Monday, October 8, 2012

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Angry?

Angry Bird's cake balls:





Sorry, I know the mess is still visible in the pic!

How to make These fun little cake balls.

What you need:
Cake dough, your choice of flavor (one box will make about 2 dozen)
Icing, I like the wilton recipe or you can buy a bucket of it our Walmart sells it. Again any flavor.
Almond Bark, Vanilla if you want to color it.
shortening
Wilton food coloring, the kind that comes in the little jars (for red I suggest the no taste red)
Wilton food markers
fondant icing, you can get it already colored or get white and color it yourself.
spoon
fork
sharp knife
wax paper or parchment paper
Tray to put the cake balls on once formed
rolling pin

Before we get started, this gets pretty messy so I suggest you prepare a spot to make this and remove all jewelry from hands/wrists. Just a little FYI I got everything on the list at my Walmart. The fondant, food markers, wilton food coloring in the little jars and the container of icing are with the cake decorating items near the birthday supplies.

Bake your cake according to the box instructions. When the cake is finished put the entire cake in a large mixing bowl. I like those really big stainless bowls. Use a fork to break up the cake as small as you can get it, and let it cool. If you stir the crumbled cake it helps it cool a little faster. Once cooled take the tray you are going to place your formed cake balls on and put the parchment or wax paper on the tray. Mix about 3 heaping table spoons of icing into the crumbled cake until doughy. Don't mix in too much icing or it will get oozy. You may need to mix a little more icing in, just eyeball it, you should be able to see it get stiffer and to where you can form it easily. Now, depending on the size you want, you can use an ice cream scooper or one of those melon ball Scopes, and you can even just use a spoon. Scoop the cake dough icing mix and form into balls if you need too. Place the balls on the prepared tray. Place in the freezer for 45 min to an hour and 15 min, it depends on how hot it is where you are.

Once the balls are frozen melt your almond bark according to packaging instructions, I suggest the stove top. Add about a 1/2 teaspoon of the Wilton no taste red food coloring (it just makes a brighter red). This will make the Almond bark start to firm up, so this is where the shortening comes in. You have to melt in shortening a teaspoon at a time to thin the Almond bark back up. This you have to just give it your best guess and figure out how thin you need it and it will still pour over the cake balls. (It will eventually harden, and you can put the tray back in the freezer to speed it up if you have to.) I suggest you not let the balls touch or once hardened they will stick together. Make sure the Almond bark is well stirred and, I find it's easier to do it this way, spoon it over the cake balls one table spoon at a time over each ball (you might need a second spoon to help the almond bark go where it needs too.) I tried dipping initially and some of the cake bits ended up in the almond bark, just to let you know. Once all the balls are covered set aside and let harden (or place the white and orange fondant on now).

Take black fondant and White fondant and role them flat.  Using a sharp knife, one that is not serrated works best, cut small ovals out, then cut the ovals in half. This will be used for the whites of the eyes. The black will be easier to cut if you let the flattened fondant harden just a little. Cut the black fondant into thin strips for the eyebrows. If you let this, the strips, harden a little more you can just break off little pieces to the size you want your eyebrows. Take the orange fondant and break off small pieces and form into a triangle shape. The eyes and the beak can be placed on the cake balls while the almond bark is still tacky, but be careful not to get the almond bark on the front of the eyes. You can also take the black food marker and put the dots for the eyes on before or after the white is on the ball, I find it's easier after, that way I won't smudge the eyes off. To get they eyebrows on, moisten the fondant just enough to get it to stick to the white fondant. If you want to make a tail just take the black in the strips you used for the eyebrows and stick them in a fan shape in the back of the ball. Once dried place in a container or on a plate for eating. Just a little note, you may feel the urge to tackle anyone who tries to touch them after going through all this to make them, so just a warning, you may want to walk away from them.

Notes: you may want to trim some of the excess almond bark off of the bottom of the ball, once dried, to make it look rounder, but not all of it so they don't decide to roll around in your container or on your plate.

I think you can buy orange fondant, or you can make it with the orange wilton food coloring and white fondant. Also, you can make it with 1 part red pre-colored fondant to 4 parts yellow.

Let me know if I left out a step or if you have a question.

This is what I'm doing at 3am on my kids birthdays....Now let me go crawl back to my bed...