Cake Balls!

Cake balls...so funny. Gah... I didn't even know what cake balls were until I asked my sister in law Daphne for some help in party planning. After she told me about them, I immediately knew that I'd want to make them. So, I invited some girlfriends over and they helped me figure this cake ball thing out. I used Paula Deen's recipe http://www.smithfield.com/recipes/recipe/paulas-cake-balls and after my first try, (sorry Paula) I have some ideas on how to make them taste better, look more uniform, and professional.

1. Use your own butter cream. In the recipe, it calls for one tub of store bought icing and I just HATE that stuff. It's no good...use your own.

2. Def. use a melon baller or 1/2 TBS to form your balls. If the balls are too big, you're not going to get the chocolate all over it.

3. make your balls ahead a time and freeze them the day before. If the balls are too soft they'll fall off the toothpicks and you'll be fishing for the darn balls all afternoon.

4. Don't temper your own chocolate. Use the good quality confectioners chocolate as directed. it dries quickly and tastes yummy.

5. For the love of everything good in this world DECORATE THEM! Dip those suckers in sprinkles, cookie crystals, or nuts. They look SOOO pretty decorated. I didn't decorate my chocolate ones and although they were my favorite, they looked pretty lame. I wish I would have drizzled them with white chocolate.

6. When decorating them dip them directly into the sprinkles. That way the hole that your toothpick makes becomes the bottom of your cake ball and you don't have to worry about filling it in.

Hope everyone tries they're hand at these! They're perfect for holidays, showers and weddings!