Key lime cake truffles

Good morning, my friends! Surprised to see another post from me so soon? Two in a week is an amazing feat, considering I only posted a total of nine times last year. Well, it would have been ten if I had posted this recipe when I made it over four months ago. But, at the time, we were preparing for our big trip to Peru and the Galapagos and I was busy at work trying to get as many experiments done as possible before leaving; hence the delayed post.

The makings of these cake truffles is a multi-step process. First step, bake the cake.

Second step, crumble the cake that you just made into tiny little pieces. Now, this just seems counterproductive to me, but what do I know?

Next step, roll into little balls. And the final but most difficult step, the coating. I thought I could coat these balls the same way I would coat chocolate ganache, but I was wrong. These balls are bigger and heavier, making it difficult to roll in the chocolate and get an even coating. Does anyone have any tips for doing this?

Well, my solution was to hide it. What were supposed to be sprinkles of almond on top turned into another coating to cover the defects and abnormalities. Though not so pretty to look at, these cake truffles taste like something that came out of those fancy boxes of chocolates. They are so very creamy and soft inside and sweet and tart all at once. They were certainly a hit with David’s co-workers!

Until next time… Happy Thursday!

Recipe (adapted from bakeat350.blogspot.com)

• 1 (18.25 oz) lemon cake mix (I used a 432 g package)
• 1 (3 oz) package lemon pudding mix (I used a 99 g package)
• 4 eggs (I used 3 large eggs)
• 1 1/3 cups water (I used 1 cup water with 1/3 cup key lime juice)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp Key Lime extract
• cream cheese icing (pre-made or recipe below)
• candy melts or almond bark

1. Preheat oven to 325 (350 for glass pan); grease a 13 x 9″ pan and set aside.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low until combined.
3. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more. (I did all the mixing by hand).
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 33-38 minutes (I baked for 25 minutes because my pan was bigger), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Let cool completely before crumbling the cake, rolling and coating.
6. To make the cake truffles, crumble the cake (I used 1/2 of the cake) in a large bowl. Stir 1/2 teaspoon Key Lime extract into a container of cream cheese icing (I added 5 tsp key lime juice to 1 cup icing). Stir 3/4 of the icing into the crumbled cake. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Chill the rolled balls in the refrigerator for several hours.
7. Melt the candy melts or almond bark as directed on the package. Thin with a bit of oil or Crisco if necessary. Dip the cake into the melted coating and cover completely. Sprinkle immediately with graham cracker crumbs (I used chopped almonds).
8. Let dry on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.

Cream cheese icing

• 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• ½ stick butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• confectionary sugar to taste (I used 5 tbsp)
• key lime juice

1. Mix all ingredients until homogeneous.
2. Add 5 tsp lime juice to 1 cup of this icing.