Cake Balls

Where did these things come from? How come I've never heard of cake balls before? My sister Patty made these for the first time several weeks ago. I didn't get to try them at that time but heard all about them. Everything about them sounded wonderful and I was anxious to taste them. And then last weekend Patty made a batch of them to take to work for a food day and fortunately for me, she sent some home with my daughter Becca! They are soooo good! One of the things I really like about them is that they are bite size and you can easily control how much you eat. Whereas if someone else is cutting a cake, you get what they cut you. With these you get to decide how indulgent you want to be. The other wonderful thing about them is the versatility. The ones Patty made were with a German chocolate cake mix and the associated German chocolate frosting (ready-made in the container with the coconut). There are so many variations . I'm going to give you some of the results of my research. I found lots of websites and blogs that discuss this little wonder and many of them date back a year ago or further - which is why I'm surprised I'm just now discovering them.

FYI - just to prove how tasty and popular these treats can be, you'll be interested to know that someone actually started a business making them. You need to check out their web site to see all the variations and decorations they use. It will give you some ideas. The address is http://www.cakeballs.com/ . The get a pretty penny for them but they make them in the size of golf balls!

The basic recipe is one of the easiest I've ever seen:

Cake Balls

Ingredients

1 (18.25 oz) cake mix (or homemade cake of your choice)

1 (16 oz) container prepared frosting (you may not want to use the whole thing)

1 (3 oz) bar of flavored confectioners coating or almond bark (white or chocolate)

Directions

Prepare the cake mix according to the directions using any of the recommended pan sizes. When the cake is done, crumble while warm into a large bowl, and stir in the frosting until blended. (Another option is to let the cake cool and stir in warmed frosting.)

Shape into 1 inch balls by hand or using a small cookie scoop. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Minimum 1-3 hours.

Melt confectioners coating or almond bark in the microwave, or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Dip cake balls into coating mix and place on a cookie sheet to let coating set. (You can use a fork, toothpick, dipper from Easter egg dye set, egg separator, etc.) If you are using any type of sprinkles for decoration you need to get them on the cake balls BEFORE the coating hardens. You can also decorate them with a contrasting color of coating. Put the melted coating into a freezer bag, cut the corner off the bag and sqeeze squiggly lines over the balls.

Refrigerate the cake balls until ready to serve. Makes 60-75 balls.

Variations:

German chocolate cake/German chocolate frosting/chocolate coating

Devils food cake/fudge frosting/dark chocolate coating

Yellow cake/buttercream frosting/vanilla coating

White cake/white frosting mixed with colored sprinkles/chocolate coating

Spice or carrot cake/cream cheese frosting/vanilla coating

Chocolate cake/vanilla frosting/mint flavored coating tinted green

Lemon cake/lemon frosting/vanilla coating

Funfetti cake mix/white frosting with rainbow colored jimmies/colored white coating

Devils food cake/cream cheese frosting/chocolate coating

Strawberry cake/strawberry frosting/chocolate coating

French vanilla cake/white chocolate frosting/chocolate coating

Red velvet cake/cream cheese frosting/vanilla coating

Cherry chip cake/cream cheese frosting/vanilla coating

Chocolate cake/chocolate frosting with chopped Andes mints/chocolate coating

If you go to http://www.allrecipes.com/ and search for cake balls you will find the recipe there also. There also alot of comments from people who have made these and many have practical suggestions on how to make the process easier. After you make them a couple times you'll be an expert yourself. This will be your "go to" recipe when you want to take something to a family dinner or potluck and impress the heck out of everybody there.