Cake Balls! (Click photo to enlarge.)

Those of us who bake, sadly, have to discard the best part of every single cake we make:  the top.  It's a terrible thing and when I first started doing it, it caused me actual physical pain to have to slice it off and waste it.  A girl can only have so many plastic bags full of cake "odds and ends" in the freezer.  Bakers also find themselves with a similar icing-related problem.  It hurts to waste it.  I was doing a huge cake, so I made a triple batch of cream cheese icing (or caramel infused buttercream or fresh strawberry italian meringue, etc.), and when I was finished, I still had cups and cups of it left over...  and it hurt me in my bones to scrape it down the sink.  But THIS is the exact reason why some brilliant person invented.....  CAKE BALLS!  Take the best part of the cake, the top, mix it with the most fabulous from-scratch icing, roll it, freeze it, dip it into melted ganache (semi sweet chocolate and warm heavy cream), and TA DA:  cake balls!  Final step:  stuff it in your face one blissful bite at a chocolate-covered time.  These things get devoured.  I'm not sure if it's because they're delicious or if it's because people just lose their minds when anything even resembling cake is put in front of them.  So word of advice - if you try your hand at cake balls, be sure to make LOTS more than you think you'll need.