Boldly Going Where No Cake Ball Has Gone Before...

I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation last week. The episode was based around Scottie from the original Star Trek series. In true crazy Star Trek writing, the computer had somehow saved his body in data format so when Gordie started poking around a lost ship, Scottie suddenly appears. I'm paraphrasing of course. But as the show compared the Enterprise to the Enterprise C, that's when the new cake ball idea dawned on me- evolution of a good thing is great. So I took the Enterprise (regular cake ball) and made the Enterprise C: a cake ball with filling.

Horribly geeky, I know, but stay with me.

The Hostess Cupcake is really the best model to start with. Wonderful rich chocolate with marshmallow goodness in the middle. Using my regular chocolate cake recipe with cream cheese frosting to seal the deal, I shaped them into small cupcakes. Not the fancy ones that Bakerella is so good at, but just plan old circular cake balls with a slightly rounded top. To put the filling in, I took a small cookie cutter, punched it in the cake ball, twisted and pulled out. It didn't go as deep as I would have liked so I did something super high tech: stuck my finger in the hole and pushed it down (impressive, I know).

The marshmallow filling was just from a website I googled. I added some extra marshmallow fluff so I could use the whole can. Because really, when am I ever going to use a 1/4th cup of marshmallow fluff? I just stuck the goodness in a ziplock bag, cut off the end and put into the cake ball. I didn't really see a need to put cake on top of the hole, so just dipped them in the chocolate in that configuration. The end result was a wonderfully rich and creamy treat. I even topped them off with the signature hostess cupcake decor.

And yes, those cake balls are sitting next to the printer in my office. A friend was nice enough to take a bite of the cake ball and let me snap a picture of it:

These cake balls went in record time- 2.5 hours. I didn't expect the large reaction from these cake balls, but now a whole new filling world has been opened up to me.

Engage.

Camo Key Lime Cake Balls

I love birthdays now that I make cake balls. It always gives me an excuse to do something new and exciting. And of course to wish my friends a happy birthday. Last week was my team lead's birthday and I just had to do something.

My team lead loves key lime cake balls (or she is telling me nice things so I'll get back to work!). She was also worked in the army before she came to NASA. How should I decorate cake balls that encompass the army? Jungle camouflage. Done and done. Camo Key Lime Cake Balls.

Key lime cake is pretty easy to make but requires a lot of elbow grease. Have you ever tried to juice 25 key limes before? They are tiny little limes. Hardly big enough to be called a lime. More like a limette. Anyway, juicing 25 key limes made me wish I put that juicer on my wedding registry. Marlon insisted I would never use it. Guess what Cox- the wife is always right.

The end result? 25 juiced key limes.

After the cake balls were made, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out modeling chocolate. I have seen it used on Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes so many times that they make it look like a piece of cake (HA! get it? no? moving on..). My office mate looked up the price of some modeling chocolate: $60 a container. If that weren't enough, I would have to order it. Wouldn't exactly be here in time to bring the cake balls on my team leads birthday. Next solution? Make my own. I actually found these instructions to be incredibly helpful. I made way more modeling chocolate than I would ever need, but it worked like a charm. Add some icing color (DON'T use food coloring) and you have the colors for the jungle camo.

My first intent was to cover the entire cake ball in camo. I tried and failed miserably. It just didn't taste right. Modeling chocolate is definitely used more for looks than for taste. The end result was some stars on top of the cake balls. Not quite what I had in mind, but it actually turned out pretty good.

And they were delicious.

 Now that I have an idea how to use this modeling chocolate contraption, expect more in the future.

Houston, We Have Cake Balls

Let's be clear: I am no baker. I have no pastry experience and I have never taken any culinary classes. That being said, I love to bake.

I work as an engineer for the Johnson Space Center, something I aimed for since I was 10. I have a degree in aerospace engineering and I'll probably get a masters one of these days. But my job is very stressful. I provide hardware for the international space station and when the ISS program says "get x hardware on y flight", you do it. While my job is great, I needed a stress relief, or therapy if you will. I started dabbling here and there with cupcakes which turned into cake balls which is turning into other pastries and pies. It's cheap therapy but it doesn't keep you skinny, which is the main reason I bring all these treats into the office so my husband and I aren't 300lbs by the end of the year. Then again, who wants to trust a skinny baker?

I really have figured out these cake balls. Or at least, I think I have. We recently had a bake-off in my branch and I decided to go all out. The result was the NASA cake ball display. The cake balls are made of chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting with crushed up heath bar dipped in dark chocolate. The NASA meatball is made of fondant. Its not the easiest media in the world to work with and maybe one of these days I can find a material that is less temperamental.

In this blog, I will post pictures of the cake balls I create and any helpful hints along the way for making them. And as always, I love new and crazy ideas. Suggestions are always welcome!