Sunday, November 20, 2011

Chocolate-Orange Cake Balls & Whoopie Pies


I have been craving something orange and chocolate lately and so I set out to find a recipe that included only the ingredients I had on hand (since it was POURING rain outside). I absolutely love rain and it inspires me to cook but I would rather stay inside and bake then go out in it to buy things. Needless to say, I couldn’t find a recipe that fit the ingredients I had at home so I decided to come up with my own.

I decided to make Chocolate-Orange Whoopie Pies with Orange Cream cheese frosting. Surprisingly everything was going according to plan… until I went to remove the Whoopie cakes from the pan. Half of them came out perfectly from one of the pans but the other half absolutely refused to release. Not a single one came out of the separate pan and I was forced to scoop them out, crumbling them into bits.

I really didn’t want to let any of it go to waste so I decided to make the crumbled remains into cake balls! This recipe make me 6 Whoopie Pies and 9 Cake Balls.

Well here they are… my Chocolate-Orange Cake Balls and Whoopie Pies :)








Cake Ingredients:
½ cups butter (room temperature)
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature)
Zest of 1-2 oranges (depending on size)
1 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
¾ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1.5 oz of dark chocolate (chopped)

Frosting:
1 can of cream cheese frosting
Zest of 1-2 oranges (depending on size)

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Beat butter in mixer until soft. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time. Add in orange zest and juice
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a separate bowl and blend together.
In another small bowl mix the milk and the vanilla.
Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl until completely melted and set aside.
Add the dry and wet ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating wet and dry continuing to beat the mixture.
Add in the melted chocolate and beat until combine.

If you are making Whoopie Pies, butter and flour the tray and fill each indentation half way up.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

If you are making cupcakes line the trays and bake for 18-22 minutes.

If you are making a cake (to make cake balls/pops) butter or spray pan with cooking spray and bake for 40-45 minutes. (You will also need melting chocolate to dip the cake balls in)


5 comments:

  1. Yum. I love your resourcefulness! I've been wanting to make cake balls because I have ton of melting chocolates to use up from last year. These sound awesome!

    P.S. I'm not going to bring the ooey gooey pumpkin bars to turkey day, but I am going to bring these caramel apple cider cookies. http://scrambledhenfruit.blogspot.com/2010/11/caramel-stuffed-apple-cider-cookies.html

    Can't wait to see you. BTW, you were right, no pull out bed in the living room at Grams anymore. Totally missed that one. But you are more than welcome to sleep on the pullout in the other bedroom with me, Brad and Oliver. :)

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  2. Those sound delish! Love how you saved the crumbles for cake balls. I would not have been that quick thinking as I just would have stood there and eaten it straight from the pan (and then maybe licked it) No shame over here...

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  3. Thank you!!!
    Ahah... honestly I did start picking away at the crumbs at first but then the idea popped in my head and I had to force my self to stop eating! After the cake balls were made I was glad I did.

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  4. :O it looks great
    i would like to do it ;)
    thank you

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  5. Thank you so much! You should try it, they had great reviews! :)

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