Freezing Cake balls.

Q. Hey, I'm e-mailing the expert with a freezing question! I'm making cake balls for my sister's wedding reception next week. I'm not sure if you've heard of or made the cake balls yet. They are kind of a big thing around here. It's just a crumbled up cake mixed with frosting and then formed into balls. Then the balls are dipped in melted chocolate and voila, cake balls! One of my friends has made them and frozen them before dipping them into the chocolate and frozen them after dipping them. She says both times as they are thawing they get little condensation droplets and look weird, but still taste fine.

I wondered if you have any tips for how I could freeze these things without them getting the condensation droplets on them. I was hoping to make up all the cake balls and then freeze them this week, and then dip them next week just before the wedding. Any tips would be great if you get a chance. I'm not really sure how I got roped into making these things. If freezing them isn't going to be a good option then I can just make them all next week, I just thought I would see what my options were and if you had any good ideas!


A: Hi Gwen, the problem I see with freezing these is the frosting inside the cake balls. Frosting does not freeze well because it will separate and hold in a lot of moisture. That's why little droplets form on them after they are frozen. My advice is to bake all the cakes up to 2 months ahead of time, crumble them when cooled and freeze in zip top bags. Squeeze all the air out of the bags and stack the zip top bags like bricks in your freezer to make room for all of them.
A few nights before the reception, pull out the frozen crumbled cake bags and let them defrost on your counter with the bags open. This will let some of the moisture escape. Mix in the frosting, and form the balls. Refrigerate them for a day or two so they won't crumble when you dip them, and then dip in melted chocolate when it's reception time. These look so yummy, I can't wait to try them myself!
Another tip for melting your chocolate, I learned that you can put bakers chocolate buttons in a oven safe bowl and set in your oven on the lowest setting (150 degrees) for as long as you want. It will melt and if it hardens up a bit while you are dipping, just stick it back in the oven until chocolate melts. This way you don't have to worry about burning the chocolate in the microwave or using a double boiler. This won't work with regular chocolate chips, just bakers chocolate. Chocolate chips have too much wax in them so they tend to burn.

Response:

Hey Jenny, thanks for your freezing tips. I did a trial run yesterday and made them up today and I think it's going to work PERFECT. So I've been baking cakes all day and I just put the last of 16 cake mixes in the oven and I'm so glad that part is out of the way!

By the way, I figured out a way to make chocolate mint cake balls. I picked up some Andes mint chocolate chips and dipped the chocolate (devils food cake and chocolate frosting) cake balls in the melted andes mints...HEAVEN!!!! I think they are my new favorite cake balls. Thanks for the idea!

-Gwen

Most recent t.v. appearance.

Hello my fellow foodies and time savers. Click here to view my most recent Good Things Utah guest chef appearance for some great ideas on a variety of meals using meatballs. And they are delicious!! The secret ingredient is Parmigino Reggiano cheese. Mmmmmmm Good.

The New Cover!

It is finished and the new books are printing now. Taah daaaah! The book is more perfected and there are number of new recipes. I will be doing a guest chef appearance on Good Things Utah on March 26th 10am. Tune in to learn more great time saving tips.

New book cover

I am looking for a graphic designer. Please let me know if you know anyone that is good. This is the picture I want to use for the new cover of my book. The new title is: Dinner on Ice: Easy family meals to make now and eat later.

Q and A Muffin Tin freezing.

Question:

I bought your book about 2 months ago. Our afternoons have completely changed because I am not stressed about dinner or ignoring kids while trying to prepare the meal. Thank you for all the great ideas and recipes. I like your metal muffin tin idea on your blog, but I am wondering if it is difficult to get the pureed food out of the metal tin. What is the best way to get the food out of the tin? Thank you,
Meagen

Answer:

I'm so glad the book is working for you Meagen. Thank you for your email, you made my day. The pureed food is easy to get out of the tin if you set it on the counter for 10 minutes at room temperature. As soon as the food defrosts just a little, you can pop the frozen puree right out and place it in a large zip top bag and back in the freezer. I do lot of banana squash puree and then add cinnamon and brown sugar and powdered oatmeal for my baby. I also often make a veggie noodle and beef or chicken soup.(Using veggie noodles called Wacky Mac) It's pretty simple. 5 C water, 2 C chicken stock or broth, 1 pkg curly noodles, 1 C diced veggies, 1 pkg country gravy mix, 1 lb shredded chicken or beef (precooked and frozen). Cook in a large pot and boil for 10 minutes. This is great to freeze in a muffin tin for baby. So healthy and easy to heat up and serve.

Best of luck and keep in touch if you have any more questions.

-Jenny Stanger

Q and A about broccoli.

Q. I just bought your book and I am so excited to try the receipes. I noticed that you could freeze rice and it tastes good when you microwave it. One of my husbands most favorite meals is brocolli and rice. Is there anyway to freeze broccoli so it keeps in the off season and so he can reheat it in just minutes for lunches. He only has half hour for lunch.

thank you

-Angela

A. I'm so glad you bought the book! Thank you for your business. Prepping Broccoli is similar to pre-cooking the rice. You steam the broccoli for 7 minutes ( I love my microwave steamer which is a plastic bowl with a tight lid on it. There is a small piece of plastic you set inside that seperates the broccoli from the water in the bottom.) Once the broccoli is steamed you can freeze the broccoli in a metal cupcake pan (fill each muffin hole with broccoli) for 1 hour if you would like it in already formed in serving sized portions for his lunch. After it has frozen for an hour or two, place the frozen broccoli shapped cups into a large zip top bag. For his lunches you can pull out one muffin shapped frozen broccoli and heat it in the microwave until warm. Please let me know if you have any more questions. I also use this method to freeze baby food. I puree vegetables or pour soup into my muffin tin to freeze for baby. Also, if you have leftover chicken broth, the muffin tin is a great way to freeze it into 1/2 Cup size portions to use later.

Thanks again and enjoy,

Jenny Stanger

Cafe Rio Copycat Recipe

Because of the huge response to the post about Cafe Rio recipes, I decided to post the recipes that were sent to me. They are delicious.

Chicken

5 lbs chicken breast- boneless skinless

1 small bottle zesty italitan dressing

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tpsp cumin

3 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients together in a large crock pot.

Cook on high for 5-7 hours. Remove chicken and shred with fork. Reserve a small amount of juice and pour over shreeded chicken to keep moist. Keep warm.

Pork

1 bottle of honey BBQ sauce

1 Tbsp honey

1 liter of Dr. Pepper or Coke

Place all ingredients in large crockpot and cook on low all night. In the morning take the raost out leaving the juice in the crockpot, shred the roast. Then place the shredded roast back in the crock pot and leave it on low.

Lime Rice

In a sauce pan saute:

2 Tbsp butter

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

In a large pot, bring the following to boil

6 2/3 C water

8tsp chicken bullion

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 tsp cumin

2 small cans diced green chilies

2 Tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp lime zest (optional)

Add onion and garlic to boiling water. Add 3 cups long grain rice. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. You can freeze a whole lime or just lime peels for future zesting. Just place in a ziptop baggie and freeze.

Fresh Salsa

4 fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 white onion, chopped

1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Combine ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Cilantro Lime Dressing

1 pkg of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch Dressing dry mix (There is a subsitution for this you can make from scratch in my book.)

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup mayonnaise

1-2 tomatillos, peel

1 clove garlic minced

1/3 bunch cillantro, chopped

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 small jalapeno, seeds removed

Blend ingredients together in a blender. Add additional mayonnaise if dressing is too thin. Keep refrigerated. This sauce will not do well frozen. I will figure out a way to make it possible to freeze because this is my favorite part of them meal. It is the mayonnaise that does not freeze well, so I will try subsituting in plain yougart or sour cream.

Serve in the following order:

Tortillas, Shredded cheese, Chicken or Pork, Black or Pinto Beans, Lime Rice, Red and Green Leaf Lettuce, shredded, Salsa, Guacamole, Fresh Cilantro, Parmesan cheese, Fresh lime slice, Cilantro Lime Dressing, Enjoy!

I'm working on making some homemade granola bars and granola, but when I'm done I will be making this for dinner. Typing up the recipe has made me hungry.