The number one piece of baking advice that I can offer you is to make the most of your mistakes, because you will make mistakes. We all do! For example, a few days ago I was testing a lemon cake recipe, and both my layers stuck to the pan, completely ruining the chances of a nice looking layer cake. Instead of throwing the cake away, I crumbled them up, mixed them with some cream cheese frosting, and made cake balls! I just threw some melted white chocolate on them and they look 100% intentional.
I mean, err, I totally meant to make cake balls
As you can see, I added a little yellow drizzle to my cake balls to make them more festive. You can color your white chocolate any color in the world or add sprinkles! Super adorable and customizable. Plus, just insanely rich and delicious.
Lemon Cream Cheese Cake Balls
Ingredients
for the cake
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
for the frosting
- 4 ounces unsalted butter softened
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
to finish
- 2 lbs white chocolate melted
- a few drops of yellow gel color optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8" cake pans with baking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Set that aside.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1½ cups sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in 2 tbsp of the lemon juice. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix until just combined.
- Divide batter between pans. Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack.
for the frosting and to finish
- With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter. thoroughly. Scrape the sides of your bowl. Add your confectioner's sugar and mix on low until all of the sugar has been incorporated. Then add your vanilla and beat on medium until smooth.
- Crumble your cooled cake into the bowl with the cream cheese and mix on medium for about 2 minutes until it is consistent and you don't see any clumps of frosting.
- Take a cookie dough scoop of your choice (I like to use a 1oz scoop) and scoop your cake/frosting mixture, and with slightly wet hands, roll them into balls and place them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. They can be very close together but not touching. Cool them for at least two hours.
- Once chilled, take a few at a time and roll in melted white chocolate using a spoon. Tap the spoon on the side of the bowl to get rid of excess chocolate and to smooth out the top of the cake ball. Place them onto the cookie sheet. If you have excess chocolate pooling at the bottom, take a toothpick and run it in a circle right along the bottom of the cake ball. Once it's dry it'll break right off, like a perforated edge!
- If you want, take your extra white chocolate and add some yellow dye. Put in a piping bag or ziploc with a tiny corner cut out and drizzle it over your cake balls.
