Mascarpone Cake Truffles

What do you do with 20 ruined cupcakes? And what do you do when you're up at 11pm making said cupcakes for your kid's birthday at school the next day, and they have to be delivered in the morning? When one is tired, and it's late, and they've just thrown a birthday party for a zillion loud kids at their house, and they still have to make cupcakes, it's not a good idea to try to increase the recipe by 50% (no, not double the recipe, not cut it in half, but increase it by 50%). Obviously I messed up in some of my calculations. My cupcakes expanded above the pan at least one inch, and then sank terribly, and were all crumbly and just looked awful. However, they still tasted great. It wasn't any consolation to me at the time. I think I cried just a little and then went to bed. I got up extra early the next morning to make and frost some drop sugar cookies. Then, as I was leaving the school (after delivering them) I locked my keys AND my two youngest kids in the van. (We just bought a van a few weeks ago, by the way). My middle child was able to save the day by unlocking the doors in the passenger side. But anyway, back to the cupcakes.

I have seen many recipes on the internet for Cake Balls, which call for one 9x13 cake plus a can of frosting, mixed together, shaped into balls, and dipped into almond bark. I liked the general idea of these, but didn't like the idea of mixing the cake with the frosting, and then dipping it in almond bark. I have a sweet tooth, but that seemed like it would be way too sweet, even to me. So I made up my own version.

I had half a container of mascarpone cheese that needed using, so I decided to incorporate that into my cake truffles. I don't like using almond bark (or confectioner's coating- but I will use it once in a while) so I decided to try melting chocolate chips instead. I used real white chocolate chips (not vanilla chips- look for cocoa butter in the ingredients. Should not contain hydrogenated oils, if you're snooty like me, at least. This provides a better flavor. They can be hard to find but I've actually found them at Wal-Mart, believe it or not. Another good place to get them is Trader Joe's, but I believe they only have them around the holidays.) For the dark chocolate, I used half semi-sweet chips, half milk chocolate chips. I didn't really measure the chocolate chips, so I'll just estimate. You do want to work quickly during the dipping process, and keep the chocolate in your pan over very lowest heat so it doesn't start to solidify. You'll probably have some chocolate leftover, but it's better to have too much than too little, in this case. Just use the rest for dipping pretzels!

My cupcakes were made from a yellow cake recipe, but I'm sure any flavor of cake would be great.

Mascarpone Cake Truffles

20 unfrosted cupcakes

4 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons spreadable cream cheese

2 tablespoons leftover frosting

10 ounces white chocolate chips

5 ounces semi-sweet chips

5 ounces milk chocolate chips

Crumble cupcakes (or use an equal part cake) into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add mascarpone, cream cheese, and frosting. Using a paddle attachment, mix everything together until it is well-incorporated. It should look like cookie dough. Using a medium or small cookie scoop, scoop dough into balls and roll in your hands until the ball is uniform. Place on a tray or baking sheet covered with wax paper and refrigerate a few hours, until very firm. Melt white chocolate chips in a small pan over very, very low heat (I used the absolute lowest heat setting on my stove). In another small pan, melt the semi and milk chips together until smooth, using very, very low heat. Using a toothpick, spear a ball, and dip it into one of the pans of chocolate. Spoon chocolate over the top and then pick up the toothpick. Tap the toothpick against the side of the pan so the excess chocolate drips off. Place back on wax paper to dry. Repeat with all of the cake balls, making half white chocolate ones and half dark chocolate ones. Put in fridge for a few minutes to set the chocolate. Spoon the leftover chocolates into separate Ziploc bags, and pipe a drizzle design over the truffles, using contrasting colors. Store in the refrigerator.