Tangerine Cake Balls

The beginning of the Lunar New Year was Monday, so Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂! The great thing about Chinese New Year is of course the New Year's Eve feast. I love the fact that each dish has a double meaning meant to bring luck or fortune in the new year.

Tangerines are a must around the beginning of the new year because in Chinese the word for tangerine is a homophone for "luck": same sound, different spelling. Apparently it's even better if the tangerines still have their leaves as that adds the benefit of longevity as well. I personally associate tangerines with Chinese New Year because when I see that the tangerines on the trees in my backyard are ripe and ready to eat, I know that CNY is right around the corner.

This year, I thought that it would be fun to make a tangerine based dessert for CNY. The fact that tangerines are usually served whole didn't give me much flexibility, but I realized that this was the perfect time to work on my DforD Resolution #4. I used the zest and juice of my backyard tangerines to flavor a cake and some frosting and turned them into tangerine cake balls (cake pops without sticks), with leaves and all. A lucky dessert to start off the new lunar year!

Tangerine Cake Balls
tangerine cake (recipe below)
tangerine cream cheese frosting (recipe below)
orange candy melts
green candy melts
toothpicks
plastic piping bag
leaf frosting decorating tip

Crumble the cooled cake into the frosting and mix. Roll the resulting cake "dough" into 1 inch diameter balls and flatten slightly. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze in the freezer for a few hours until firm.

In the meantime, melt the green candy melts, fill a piping bag, cut a small hole in the bag, and pipe short 1/2 inch lines on parchment paper to use as stems later. Place a leaf tip (like Wilton #352) in a piping bag and pipe out small leaves on another piece of parchment paper (the pointy part of the tip should be gouging into the center of the leaf that you squeeze out to create the central vein of the leaf). Set the stems and leaves aside to dry.

Melt the orange candy melts in the microwave 1 minute at 50% power, stir, then continue heating 30 seconds at a time at 50% power, stirring in between until totally melted. (A useful trick to prevent the candy melts from hardening while decorating is to boil some water, pour it in a bowl, and keep the bowl with the melted candy melts on top of the bowl of boiling water throughout the decorating process, adding more hot water to the bottom bowl when necessary).

Stick a toothpick into the top of a cake ball. Use the toothpick to dip the cake ball in the orange coating, shake off the excess, and place the coated cake ball on a piece of parchment paper to dry. Gently twist the toothpick upwards to remove it, and in its place, stick in a green stem. (Optional step: Once the orange coating in no longer wet looking, take a toothpick and gently poke at the cake ball, all over its surface, to give it some texture).

Melt some green candy melts. Use a toothpick to make a seal around the green stem, making sure there are no gaps between the orange coating and the green stem (if you don't seal it, cake will start oozing out around the stem). Repeat with the rest of the cake balls. Finally, use a bit of melted green coating to glue a leaf onto each cake ball.

Makes 30 cake balls

Tangerine Cake
adapted from The Little Red House

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup tangerine juice*
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp orange extract
1/2 tbsp tangerine zest*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside for now. Rub the tangerine zest into the sugar. Add the vegetable oil, tangerine juice, and milk and mix. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in the orange and vanilla extracts. Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until a batter forms.

Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch round cake pan lined with parchment paper at the bottom. Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes in the pan. Then transfer the cake to a wire rack and let cool.

* If you don't have tangerines, oranges work just as well!

Tangerine Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Dulce Dough

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp tangerine juice*
1/2 tsp tangerine zest*
1/8 tsp orange extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Add the tangerine juice, tangerine zest, and orange extract.

* If you don't have tangerines, oranges work just as well!