Cake Balls

I have been in a dessert baking mode lately.  I like trying out new ideas and new recipes.  Hence, the Cake Balls!  Funny name, don't you think?  You can also put these on sticks and call them Cake Pops.  I haven't tried those yet.  In reading the recipe, they seem pretty easy and straight forward to make, but with all recipes, once you start getting into them, there seems to be a bit of a learning curve to them!  This is what happened with these.  I'm sure I can perfect these if I keep making them, but for my first try, I think they turned out pretty well!

A simple idea -- why didn't I think of this before??  You take a baked cake from any cake mix, crumble it in a bowl once it is cooled, add a 16 oz. container of any flavored frosting to the crumbs, and mix.  Roll the mixture into balls and refrigerate a few hours until firm.

 Next, melt your candy coating (wafers, bark, melts...) in a narrow, deep bowl.  Dip the chilled cake balls into the melted coating and place on a sheet of waxed paper. 

Decorate immediately with sprinkles.

Some tips I learned along the way...  

1.  Do not use the whole can of frosting.  Use about 3/4s of the can and mix to see if the cake mixture is moist enough to form into balls.  Nothing worse than gooey cake balls!

2.  Use a cupcake or cookie scoop to form uniform balls.

3.  Make sure the balls are REALLY chilled before dipping into the candy coating.  Either refrigerate for a few hours or place in the freezer for only 15-20 minutes if you are impatient.  ha!

4.  Use a small spoon to dip the cake balls.  Drop and spoon the coating OVER the balls.  Try not to get cookie crumbs in the candy mixture!  Which leads to #5....

5.  Sprinkles cover a multitude of sins!  haha  I have found it is better if you use a light colored cake mix with light colored coating, and a dark cake mix with dark colored coating.  That way you won't see the little cake crumbs that somehow magically appeared into your coating mixture. 

6.  Tap your spoon on the side of the bowl to remove excess coating from the balls so you don't have a puddle once you drop them onto the waxed paper.

That is about it!  It took a few tries to get these babies right, but I'm pretty happy with the results.  To see PROFESSIONAL looking cake balls, visit Bakerella's website!  Lots of cute ideas!