Carrot Cake Truffles (aka Dealing with Cake Disasters)

Let's face it, even if you've been baking forever, and feel like you know how to properly grease a pan, sometimes a series of choices and events beyond your control will cause a delicious cake to refuse to release from a pan in one piece. In my case, I started baking at 8, I didn't wait for the browned butter to cool, I hadn't properly greased the pan, and when I started to unmold it after it had cooled 10 minutes, it was not even budging an inch,.

Here's the marvelous carrot cake from The Artful Baker, or rather, the pan after I finally got the majority of the cake out.

Suffice to say, I did not salvage the cake in one servable chunk. I decided early on to make either a cake trifle or cake truffles but I was really short on time prior to the evening I had volunteered to bring dessert.

So my first strategy was to cut the largest pieces down into mini cakes that were roughly the same size, put a dollop of cream cheese icing on each, and sprinkle on some pecans. The cake recipe was delicious so they were tasty, and after a filling meal, the little cake bites were a nice size.

I still had the pieces I cut from these mini cakes and a bowl of crumbs salvaged from the inner workings of the rose pan, so with these I made a smaller batch of carrot cake truffles. This is easy, you just have to have time for the various stages to firm up. I'm going to put the official recipe below but real talk, I used canned frosting and Ghiradelli white chocolate melts and those were the only ingredients I bothered with. I had to cover a few of the truffles twice in order to stick pecans to them as the Ghiradelli melts reset incredibly quickly.

These are overly sweet for my tastes, more white chocolate than carrot cake. But they may be to some people's tastes, so I will bring them to work with me and see what happens.

But this strategy could work with any cake failure, with any flavor of icing and a chocolate candy coating. A former co-worker used to make delicious oreo truffles in a similar way and people loved them!

Carrot Cake Truffles
(as seen on the Inspired by Charm blog, and let me tell you, you should check out their photos and process because they are beautiful and perfect!)


Makes about 40 truffles

Here's what you will need:

1 prepared carrot cake (13x9" pan, no frosting)
1 cup cream cheese frosting (recipe here)
1 bag (12 ounces) pure white candy melts
1 bar (4 ounces) white chocolate baking bar, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable shorting (Crisco)
1 cup orange candy melts
Carrot sugar candies, optional

In a large bowl, crumble the carrot cake with your hands. Using a spatula, stir in about 3/4 cup of the cream cheese frosting. Add more as needed. The mixture should stay together when rolled into a ball, but not be overly sticky.

Roll the cake mixture into 1-inch balls. Set the cake balls on a plate and refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes.

In a medium bowl, add the white candy melts, white chocolate, and vegetable shortening. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring after each until melted.

Dip the cooled cake balls into the melted white chocolate mixture and coat completely. Set on wax paper and allow chocolate to set completely.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the orange candy melts by microwaving them at 30-second intervals, stirring after each, until melted.

Add the melted orange candy melts to a piping bag or plastic baggie. (Use caution if using a plastic bag. If your melted candy is too warm, it can cause the bag to break.) Cut a small tip off one corner of the bag and drizzle the melted candy onto the coated cake balls. Top with a carrot sugar candy, if desired.

Once the candy coating is completely set, pack and store the truffles in an air-tight container.