Living with and without

FROM Dukh Niwaran Kaur’s Kitchen

Makes approximately 60-90 balls.  Too many?  No way!

They can be kept in the freezer ready-to-go for your next special occasion such as birthday, anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc… or to feed drop-in guests, to make that spur of the moment party easy, etc.  They will last for months!

This is my most sought after recipe.  Since I started to make these, no one wants me to bring anything else!

1. INGREDIENTS:

FOR CAKE:

1 package Gluten-Free Cake Mix (I recommend Pamela’s Wheat-Free and Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Mix or Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Mix.   Pamela’s is also non-dairy and includes some organic ingredients.  Namaste Chocolate Cake Mix was too dry, and I don’t recommend it.   If you are not following gluten-free, of course, you could use any chocolate cake mix. )

½ cup oil (I used cold-pressed high quality organic oil that was non-GMO such as walnut, sesame, safflower or sunflower.)

Egg-replacer to equal 2 eggs (If you eat eggs,  then use 2 large eggs instead.)

1 ½ cups water

Wax Paper

Little Oil to grease pan (used same as oil above—just a little)

Little Gluten-Free flour

FOR FROSTING:

1 package Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Frosting (I use Pamela’s Dark Chocolate Frosting Mix, Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free, Non-Dairy or Cherrybrook Kitchen Chocolate Frosting Mix.)

6 Tbsp. Earth Balance (Use one that works for you.  I used Earth Balance Organic Buttery Spread Whipped which is vegan.) or if you use dairy use 6 Tbsp. Butter.  Room temperature, not melted.  Cherrybrook Farm calls for 2 sticks softened margarine.

2-4 Tbsp. water or rice milk.

FOR FUDGE DIPPING SAUCE:

1-2 Jars Wax Orchards Classic Fudge or Oh, Fudge, Fat Free, Fruit-Sweetened Dark Chocolate Sauce (Diabetic, gluten free, preservative free.  Contains: unsweetened pineapple juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate, Dutch cocoa, natural vanilla)

Walnuts or pecans, chopped

2.  GREASE PAN OR PANS*

I used a 13 x 9 inch pan (33x23x 6 cm) but the mix will tell you other pan sizes that will work.  Use a small amount of the same oil, butter or Earth Balance that you use for the cake or frosting to grease the pan lightly.  If you have a pastry brush you could grease the pan with that—bottom and sides.  If you don’t,  just put the oil, butter or Earth Balance onto a paper towel or paper napkin and grease the pan with that.

*My Mom’s Pan Greasing Tip:  Take a piece of wax paper, put the pan on top of it, and trace the bottom with a pencil.  Then cut out your pan tracing.  Lightly oil the pan and put your wax paper tracing on top of the oiled pan so that it sticks to the oil.  Then lightly oil the top of the wax paper tracing.  Sift a small amount of flour into the cake pan, and then tap or tilt the pan so that the flour distributes evenly.

3.  MAKE CAKE

Make cake according to package instructions and then bake until done**, and then let it cool.  If you have a baking rack, place it on that to cool.

Then invert (turn upside-down) cake on top of a plate, cookie sheet or jellyroll pan.  Let the cake fall onto the plate, sheet or pan.  If you did my Mom’s pan greasing method, peel the wax paper off.  (Yum, it’s good to eat the cooked cake off of it.  Don’t eat the paper though!)

Then take the cooled cake and crumble into a large bowl.  Get your children, family or friends to help.  This is a very satisfyingly messy endeavor—like finger painting!

**My Mom’s Method to Check if a Cake Is Done:  Put a toothpick into the cake.  If it comes out clean, the cake is done.  If it does not, cook a little longer until it does.

4.  MAKE FROSTING

Make frosting according to package instructions.***  Then put frosting into big bowl with crumbled cake and mix until blended.  There should be no big lumps of cake.  Put bowl in refrigerator or freezer to chill.****

***Note:  For a vegan frosting use Earth Balance of your choice.  For a dairy frosting use butter.  I have used both and they both work!

****Be sure your bowl can take temperature changes—ie that it is tempered.  Old Pyrex can; new ones can’t—there is danger of them exploding!  Stainless steel bowls are fine.  I bought special tempered European pans so I can go from freezer to oven and refrig to oven.  Some of the ones I bought can even go on stove top burner or barbecue!  (More about pans in a future blog post!)

5.  MAKE CAKE BALLS

Put parchment paper onto a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan that will fit into your freezer.  Take part of the chilled cake and frosting mix out of the refrigerator or freezer.  I put it in a small bowl and leave the rest of the mixture in the refrigerator or freezer.  It is easier to work with when it is cold. Using your hands or the large-end of a melon-baller, take a small amount of the chilled mixture. Then put it between your palms and roll into a small ball.  You want the balls to be the size of a small meatball or meatless meatball.  The method is like you would use to make a ball with Play Dough.  You want the surface of the ball to be smooth.  As you finish each ball, place it on the parchment paper covered sheet or pan.  When the pan is full, place in the freezer overnight or at least for several hours.

Continue making balls until all the cake/frosting mixture is used up.

After the chocolate cake balls have been chilled overnight or for several hours and are hard, place balls in quart-sized freezer bags if you are not ready to eat them yet (about 18 will fit in a bag).  If you are ready to eat them soon, proceed to the dipping step of this recipe.

6.  DIPPING CHOCOLATE BALLS

If you want to roll them in nuts, chop your walnuts or pecans first and put in a shallow bowl.  I use a nut chopper for this.

(I have also rolled them in shredded coconut or left them plain.  The nut rolled ones are overwhelmingly more popular so I’ve stopped making them plain or rolled in coconut.  If you needed to avoid nuts because of allergies or dietary restrictions, coconut or plain will work fine.)

Heat Wax Orchard Chocolate Sauce****—either Classic Fudge or Oh, Fudge—in a saucepan on the stove. You want it to soften but not be totally liquid.  Take a frozen cake ball put in a spoon and dip in warm fudge sauce.  Then put in the bowl with the chopped nuts and roll until it is covered with nuts.  Place dipped, nut coated chocolate cake balls onto a plate or into a freezer-safe glass dish.  (Do not put on parchment paper!  It gets soggy when dipped balls are put on it.) Keep in freezer until ready-to-serve.  If you need to take somewhere, put in a cooler with Blue Ice.

Note:  Once they are dipped, the chocolate cake balls are best if eaten fairly soon.  They will keep in the freezer once dipped if they are kept covered (only cover once the topping has set in the freezer or use a container with a lid), but they are tastiest eaten fresh—ie. within several days.

7.  SERVING CHOCOLATE CAKE BALLS

Nearly everyone loves these gluten-free chocolate cake balls, whether they are on a gluten-free diet or not!  One per person is a very rich treat.  When you need to serve a lot of people, just serve them cold or frozen on a plate.  With a smaller group of people, serve with vanilla ice cream or non-dairy frozen treat of your choice.  Last night I used Nada Moo, vanilla for me and Trader Joe’s French Vanilla Ice Cream for my husband and son.  Served with ice cream this is very decadent but less calories than a huge piece of cake and ice cream.  Enjoy!