Gluten Free Salted Caramel Mocha Cake Truffles

Cake truffles? Did you make that up?

Why yes, yes I did. Really when it comes down to it, I'm far too lazy to learn to make cake pops so this is essentially a cake pop without a stick, and what is a cake pop without a stick? Let's just say it's a cake truffle.
The reason I wanted to give these a try instead of the usual cupcake is because in my family Christmas time is all about cookies and cookie exchanges. While I'm sure no one minds swapping a cupcake for a cookie in my family, a cupcake is a bit much and doesn't really go with the grazing theme that we have with desserts. I plan to make these again for Christmas next week, but I wanted to give them a trial run. I will say that next time I will add a touch of coffee to the frosting, because I want a stronger coffee flavor in the center, and more caramel on top. Seriously, I don't think you can put too much caramel on these things.

The basic steps for this will be.

1. bake the cake
2. let it cool and crumble the cake
3. make frosting
4. add frosting to cake crumble and form in to balls
5. freeze for 1 hour
6. make ganache 
7. dip cake balls and chill
8. make caramel
9. spoon caramel on to cake balls

I wanted to lay the steps our first, because it is a bit involved and with everything there is to do, you may want to separate the steps in to two separate days of work.

Cake

1 1/2 sticks off  room temp butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs room temp

2 cups gluten free flour

1 teaspoon xantham gum'

1 teaspoon potato flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons instant coffee

1/4 cup high quality unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1/2 cup of strongly brewed coffee.

(if you have no need to make these gluten free, simply sub the ingredients in bold type for 2 cups of all purpose flour.)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease you pan for your cake. It really doesn't matter what you use to bake the cake in because you are going to crumble it, it does change the bake time though. I used a 9x14 glass pan.

Cream butter and sugar together for 3 minutes. Measure out flours, xantham gum, salt, baking soda, chocolate, and instant coffee in to a bowl and whisk together.

Measure out milk, coffee and vanilla and set aside.

Add eggs to your butter and sugar one at a time mixing between each. Add dry and wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Pour in to you cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in to the center.

Center Frosting
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4oz mascarpone cheese (in the future I may choose the coffee flavored, but I'm not sure if that is gluten free)

Place whipped cream in the bowl and chill for a few minutes. Turn your mixer on medium until bubbles start to form, add sugar and turn your mixer on high. Mix until you have whipped cream, add mascarpone and mix on high for a few seconds until thick and creamy texture is achieved.


Add frosting to crumbled cake







 mix with a spatula until combined. Roll out balls (think doughnut hole size) and place them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets
You will get about 50

Chill for about an hour.






Butter Ganache
2 4oz Ghiradelli 60% baking bar
1 4oz Ghiradelli 70% baking bar
7 tablespoons softened butter

Place a metal bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Break up chocolate and stir until melted. Add half the butter and continue to stir until melted. Remove from heat and add remaining butter. Using a spoon about the same size as your cake balls (if possible) roll the balls in chocolate and place them back on the paper.

The ganache will start to harden and get shinny in just a minute. If you ganache starts to harden in the pot, warm it back up on the stove.










Caramel
4 tablespoons water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter (softened)
1 teaspoon sea salt (and extra for sprinkling)

In a sauce pan on medium heat stir and combine water, corn syrup, and sugar. As soon as it's combined, cover the pan for 2 minutes.
Uncover and let boil, do not stir from here on out. Shake the pan occasionally to keep the sides from burning.
Let boil until the mixture starts to turn  amber in color

If you start to smell sugar burning, even faintly, remove from heat...it's done.
Remove from heat and stir in butter and salt until combined and smooth.

Now if you have made caramel in my recipes before you will notice there is no cream in this one. It will not stay gooey  it will get very hard and candy like. It is extremely hot, Please be careful not to touch it until you know it is completely cooled.

Pull your cake balls out of the fridge and spoon the caramel over the tops of each with one hand, and add a pinch of salt to each with the other hand. If you put all the caramel on first, it will get hard and the salt won't stick. If you put the caramel down between each truffle you will have to reheat it constantly. That being said if the caramel starts to get stiff, put it back on the stove and reheat it until it's easy to work with again.

Place back in the fridge, you're done!

Set them up on a plate and enjoy!