Leftover cake

What do you do with that delicious cake after the guests are gone and the numbers on the scale are starting to increase?

Never fear the cake ball is here!

I recently made a chocolate Bundt cake for my own birthday and since I didn’t throw myself a party and it’s just me and my husband at home we had a lot of left over cake.

Not wanting this amazing cake to go to waste I decided to clean the canvas and make something new, cake balls.

When I was first making my Bundt cake I ended up with a lot of left over batter that I made into cupcakes to give away. But during the baking process the cupcakes decided to cave in and I knew I couldn’t give away such a hideous creation. So that’s when the first cake ball was made.

So here is how to make cake balls out of left over cake.

First leave your cake uncovered on the counter over night or for a few hours so the frosting on it can harden. If you’re afraid the cake will dry out you can place some plastic wrap on the exposed cake but not covering the frosting.

The frosting needs to be hard so you can take it off more easily than if it is moist. You don’t have to take off all of the frosting if you’re having trouble. Just get the majority of it.

Next once the cake it clean of frosting you can cut it into equal parts to form into balls or you can just grab chunks, squish it together and form balls. Most of mine were between the size of a walnut and a golf ball.

Now with your cake balls formed put them on a cookie tray covered in wax paper and place them in the freezer to harden. They don’t have to stay in the freezer very long 45 minutes to an hour is plenty of time. But they will be perfectly fine if you leave them in their longer.

*Baking Tip* It is better to put things in the freezer than the fridge. The fridge dries things out very quickly while the freezer locks in the moisture.

While the cake balls harden it’s time to assess the frosting situation. I had a good amount of frosting left over after making my cake, which I saved in the fridge in an air tight container. I let the frosting sit out so it would soften. I also added in the frosting I scraped off my cake so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Some of you might be concerned about crumbs in the frosting but if you have enough crumbs it can give your cake balls a speckled look. Or you can leave out the scraped off frosting.

If you don’t have any leftover frosting you can just make more.

With the cake balls now hard it is time to frost them. I found that with the cake balls hard and frozen they were easier to frost. You can frost them using a piping bag, a spatula, or by dunking them in the frosting. I used a spatula.

After you’ve frosted the cake balls put them back in the freezer to harden the frosting.

When you’re ready to eat the cake balls or give them away transfer them to the fridge so they can defrost. When you put them in the fridge be sure to cover them to keep them fresh.

I took my cake balls to book club and they were a hit. You will not be disappointed with the finished product I can assure you!

Also cake balls keep very well in the freezer. I had leftovers from book club and I put them in a Tupperware container in the freezer and when I want a yummy treat I take one out and eat it frozen. They taste great and are semisoft making it easy to eat.

Feel free to post your experiences with leftover cake and with cake balls. I would love to hear from you!