Coconut-Lime Cake Truffles

During Finley's nap time I was perusing different cooking blogs (i.e. putting off doing the housework for as long as possible) and I stumbled across a recipe for Coconut Cake Truffles on Confessions of a Cookbook Queen's blog, which if you haven't peeped it out yet, you totally should. Anyway, back to the truffles. They looked cute. Who doesn't like a little bite-sized dessert? They looked yummy. My mouth started watering. I was sold.

As soon as Finley woke up, we ran to the little grocery store in my neighborhood to pick up the ingredients. Praise God, they actually had all the ingredients, even the coconut milk! While making them, Fin and I were taste-testing along the way - as all good cooks do, right? - and I just couldn't help but change things up a bit. I always try to follow a recipe exactly but something just comes over me and I have to throw in a bit of this or a bunch of that. I can't stifle my creativity! I decided to tweak the recipe a little by adding some lime flavor to the truffles. In my opinion, the lime perfectly suited the sweet chewiness of the coconut and really made the flavors pop. I'm sure they would have been delicious as the recipe was originally written, but to me, everything is better with a something citrus! Plus, doesn't citrus flavor just scream summer to you? It surely does to me!

As I was typing this up, I received a text message from my husband: "Craving your truffles so don't eat all them of today". (Okay, his text really said "cravin' yo' truffles so don't be eatin' all dem today" but I opted to edit because I have no idea why his text was sent with either a ghetto or maybe a Cajun accent. He's a weirdo...err, character!) Apparently, Fin and I are not the only fans of these truffles!

Coconut-Lime Cake Truffles

adapted from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen's Coconut Cake Truffles recipe

1 box white cake mix (plus ingredients to prepare cake)

1 1/2 t coconut extract

2/3 c coconut milk

1/4 c sweetened condensed milk

1 (7-oz) bag shredded sweetened coconut

3 limes

white chocolate bark, candy melts or dipping chocolate

Preheat oven to bake cake. Prepare cake batter according to package directions. Add coconut extract to batter. Bake in a 9-x-13-inch pan. Let cool.

Crumble cake into a large bowl. Add coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, shredded coconut, and the zest and juice of two limes. Using hands, mix well. Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate at least an hour.

Melt white chocolate bark in microwave or over stove according to package directions. While that's working, zest the remaining lime and set aside. Using a toothpick carefully dip each truffle into the white chocolate and place on wax paper to harden. After dipping two or three, sprinkle a pinch of lime zest on each truffle. (If you wait to sprinkle them until you've dipped them all, the outer coating will have hardened enough that the zest won't adhere well.)

An additional garnish idea: toasted coconut!