Strawberries and cream cake truffles

These cake truffles are bursting with strawberry flavor, and are covered in a white chocolate strawberry coating for an added crunch and creamy flavor. The base cake works perfectly in this recipe to create our bite sized truffles, and I liked it so much that I plan to turn it into a square cake recipe of its own at some point.

For your cake, you have basic cake ingredients with the addition of crushed freeze dried strawberries and blended fresh strawberries. The combination brings a perfectly balanced, sweet and slightly tart strawberry flavor.

After you bake and cool your cake, you'll break it down into a fine crumb and combine using a mixture of cream cheese and more crushed, freeze dried strawberries. It's important that your cream cheese is at room temperature for this step. As you mix the strawberry cream cheese combination into your cake crumbs, you'll be able to press the mixture together between your palms and it will stay together. It's important to create a fine cake crumb for the beginning of this step, which can be accomplished with a fork and your hand but a food processor or chopper will work even better.

To make your cake balls, you'll scoop into truffles about 1 1/2 tablespoons in size, I recommend using a scooper for this. For each cake ball you'll want to roll it together in your hand and compress to ensure the cake is staying together. You'll chill the formed cake balls and then it's time to coat them. For this step, you'll melt your white chocolate and mix in a small amount of oil and more crushed freeze dried strawberries. I like to reserve some of the remaining freeze dried strawberries to be hand crushed and sprinkled over the top of the dipped cake truffles. Chilling the cake balls will make them easier to handle when dipping in the white chocolate mixture. You just need a light coating and you'll want to move carefully to ensure you aren't breaking up the truffle when dipping and coating it on all sides in the white chocolate.

Most of the freeze dried strawberries that you'll use are crushed finely so you can do this step all together at the beginning, and just set some uncrushed freeze dried strawberries aside for your topping for later on. I usually do it with each step so I can ensure I'm using the right quantity, but if you have a food scale and would rather do it all at the start, it would be easy to crush the strawberries all before you begin and then measure for each step. I use a brand named Crispy Green which makes snack size pouches that are perfectly measured to 12oz which is just what we need for this recipe (three of those pouches to be exact).

For the fresh strawberries, I used an immersion blender to get a smooth strawberry puree, but this can be accomplished with a blender, or with a masher and fork combination and some patience.

I like the idea of making these for valentine's day as a play on a chocolate covered strawberries, and I think the white chocolate works perfectly with the strawberry flavor. If white chocolate isn't your thing though, you could of course swap in milk or dark chocolate and these would be delicious.

Ingredients:

Cake batter

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup) unsalted butter 113g

• 2 tablespoons vegetable or neutral oil

• 3/4 cups granulated sugar 144g

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar 48g

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup milk (I recommend 2% or whole milk)

• 1 cup strawberries, quartered 140g

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 150g

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries 12g

Assembly ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese 113g

• 1 cup freeze dried strawberries, divided 24g

• 2 cups (12 oz) white chocolate 340g

• 1 teaspoon vegetable or neutral oil

Total time: About 3 1/2 hours

Prep time: About 45 minutes

Bake time: 30 minutes

Chill time: 2 hours

Servings: 24 truffles

Equipment:

• 9x9 square pan (or 8x8 and increase the bake time)

• Parchment paper

• Whisk and spatula

• Immersion blender*

• Large cookie sheet

• Medium sized scoop (about 1.5 tablespoons)

• Additional equipment you may use: large and medium bowls, cutting board, sharp knife, food processor and/or plastic bag and rolling pin

*To blend your strawberries, you can instead use a blender or a masher

Cooking instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. And if you haven't already, take your eggs and milk out of the fridge.

Make your cake. Melt your butter, and combine in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil.

Next, add both sugars and use a whisk to combine. Then add in your eggs and vanilla extract, and continue to whisk until smooth and fully combined, a few minutes. Set aside.

Chop and measure your fresh strawberries, and then begin to mash them using a fork. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Measure out your milk and mix in the blended strawberries and set aside.

Crush 1/2 cup of freeze dried strawberries to a powder, you can do this in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or flat tool, or in a food processor. Add into a medium bowl with the rest of your dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine and set aside.

Pour about half of your milk and strawberries mixture into your large bowl with the butter and sugar mixture. Whisk to combine until smooth. Then, add about half of your dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Go through this one more time, add in the rest of your milk and strawberries mixture and whisk until fully combined, then the rest of your dry ingredients and whisk until your batter just comes together.

Line a 9x9in square pan (or you can use an 8x8 pan and increase the cook time a bit) with parchment paper. I recommend ensuring all sides of the pan are lined, or you can lightly grease. Pour your batter in and spread flat and into the edges.

Place your cake into the oven to bake for about 30 minutes. It should be lightly golden on the top, and if you shake the pan when it comes out it should just barely jiggle.

Once baked, allow your cake to cool at room temperature for about an hour.

Take your cream cheese out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature.

Assemble your cake truffles. Use a fork or food processor to break up your baked cake into fine crumbs. If the edges of your cake are tough or crunchy at all, shave them off first and discard.

If your cream cheese is still cold, you can place it into the microwave for about 10 seconds to soften.

Crush 1/2 cup of your remaining freeze dried strawberries into a powder and use a spatula or spoon to mix it into your softened cream cheese. Add the cream cheese mixture into your cake crumbs and mix using a spatula until the cream cheese is fully dispersed into your crumbs.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and use your scoop to form about 24 cake balls. Be sure to press each cake ball together firmly in your palm into a smooth cake ball, they will be soft but they'll firm up more in the fridge. Place the cookie sheet with your cake balls into the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely chop and then melt your white chocolate. This can be done in a small bowl in the microwave in intervals of 20 seconds, stirring between each time. Once smooth, stir in and evenly mix your teaspoon of oil. Crush about 2/3 of your remaining freeze dried strawberries and mix into your melted white chocolate.

Remove your cake balls from the fridge, and carefully cover them in the white chocolate and freeze dried strawberry mixture and then set back onto the parchment lined cookie sheet. After every few cake balls, hand crush some of your remaining freeze dried strawberries and sprinkle over the top of the covered cake truffle before the white chocolate sets.

Allow your white chocolate to harden at room temperature or in the fridge and then enjoy! It will take about an hour at room temperature, or a half hour in the fridge.

Store your finished cake truffles in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze them to enjoy any time. Personally, I like them best at room temperature, but they taste great cold right out of the fridge too!

Carb and serving info:

Carbs for full recipe: 567

Carbs per serving (1 of 24): 24

Carbs from cake only: 343

Carbs from white chocolate: 200

Note: Carb information is calculated based on the specific ingredients I used to cook with to help guide my own insulin to carb ratio when dosing before I eat my home cooked recipes.