Valentine’s Day Treat: White Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake Balls

Ingredients

For the Cake
• Beat together until smooth:
• 1/2 C palm shortening or butter
• 1/2 C maple syrup (we recommend Grade B)
• 1/2 C honey
• 10 eggs
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp coconut milk (or buttermilk if you consume dairy)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• Sift together in a separate bowl
• 2/3 C almond flour
• 2/3 C coconut flour
• 2/3 C cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 C freeze-dried strawberries, finely diced (fresh would work well too, you just need to eat them within 1-2 days)
• - - -
Strawberry Cake Ball Binding
• 1 C palm shortening
• 1 C freeze-dried strawberries
• 1/2 C unrefined granulated powdered sugar (we used palm sugar powdered in a coffee grinder)
• 2 Tbsp coconut milk
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• - - -
Cake Ball Frosting
• 3oz (weighed) edible cocoa butter
• 1/3 C unrefined granulated sugar (we used raw sugar)
• 2 tsp arrowroot powder (tapioca would likely work if you do not have this, but this is essential)
• Optional: one vanilla bean (this is purely for the speckled appearance and a bit of added vanilla flavor)

Instructions

For the Cake
1. Beat wet ingredients together until smooth.
2. Sift dry ingredients together until incorporated.
3. Gradually add the sifted dry ingredients until fully combined.
4. Batter will be pretty wet, but thick enough to coat a spoon. Scoop a scant 1/4 cup of batter into lined muffin tin (we recommend silicon liners because nut flours stick to paper).
5. Bake at 350 degree for 20 minutes, or until tops are browned and no longer "squishy."
6. Allow to cool
For the Cake Balls
7. Add all the strawberry cake binding ingredients together in a food processor and puree until combined.
8. Mix strawberry cake binding in a bowl with 18 of the crumbled muffins and diced strawberries - a potato masher works great!
9. Mixture will be wet; scrape out rounded tablespoons into approximately 45 balls, set in greased or non-stick pan and set to chill in fridge for at least an hour.
10. Make white chocolate (below) while chilling.
11. After an hour in the refrigerator, test the dough to ensure the fats have solidified. Then follow the instructions to assemble the cake balls.
For the Cake Ball Frosting
12. Cut vanilla bean in half, scrape out seeds and add both to microwaveable bowl with solid cocoa butter.
13. Liquify cocoa butter in microwave, about 3-4 minutes. Check and stir every minute or so. You'll hear popping sounds as more vanilla bean seeds "pop" out of the bean - SUPER fun for the kids to listen and watch!
14. Powder the granulated sugar in a coffee or spice grinder. Once powdered, add the arrowroot and pulse a few more times until fully incorporated.
15. Slowly pour (we always tell our kids, slowly slowly slowly like a sloth) in the sugar to the liquified cocoa butter while constantly whisking, allowing the sugar to completely dissolve in the cocoa butter. Whisk for at least a full minute to ensure you've incorporated the chocolate. The oil should NOT separate - if it does, another zap in the microwave and then add a tablespoon or two of coconut milk to try and salvage the separated chocolate might work;but, you might have to start over.
16. Pour or spoon the incorporated mixture evenly into silicon mini-muffin (teaspoon) or muffin tray (tablespoon). If you have a different candy mold or a lined baking tray with a lip, that will be fine too. You'll just be melting this later, so the smaller the pieces the easier it is to melt.
17. Set in the fridge or freezer until hard.
And finally, ASSEMBLE!
18. Microwave white chocolate in microwave safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds to fully melt but not liquify. Chocolate should be able to coat spoon evenly (see above). If you overheat, stir to incorporate ingredients, chill and start over again a while later.
19. Prepare an assembly line: chilled cake balls, melted chocolate, powdered strawberries (about a 1/2 C - we used leftovers from the 1.2oz bag), candy (or mini-muffin) wrappers or container of choice for chilling of final cake balls.
20. Once prepared, roll cake ball in the chocolate. We double dipped some of ours after the first had hardened - those were GOOD. But one is enough, or even a drizzle would work - whatever you want to do.
21. Once dipped in white chocolate, set into candy wrappers or back onto non-stick dish, sprinkle with a dusting of leftover strawberry powder, repeat. Don't wait too long to add strawberries, the chocolate sets quickly and it has to still be liquid in order for the strawberry dusting to stick.
22. Once complete, set back into the fridge to let chocolate harden (they'll go from being barely white to really white when they set).
23. Keep chilled until ready to serve, let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving.