coconut cupcakes and cake balls

The husband asked me to bake something for the birthday celebration day at his work. So, after much deliberation and quick overview of my supplies, I decided upon coconut cupcakes. I baked this recipe for a delicious Easter cake and was anxious to do it again!

The cakes, naked:


and frosted:


Here is another pic of the cute little birthday cakes.


Well, I had some cake left over, so what did I do? CAKE BALLS! Yummy coconut cake balls...




Delicious!

Cake Balls

I've been admiring bakerella for quite some time now, and today I tried my hand at her fabulous treat, the cake ball.

First, I mixed my cake. I decided upon a Sour Cream Vanilla cake, because I thought it would be the flavor most likely enjoyed by my husband. I'm totally ripping Bakerella's blog for this post. I wish I had a fancier camera, mine just doesn't do the job...

First, I creamed the butter. Unsalted butter is a must.


My preferred method of sifting, with a wire mesh colander. I think it is less messy. I used a blend of unbleached white flour and cake flour. Also in the mix is baking soda, baking powder, and salt.


After adding the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla to the butter, you alternate the flour mixture and the sour cream, adding each in three parts...flour, sour cream, flour, sour cream, flour, sour cream. I love these small bowls which are printed with cup measures. And they're yellow! Cute.


After the mixture is somewhat mixed, I beat the egg whites into fluffy white peaks.




Then I folded them in...


Then the baby decided to "help" mommy by dumping out the entire contents of my cream of tartar.


The cake is done!


Time to cool, I cut it into chunks to cool it down faster.


The next step is to crumble your cake into, well, crumbs. Then I made sour cream frosting (first time for this and it was delicious!) and added it in with my hands, kind of like mixing meatloaf.

Then I formed it into balls and stuck them in the fridge.




After they had chilled for a while, it was time to melt the chocolate.


And roll the cake balls in the chocolate.






Voila! Yummy chocolate covered cake balls. I think they taste like a chocolate covered doughnut.

Gallery of Cupcakes

I have been busy baking cupcakes for a while now so for my first post on my new uptown bakeshop blog, I thought I would compile a retrospective photo set of my work!