Cake Balls Basic Recipe

I have been hearing and reading about cake balls for quite some time now. Bakerella has made it her life's work to create beautiful cake pop designs out of these little dessert balls. (Please check out her work.) This past week I borrowed Bakerella's new Cake Pops from the library, and I knew I had to give it a try. 

I had baked brownies from scratch for Kevin and I to have a perfect topping for ice cream. Unfortunately, my experimental attitude in the kitchen resulted in something much more cake-like than brownie-like. We had about half of the cake-ish dish remaining, and I wanted to see if this cake ball craze was really worth it. 

These things totally rock.

Cake. Mixed with frosting. Coated with chocolate. 

Yes, please.

Even my husband--the man who doesn't like cake or frosting at all--LOVES these.

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to create such intricate designs like Bakerella's, but heck! I think I can impress a few people with these little dessert delights.  

Cake Balls

makes 48 cake balls. 

Recipe by Bakerella.com

Ingredients

1 box cake mix of your choosing 

3/4 can frosting (16 oz.)

2 pounds candy coating (color/flavor of your choice)

wax paper

Directions

Choose your favorite boxed cake mix and bake the cake as directed, using a 9x13 inch pan. Once the cake is cooked and cooled completely*, crumble finely into large bowl. Mix thoroughly with 3/4 can frosting of your choice. Using the back of a large metal spoon, stir until smoothly incorporated. It will take time, but it will come together.

Using a small cookie scoop or eyeballing it with your fingers, roll the cake/frosting mixture into quarter size balls and place on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50.)

Freeze for approximately 20 minutes. 

Melt chocolate** in microwave per directions on package or heating for 30 seconds, stirring, heating for 30 seconds, stirring and repeated until smooth. (Be sure not even a drop of water gets into the chocolate or it will seize up.)

Take a few cake balls at a time out of the freezer to work with. Transfer the remaining balls to the fridge so they stay firm but do not freeze. Place one ball at a time into the bowl of candy coating. Spoon extra coating over any uncoated areas of the cake ball. Life out the cake ball with a spoon. (Avoid stirring the ball in the coating to keep crumbs from falling into the coating.

Holding the spoon over the bowl, tap the handle several times on the edge of the bowl to allow excess coating to fall back into the bowl. Slide the cake ball onto a waxed paper lined baking sheet and allow to cool and set completely. 

Notes: 
*If you do not need or want 48+ cake balls, you can cut the cooled cake in fourths, wrap and freeze for later use. Be sure to decrease frosting proportionally. 


**You may want to melt 1/4 or 1/2 of the full candy coating at a time, because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.