Cake Balls!

You probably know that when I'm not designing or doing things with my kids I am BAKING! I LOVE it! One of my newest fascinations is Cake Balls! I've been playing with them for a while now and have had many requests for the recipe so I thought I would post it here where everyone could see it! There are dozens of ways to create and decorate cake balls so I will post the basic recipe and some ideas that have worked for me. You can take it from there! Have Fun!

- Bake any flavor of box cake mix according to the directions and leave out overnight to dry out a bit.
- Cut the cake into 1/4ths. Remove 1/4 section at a time and place into large mixing bowl. Use 2 forks to crumble the cake into fine pieces (like good dirt!. When you are done with each section, add another one to the bowl and keep going until all the cake is crumbled finely.
- Add 2/3 of a tub of frosting (avoid the "whipped" variety, but any brand will do). Mix combinations that seem good to you. I will say that while chocolate cake and chocolate frosting are yummy, they're hard to use b/c you can't tell when they are mixed well!
- Using a large spoon, mix the frosting and cake until you can't see the frosting anymore.
- Scoop out a small amount of dough (I use a cookie dough scoop) and roll into walnut sized balls. Place on a cookie sheet. You will need to clean your hands after 7-8 balls. Be sure to dry them throroughly so as not to add any extra moisture to your cake balls. You should get approximately 48 balls.
- Put trays in the refridgerator for 1 hr. 30. until they are firm.

That's the basic recipe. Here are some suggestions for what to do next:

Basic cake ball:

- In microwave or double boiler, melt chocolate almond bark or candy melts (available in the cake decorating section of craft stores). The most important trick to these is not getting ANY water in them. They are oil based, so steam or water of any amount will thicken the candy and make for messy cake balls! Also note that vanilla almond bark is thicker than chocolate, if you want white - use candy melts! AND, white coating on dark cake balls may require double dipping for complete coverage.
- Remove a few cake balls at a time from the fridge. Drop one into your candy and coat with a large spoon. Scoop out the ball from the candy and tap on the side of the bowl to remove as much excess as possible. Place onto wax paper (use a toothpick to help get it off the spoon if needed). Watch for pooling of the candy under the ball. Because the ball is cold, the candy will harden on it faster than on the dripped section. Watch for it to harden and move the ball to another section before the dripped part hardens for a prettier look.
- while the coating is wet, sprinkle with any topping: finely crushed nuts, sprinkles, etc. OR wait until it dries then drizzle another color coating over the top. Note: whatever you sprinkle needs to be very finely chopped or it will weigh down your coating and slide right off!

Cupcake Bites: (My favorite)

- Use candy mold trays for this one. You need the ones that are fluted and look like you would make mini Reese's Cups with them.
- Fill the candy mold 1/2 full of your desired candy coating.
- Place a cake ball into the mold so that it sits in the coating. You want the coating to rise to the top of the mold without spilling over as much as possible.
- Put molds in refridgerator to harden. Note: the cake ball is still exposed at this point!
- After about 15 minutes, remove mold from fridge and pop the balls out onto your surface. Repeat this process until all your balls are done.
- Prepare another candy coating color as described above.
- Holding on to the fluted coating that just came out of the mold, dip the exposed cake ball into your topping just until coated completely. Invert, and set on work surface hardened side down.
- If you want to put toppings (see ideas below) do so now before they dry.
- repeat for all the balls!

** To make a true "cupcake bite" you want the ball to look like a miniature cupcake. Your molded part is the "paper wrapping" part of the cupcake and the remaining "bump" is the cupcake sticking out. Make sense? So, use an m&m candy (put the M side down) on top like a cherry and sprinkle some little candy sprinkles on top to decorate these. Make them in fun color combos!

^ For those inquiring about my "truffle-esque" cake bites I made recently for a party: I used Chocolate Fudge cake mix with Cream Cheese Frosting. Chocolate Almond Bark was put in the molded trays and I dipped the ball in light chocolate candy melts. The topping was crushed Heath's Toffee bits. Just chop the toffee very, very finely - mine dripped a lot! :o)

Check out www.bakerella.com for more ideas (she invented them) OR go to www.thepioneerwoman.com and search "cake balls". This is where I learned from!

Thanks to everyone for your kind words about my cake balls and I hope you have as much fun making them as I do!