I might be getting into a rut, but I decided to make another batch of Christina Tosi's cake truffles for a recent office party. At least she has lots of different flavors to choose from in All About Cake! I decided to make her orange creamsicle truffle recipe, which Tosi developed in honor of Liam Witt, who passed away from pediatric cancer and whose parents founded Cookies for Kids' Cancer. "Liam's #toughcookie Cake Truffles" have vanilla cake crumbs moistened with a vanilla-orange soak, coated in white chocolate, and covered in vanilla-orange sand.
The orange flavor in these truffles comes from Tang drink mix. I was never a Tang drinker growing up -- my orange beverage of choice was McDonald's orange drink (i.e., Hi-C). I didn't even know anyone still drank Tang, but it was easy enough to find a canister at the supermarket. I made the vanilla-orange sand first, which is a mixture of milk powder, flour, Tang mix, sugar, cornstarch, and unsalted butter. You spread the mixture onto a pan; bake it briefly; let it cool; and add citric acid.
The vanilla cake is the same cake used for Tosi's Mint Cookies and Cream Cake Truffles, and like all of her sheet cake recipes, it requires more than 15 minutes of mixing time. You make the batter by creaming softened butter with sugar and light brown sugar; adding eggs; slowly adding the liquid ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and vanilla); and incorporating the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt). You bake the batter in a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan.
After the cake was cooled, I broke it up into crumbs and added the vanilla-orange soak, which is a mixture of orange juice, Tang mix, clear (i.e., imitation) vanilla, and salt. I used a #60 scoop to portion out the truffle centers and I got 56 from the recipe.
Normally I coat my cake truffles in pure chocolate (instead of a mixture of chocolate and oil, as Tosi prescribes), which has always worked out fine when I've used couverture chocolate that has a high percentage of cocoa butter and is very fluid. But I was low on Cacao Barry Zéphyr 34% chocolate and had to use to Ghiradelli 30% white chocolate instead. I definitely noticed the difference in the viscosity of the chocolate and instead of adding oil, I just added a small chunk of cocoa butter (I keep cocoa butter on hand for tempering chocolate). It helped thin out the chocolate beautifully. After coating the truffles in chocolate and rolling them in the sand, I put them in the freezer. I had about 50% of the sand left over.
I was worried about how these cake truffles would taste because I had sampled the sand and it didn't taste very good. The sand was quite tart and very dry; it gave me cottonmouth. But somehow once the sand was combined with the cake and soak and chocolate, the overall flavor was the perfect balance of tart and sweet. This truffle delivered intense creamsicle flavor in a fun white chocolate shell. I thought the bright flavor was perfect for summer, especially since I served the truffles straight from the freezer. I have yet to make a cake truffle from All About Cake that isn't a home run.
Recipe: "Liam's #toughcookie Cake Truffles" from All About Cake by Christina Tosi, recipe available here.
Previous Posts:
The orange flavor in these truffles comes from Tang drink mix. I was never a Tang drinker growing up -- my orange beverage of choice was McDonald's orange drink (i.e., Hi-C). I didn't even know anyone still drank Tang, but it was easy enough to find a canister at the supermarket. I made the vanilla-orange sand first, which is a mixture of milk powder, flour, Tang mix, sugar, cornstarch, and unsalted butter. You spread the mixture onto a pan; bake it briefly; let it cool; and add citric acid.
The vanilla cake is the same cake used for Tosi's Mint Cookies and Cream Cake Truffles, and like all of her sheet cake recipes, it requires more than 15 minutes of mixing time. You make the batter by creaming softened butter with sugar and light brown sugar; adding eggs; slowly adding the liquid ingredients (buttermilk, oil, and vanilla); and incorporating the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt). You bake the batter in a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan.
Normally I coat my cake truffles in pure chocolate (instead of a mixture of chocolate and oil, as Tosi prescribes), which has always worked out fine when I've used couverture chocolate that has a high percentage of cocoa butter and is very fluid. But I was low on Cacao Barry Zéphyr 34% chocolate and had to use to Ghiradelli 30% white chocolate instead. I definitely noticed the difference in the viscosity of the chocolate and instead of adding oil, I just added a small chunk of cocoa butter (I keep cocoa butter on hand for tempering chocolate). It helped thin out the chocolate beautifully. After coating the truffles in chocolate and rolling them in the sand, I put them in the freezer. I had about 50% of the sand left over.
I was worried about how these cake truffles would taste because I had sampled the sand and it didn't taste very good. The sand was quite tart and very dry; it gave me cottonmouth. But somehow once the sand was combined with the cake and soak and chocolate, the overall flavor was the perfect balance of tart and sweet. This truffle delivered intense creamsicle flavor in a fun white chocolate shell. I thought the bright flavor was perfect for summer, especially since I served the truffles straight from the freezer. I have yet to make a cake truffle from All About Cake that isn't a home run.
Recipe: "Liam's #toughcookie Cake Truffles" from All About Cake by Christina Tosi, recipe available here.
Previous Posts:
- "A Truffle Worth the Trouble: Dulce de Leche Cake Truffles," May 24, 2019.
- "It's Snowing in My Kitchen: Popcorn Cake Truffles," May 3, 2019.
- "Holiday Party Recap: A Cookbook Redemption and a Crew of Junior Party Assistants [Mint Cookies and Cream Cake Truffles]," February 23, 2019.
- "I Really Want to Like This Cookbook: Pretzel Cake Truffles," November 20, 2018.
- "Like a Bite-Size Tall Glass of Cool Lemonade: Strawberry Lemon Cake Truffles," June 23, 2018.
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