cake balls

Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Truffles

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

Happy Almost St. Patrick’s Day! Last year I made some delicious Murphy’s Stout Cupcakes with an Irish Cream Buttercream Frosting. This year, I was going to make the same thing, but lately I’ve been all about the cake and cookie balls (if you haven’t made the Birthday Cake Truffles or Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls, stop reading and make them immediately. They were DELICIOUS!), so I decided to find some St. Patrick’s Day truffles!

homemade baileys irish cream chocolate truffles for st. patrick's day

The following recipe was okay. They tasted delicious, but honestly, I am not a fan of how they looked. The batter was too sticky and heavy, making it hard to make nice circles.  If you are going for taste – they’re great! Looks? I’m going to try again.

Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Truffles

Borrowed from this post from Life Love and Sugar.

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 ½ vanilla wafer crumbs (Almost one box of Vanilla Wafers) 
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup corn syrup
  • 1/2 cup Baileys Irish Cream With Caramel
  • 12 oz bag chocolate melting wafers (or chocolate chips … if you use chocolate chips you may need to use some Crisco while you melt just to make it melt smoothly)

Here’s what you do:

  1. Okay, it’s not exact science but add nearly one box of Vanilla Wafers to a blender. I had about 15-20 cookies left in my box (can you say snacktime for later?). Blend completely until you have about 2 ½ – 2¾ cups of vanilla wafer crumbs.
  2. Combine vanilla wafer crumbs and powdered sugar in a bowl until you have a nice powder-like consistency of both ingredients.
  3. Add corn syrup and Baileys to dry ingredients. Mix well until consistency is sticky, yet moldable. It sounds gross, but the consistency reminded me of when I make turkey meatballs.
  4. Let batter sit in fridge for about 15-20 minutes until chilled. Once cool, shape batter into balls and set aside. I put mine in the freezer so they would harden up and not melt when mixed with the warm chocolate. I made about a dozen balls.
  5. Melt chocolate in microwave according to package directions. I did not end up needing the entire package, so I recommend heating up half the chocolate wafers at a time.
  6. Using a fork, dip balls into the melted chocolate and shake off excess chocolate by tapping bottom of fork on the side of the bowl.
  7. Place completed balls on a cookie sheet (I used foil sprayed with Pam on my cookie sheet to prevent sticking).  Top with green sprinkles, if you wish. Let balls dry.
  8. Enjoy!
Put your vanilla wafers in the bender!

Put your vanilla wafers in the blender!

Combine powdered wafer crumbs with powdered sugar. Then add corn syrup!

Combine powdered wafer crumbs with powdered sugar before adding syrup and Baileys.

baileys irish cream truffles

Birthday Cake Truffles

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Our friend Dave turned 30 this week. We celebrated over the weekend with beers, pizza and other fun (including owning the jukebox) at one of his favorite bars, Map Room, and are going to be heading down to Cincinnati soon for some more fun.

a few of us out this weekend

a few of us out this weekend

Since there will be a few of us making the trip to Cincinnati, I decided to bake some goodies to bring along the way. And since it’s his birthday, what better excuse to make birthday cake balls, or birthday cake truffles (which sounds way classier than balls).

If you have a birthday coming up – or just want to enjoy some cake batter balls yourself – I highly recommend you make these. They are awesome. They taste like cake batter. And have no eggs. Seriously –  if you like cake batter, you must make these right now. I only hope they make it to this weekend and I don’t end up enjoying them all before then!

birthday cake truffles

Birthday Cake Truffles

(slightly modified from The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Here’s what you need:

For the truffles:

  • 1 ½ c flour
  • 1 ¼ c yellow cake mix
  • ½ c unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ c white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 tablespoons milk
  • 2-3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles

For the coating:

  • 2 c. white chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon Crisco
  • 5 tablespoons yellow cake mix
  • Sprinkles for topping

Here’s what you do:

For the cake batter balls:

  1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla.
  2. Add cake mix and flour and combine thoroughly.
  3. Depending on consistency, add 4-5 tablespoons of milk. Batter should be the consistency of dough so that you can form small balls with your hands.
  4. Stir in sprinkles and evenly distribute with your hands or a spatula.
  5. Roll dough into small, one inch balls and place on a foil- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Chill dough balls in refrigerator for 30 minutes or freezer for 15 minutes. 

For the coating:

  1. While dough balls are chilling, melt white chocolate chips in the microwave with Crisco. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, stirring every 30-45 minutes until melted.
  2. Once melted, add cake mix, stirring well to ensure a smooth consistency.
  3. Using a toothpick or fork, dip cake dough balls into the melted chocolate and shake off excess chocolate by tapping bottom of fork on the side of the bowl.
  4. Place completed cake dough ball on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat until all balls are done.
birthday cake truffles

dip the cake ball into the melted chocolate with a fork, dip excess chocolate on side of bowl

birthday cake truffles

place chocolate covered cake ball onto parchment paper, add sprinkles

birthday cake truffles

Enjoy your completed truffles

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 1 Comment

Today, in addition to watching the Browns game, doing laundry, going for a run and doing some work, I was a baking and cooking machine. I roasted tomatoes, made fresh pesto, baked banana bread and even made some cookie dough balls. That’s right – cookie dough balls. Who needs cake balls when you have these tasty treats? And of course, they’re egg free – so not only delicious but a safe way (and perfect excuse) to indulge in the best part of baking – cookie dough!

chocolate covered cookie dough bites

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

(borrowed from this recipe)

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup milk (I used 1% but may try almond milk next time)
  • 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 14 oz bag of milk chocolate candy coating

Here’s what you do:

  1. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Add milk and vanilla and mix on high speed with an electric mixer (or your beloved KitchenAid).
  2. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in mini chocolate chips.
  3. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.
  4. When dough is firm enough to handle, form dough into 1″ round balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  5. Place dough ball-filled sheet in freezer and let chill for  at least 30 minutes (I went for a run and let mine chill for about an hour).
  6. After cookie dough balls have hardened in the freezer, it’s time to dip them in the melted chocolate! Melt chocolate candy coating in the microwave or according to package directions. Using a toothpick, dip cookie balls into melted milk chocolate and coat completely.
  7. Return chocolate-covered balls to parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Chill until set.
  8. Enjoy! They’re pretty awesome.

chocolate chip cookie dough balls

Weekend Recap: BC v. ND Weekend

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

As a proud Boston College alumna, I’d be in trouble if I didn’t post about my recent weekend in South Bend to witness another year and another episode of the Holy War. We (BC) were supposed to lose by 20+ points (sadly, we’re less than stellar this season) but the game was closer than it should have been – the final score was 16 – 14, with BC only losing by 2! Again, it was still a loss, but it was a fun day, fun game, and great weekend.

The weekend started off at 6:15 a.m. on Saturday when B and I were picked by his dad in a 12-person van, and it was already full with his parents, 2 of his brothers, 1 of his sisters, B’s coworker and our dentist and his wife (yes, you read that right – they’re family friends so we spend the 4ish hour carride, tailgate, and night/next morning with our dentist).

We arrived at ND and met up B’s aunt, 3 uncles, 2 aunts and 7 cousins. Yes, our tailgate was HUGE, family filled, and got even bigger when 4 of my friends from BC stopped by.

B* and me

There was tons of food, including my own first attempt at cake balls – shaped like footballs of course:

We stayed at a hotel after the game and then headed back to the CLE the next day.

Does your school have any big rivalries? What’s your favorite alumni sporting event?

*B does not usually look like such a creepster. He’s just doing Movember and raising money for man-cancers. If you’d donate to him, I’d appreciate it so he actually does shave it off come 8 days from now (and yes, I’m counting down).