Carrot Cake Balls

i decided to give the cake balls another go, this time with carrot cake (and cream cheese frosting, of course) because that's what was in the pantry. and i coated them in white chocolate. i did a much better dipping job this time than last. for one, i made the balls smaller, using the larger end of a melon baller instead of just guessing. they held together better when they were smaller. also, i kept the chocolate warm by putting the ceramic bowl on top of a heating pad. i put the heating pad in another bowl to distribute the heat better, and put saran wrap over the heating pad to protect it, and so my dad doesn't get chocolate on his back the next time he uses the heating pad.

also, my technique was just better, in dipping the ball and wiping off excess chocolate and scooting onto the wax paper. i guess it just takes practice. and i drizzled the balls with white chocolate, which helped to camouflage any imperfections.

also this time, though, i made two 8" round cakes instead of one 13x9" cake, using half a can of frosting for each cake. i admit, this was at the request of my mother. she liked the cake balls but thought they were a little too sweet (they are), and being somewhat wary of some of my culinary innovations and experiments, she preferred the tried-and-true regular cake over the cake ball invention.
but that doesn't mean that i just made a plain ol' cake. well, i sort of did. but i added a little embellishment, while i had the white chocolate out for the cake balls. criss-crosses on wax paper...


then stuck into the cake!

sorta looks like it's from a fancy bakery, don't it? sort of. let me make a point here- the criss-crosses are important. if you just do loops (so the lines are all parallel, essentially), they just fall apart. so, criss-cross, people!

here's a piece of cake and some cake balls, before headed over to the neighbor's house.

and, the inside of a cake ball, before meeting its delicious, impending doom in my mouth.

see those little orange bits? carrots, right? wrong. they are "carrot flavored bits," as proudly advertised on the cake box's front! they're carrot powder, sugar, and some other binding stuff. the cake still tasted good, it just didn't really taste like carrot cake. more like a plain spice cake, which was still good, as i said.