My parents coordinate an apple pie making day at their church. The goal is to make at least 150 apple pies for their church's Election Day bake sale. There are always a few goodies on hand for the workers and I thought some extra might be nice.
Apple Spice balls seemed like the logical choice. Using the spice mix I use for the pumpkin spice cake balls and adding apples seemed to make sense. I also added 1 cup of cider, a 6oz container of plain Greek yogurt and one egg white. I ended up using one and a half Granny Smith apples, finely chopped. After chopping the apples, I wished I had grated them instead. I did microwave the chopped apples in the cider for a couple minutes to soften them before baking. When mixing, I added the cider and other ingredients to the spice mix, then added the chopped apples at the end.
When I was rolling the cake balls, it was clear that some of the apples wouldn't be making it into the balls. So I just left some out. But grated apples would have allowed the apples to be more evenly present. I decided to try adding even less Neufchatel cheese (low fat cream cheese) and only used 1/3 of the 8oz block. I think especially for the apple and pumpkin which are moister, less is best.
I made up a batch of the pumpkin spice cake again (Spice Cake Mix, one 15oz can of pumpkin, and two eggs whites) and added only 1/3 of the 8oz block of low fat cream cheese. I think the pumpkin spice balls have been perfected.
After using a plastic fork for my other cake balls, I finally decided to try what some others had recommended which is to remove the center two tines of a plastic fork. This allows more of the coating to drip off the bottom and it helps stabilize the balls a bit too.
After using a plastic fork for my other cake balls, I finally decided to try what some others had recommended which is to remove the center two tines of a plastic fork. This allows more of the coating to drip off the bottom and it helps stabilize the balls a bit too.
It was very interesting to have two kinds of cake balls to test together. Even though both were made from the same spice cake mix, the flavors were somewhat different. To me, the pumpkin just melded together perfectly with pumpkin and spices both present, while the apple had an overwhelming spice flavor with a hint of apple.
After about four hours of pie making, the almost 100 cake balls had disappeared! They went over well and I did get some rave reviews.
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