Cake Balls

I have had some requests for my cake ball recipe recently so I thought this was the best place to post it to save time. I need to start by saying that my friend Tracy was the first person to turn me on to cake balls. She made them after her daughter's birthday party and told me how she did it. She used cupcakes that were already made and iced but this is the general idea.

I use chocolate cake mix and fudge frosting to make them but you can pretty much use anything. Red velvet is nice with white icing. It's pretty much up to you. And the coating can be milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate. I have also used white chocolate tinted different colors.

Here is the basic recipe for cake balls. Variations are endless!

When you are taking pictures of the cake box try to have your focus set on the box and not the vase behind it that you will end up cropping out anyway. (*bangs head*)

Also a good idea to take pictures BEFORE you start using the icing so you don't get random food bits in your picture.

Make the cake according to the directions on the box. Then let it cool completely.
After it is cool, start to tear it up and break into crumbs.
It is best to use your hands for this because you can get smaller crumbs this way.
It's a messy job, but someone has to do it. Use a large enough bowl to fit all these crumbs and the icing that you will be mixing with it. It is best not to mix the entire cake all at once.
After about 1/4th of the cake is in the bowl, start mixing with frosting. Repeat until all of the cake and icing is mixed well.

Then chill the cake/icing mix in the refrigerator. If you are making this in one day, I recommend putting it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. If you are making them over 2 nights after work (which I often do), cover and put in the refrigerator until you get home from work the next day.

Then roll chilled cake/icing into balls. I use a cookie dough scoop to keep the size uniform. That normally yields 44 cake balls at that size. After you have rolled them into balls, return them to the freezer for about 30 minutes.
While the cake balls are chilling, melt chocolate in a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler use a bowl on top of a pot. I have both and think either way is easy to use.
After chocolate is melted and the cake balls are chilled, place the cake ball in the melted chocolate using a spoon and roll around.

[You may also insert a stick in the cake ball and just roll the stick around in the chocolate. If you do that, I recommend covering the tip of the stick in chocolate before inserting it into the cake ball. Then you can set them up in a piece of styrofoam to harden.]
Shake off the excess chocolate and place on a piece of parchment paper to set.

Aside: At this point Matt asked me why I was taking pictures of the food. I told him it was for my blog and his eyes rolled so far back in his head that I think he still can't see. *HMPF*. I think he is just jealous that he doesn't have enough to say about life to even compose a post for a blog. Or maybe he is still bitter that I wrote about his stint as Joseph in our church Nativity Scene. Some people just hold on to things and never let them go....
Allow the cake balls to set completely on parchment paper before moving to a storage container.
You can also add sprinkles immediately after you put it on the parchment paper (before the chocolate hardens, which happens pretty fast). I made some with sprinkles for my little neighbor who is turning 2 tomorrow!
Also, it is a very good idea to test it and make sure that it is delicious.

I hope you enjoy! And please send me your variations if you make these also. I love to try new things. You can see where I made these into cupcake shaped cake balls by clicking here. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.