Pour ganache mixture into mixing bowl and whisk at high speed until thick (about 3 minutes).  Fill cupcakes and enjoy!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cupcakes

I am a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie lover.  It is my most favorite cookie (besides Oreo).  So when my bestie suggested a cupcake with that flavor, I couldn't resist.

Because I wanted a stronger macadamia nut flavor, I bought macadamia nut oil.  And it was well worth it.

The cupcake is a vanilla base with chopped macadmia nuts and macadamia nut oil. I didn't want to use just a buttercream as the frosting, I wanted something that "stuck" more.  So I broke down and bought mascarpone.  I've been dieing to use it just haven't really had a recipe where I wanted to use it.  The frosting is a white chocolate mascarpone with a hint of macadamia nut oil.

.......omg.......

The frosting was so gooooooood.  It was so sweet without being oversweet.  Mascarpone I think is my new favorite ingredient.  It was light on the macadamia flavor but you could most certainly taste the melted white chocolate.  And the crushed macadamia nuts on the top gave it that extra YAY! factor.  I added white chocolate chips too!

This is definitely going on my menu.

White Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake

So in making cupcakes for Christmas (for family) I had 2 chocolate based cupcakes that were requested. I thought vanilla might feel a little betrayed so I turned the Peppermint Chocolate cupcake into a vanilla cake.

This is a vanilla peppermint cake with a white chocolate cream cheese buttercream topped with peppermint pieces and shaved white chocolate.

It was an "on the wimb" kinda cupcake but it came out really good! The peppermint was not overbearing and the cream cheese just lent to it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Coming up!

New Year's Cupcakes
Baby Boy & Baby Girl Cupcakes (my first out of town order)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
Ocala Cupcake Party