Fiesta, Siesta, sprinkles, cake truffles!

Sprinkles! Coconut! Chocolate! Ricotta! Accidental good stuff! Did I mention sprinkles?

It’s cake truffle time in Casa Gander when I make too many of these Turkish coffee brownie layer cakes:

Or these coconut-mango bundt-lettes from last Fiesta:

Or gluten-free chocolate layer cakes (one from the archives!):

Or other good things that haven’t made it onto the blog, like the most sensual banana cake. (I’m calling it cake, because something with so much butter, cream and sour cream really couldn’t hide under the misnomer ‘bread’.)

Cake truffles are fun. I get to play with food like it’s play dough, and as for the ‘frosting’ that binds the cake crumbs together – I make that up as I go. As a result, I don’t have a ‘go-to’ cake truffles recipe, and each batch of the cuties taste a little different.

It’s a good thing I’m not a civil engineer. Slightly wonky & experimental cake truffles are fine, but probably not slightly off-balance civic statue of man-on-a-horse-which-turned-into-a-unicorn … 

I’m bringing some cake truffles to Angie’s Fiesta Friday party. Which has turned into Siesta Sunday in Casa Gander. But these are all-purpose cake truffles, they will set you up for an all-night rave Angie-style, or an after-party a la Casa Mia.

Here are some guidelines, measurements, and ideas for cake truffles and beyond.

Coconut-mango cake truffles with white chocolate

I made up a mixture of coconut cream and shaved palm sugar. 40 grams of dark, dark palm sugar full of caramel molasses-y flavours. Mixed with 100 grams of coconut cream. Heated gently until the palm sugar is dissolved. This is mixed into 200 grams of crumbled cake mixture until the mixture is softer, malleable, but holds its shape. So far, so good.

Then, I made up a ganache with coconut cream and white chocolate, dipped the truffles in the ganache and covered it with sprinkles or coconut. But air-head that I am, forgot that coconut cream doesn’t firm up like butter. The “ganache” mixture was an intense coconut-y hit, but it needed chilling overnight in the fridge to set.

After the overnight chilling, the truffles had just the right density and texture, like real truffles, but with more cake.

Bonus: the leftover ganache was eaten with a spoon, in the style of coconut & white chocolate mousse. Mmmm mousse.

Banana cake truffles

This was much more “make it up as you go along”, but go slow on the ricotta, and it’s pretty fool proof.

Crumble banana bread, cake, loaf. Chunky nuts and dates are ok, as long as they are not too chunky.

Add in ricotta cheese, tablespoon by tablespoon. Ricotta cheese can vary in thickness, and banana cake/bread can vary in moistness. So, keep adding ricotta until you get that malleable but holds its shape consistency.

Roll into balls. Optional: roll out thin circles of marzipan and cover the banana truffles with marzipan. Place over a wire cooling rack.

Melt dark chocolate (bittersweet, 75% cocoa) over a double boiler. Carefully dollop chocolate over the marzipan covered banana truffles until they are mostly covered. Either wait for the chocolate to set, or place into mini cupcake cups.

Brownie cake truffles

Last but not least, if you’ve made the Turkish coffee brownie cake, just mix the cake and the ganache. Simple, bliss.

So blissful, there is none left for Siesta Sunday, I mean, Fiesta Friday, party. Sorry gang. Instead, here’s a photo of some cake truffles I made from that gluten-free chocolate cake:

Tagged: banana cake, cake truffles, Casa Gander, chocolate ganache, coconut, Fiesta Friday, mango, Novice Gardener, ricotta, Siesta Sunday, sprinkles, white chocolate