here comes the cake truffles: dani's candies

My friend Dani married a great guy on Saturday. And because I have a great guy myself, Mark made cake truffles with me to contribute to her cookie table (a western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio tradition, apparently). Her colors were fall themed, so we made fall themed truffles.

These things are awesome. We heard the wait staff talking about them while we were loading up our plates with cookies.

You start with a chocolate cake. Mark likes to use the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe. Here's the main players. And Sir Sous Chef.


The awesome thing about this cake is that it's practically one-bowl. By that I mean you dump everything in at once, like so.


Boil some water. In a cow. (Thanks Amber's Aunt BeBe)


In the meantime, beat all the other ingredients.


Add the boiling water to make what looks like soup. Don't turn the mixer on too high or you'll spray your face. Trust me. I know this.


Get it in some pans. I like to use two 9-inch rounds.


Let those bake and get started on the cream cheese frosting.


Cream butter and cream cheese.



Add some confectioners sugar, milk, and the other players. Mix. Smell the yum.


At this point Mark arrived, so we cooled the cakes and chilled the frosting and watched Star Trek. Yep. And then he gunged the cake and frosting together to make cake balls.



To make the actual candies, Mark and I work as a team. I'm the sprinkle/jimmie master and he's the chocolate master. He fills the candy molds (that look like the bottom of peanut butter cups) with melted dark chocolate.


A cake ball goes in each and the trays go in the fridge to chill and set. This is what they look like when they are done.


Next they take a dip in colored white chocolate.

Next they are doused in sprinkles or jimmies. We used fall leaves. And here they come...



The cookies were delicious, cake truffles spectacular, and the bride radiant. And I got to dance with Mark to Billy Joel.

Good wedding, I'd say.