I love this time of year, with all the fun parties and such! Everything from graduation parties to bridal and baby showers, with some weddings and summer shindigs thrown in! With all these events coming up, there’s a definite need for easy, yet interesting and different recipes! I recently co-hosted a bridal shower for my brother’s fiancée, so I thought I would share some of the recipes I used for the event! Today, we are going for the sweet and tart combo: Lemon Cake Truffles!!
These were so fun to make, and only require a little bit of baking! I contemplated calling them “Lemon Cake Balls” because that’s basically what they are, they’re Lemon Cake Pops without the stick! Now you can absolutely add the stick for another cute element, but I was pressed for time, plus, I think they turned out just as adorable! The colors for the shower were coral and aqua, hence, the two colors of truffles. Feel free to add whatever color you want!
For the frosting, I gleaned from Sweetapolita’s Lemon Frosting Recipe, but halved it and added my own twist.
To get started, you will need:
1 box of a Lemon Cake Mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
Zest of 1 Lemon
2.5 cups powdered sugar
Fresh juice from half a lemon
1/8 cup heavy whipping cream
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
White Almond Bark
Food Coloring (optional)
The How-To:
Prepare your cake from the mix, and bake it in the oven. Make sure you do not overbake it! Underbaked is better than overbaked.
While the cake is in the oven/cooling, make the frosting:
Put butter (at room temperature) and lemon zest in a medium bowl. How much lemon zest is completely up to you. I like my frosting zinging, especially because we aren’t adding anything to the cake, but it’s your choice!
Cream butter and zest with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy.
Slowly add in the powdered sugar, and beat on low until smooth.
Add in the whipping cream, and mix until combined.
Squeeze in your lemon juice, to taste. Again, I’m leaving it up to your taste buds! I just love when the tang meets the sweetnesss of the outside coating!
Add in the vanilla, to taste. You can also sub this out for lemon extract, but I didn’t have any on hand.
Mix until everything is combined and smooth and has the texture of frosting. If it’s too wet, add more powdered sugar. If it isn’t wet enough, add more lemon juice or whipping cream.
Move back to the cake. Your cake shoud be completely cool before this, so if you need to pop it into the refrigerator for a bit, feel free to do so! Make sure when you bake it, you line the bottom of the pan with parchment, and prepare the pan with butter and flour so it comes out easily. Break up the cake and place it into a large bowl.
Using your hands, crumble the cake into small pieces until it looks like the crumbles are even in size. Feel free to remove any overdone parts as you go through. You don’t want those chunks in your cake truffles!
Your cake will already be pretty moist. To get a feel for this, grab a handful and squeeze it in your hand. The cake should form together.
Add a little frosting at a time. I mean, a SPOONFUL at a time! You’ll only need about a fourth of the amount of frosting, but that’s OK! Less frosting will make for a better textured truffle. Use your hands to mix in the frosting well.
Once you feel that your truffles will stick together well, use a small ice cream scoop to keep the balls around the same size. I only filled the scoop up about 2/3 of the way.
Form your cake into balls, and pop them into the freezer for about 30 minutes.
Prepare your almond bark by melting it in the microwave and then adding the food coloring. I started off with three squares for each color, but had to go back and melt three more for each, because you’ll need quite a bit to coat all the truffles.
Once your truffles are nice and firm, take them out of the freezer and dip the into the almond bark. Let the excess drip off before you place them on wax paper to set.
And you’re done! Dip all the truffles, let them harden, and you’re good to go! If you prepare these ahead of time, I recommend keeping them in the fridge or freezer, because there is dairy in the frosting.
One cake should make about 24 truffles. You defintely could make two cakes, with the same amount of frosting!
Trust me, these are a hit at parties, and they are the perfect sweet treat bite!
If YOU decide to try this recipe, please post a picture to twitter or instagram and tag me (@allieelliott) and use the hashtag #thegypsyteacher so I can see your yummy creations!
Happy baking!
Allie Elliott
Follow @allieelliott
